Last September, me and my family moved back to my hometown in Pampanga. We stayed in Metro Manila since 2017, and rented a condo unit in Pasig City in order for our daughter to come live with us. Living in Metro Manila was both great and stressful, great in a way that a lot of things are accessible and available. Traveling around is fairly easy due to ride booking services like Grab. That’s why me and my wife mostly used Grab when going out.

Though Grab is convenient, it is quite expensive, this is why I still need to commute when going to work. Commuting in Metro Manila is tough most of the time, I spend 30 minutes to 1 hour in queue just to get a ride. I averaged 2 hours per day just for commuting, and in bad days it can take up to 3 hours. When it rains, it is another story for another time.

There is another option, driving your own car. But doing this, in my opinion, is not advisable due to expensive parking space, rude drivers and severe traffic. In some places they implement their own traffic schemes which prevents you to travel through those areas, leaving you no choice but to commute anyway.

Just to avoid severe traffic I stay in the office until later hours, time that I could’ve spent with my family. I always thought whenever I get stuck in traffic in a cramped vehicle, that this is not a good way to spend time and I need to find a way to get out of this cycle. I have been reading articles online about fully remote companies that don’t require you to go to office, all of the work is being done through the internet. This means more time for my family; this means no daily commute. This, my friends, is my solution to break the cycle. That’s why I started looking for a remote job and luckily, I found one!

Working Remotely

I got hired last June as a Staff Engineer, my responsibilities are mentoring, R&D, improvement of engineering process and leading some of our projects. We do two week sprints and daily standups every morning through Google Meet or Sococo. Our team also has a bi-weekly meet up in which I travel back to Metro Manila to do tech talks, catch up and hangout.

After a few months, we were able to move back in our province. My stress levels went down significantly, I have more time with my wife and kid, and I can visit my parents more frequently. Cost of living is also cheaper, we can buy more healthy food and can save some of our earnings.

Working remotely is great, but it has it’s fair share of challenges. Communication has a much more important role, you can’t just tap your colleague’s shoulder, do impromptu meetings or discussions. But due to faster and cheaper internet, the rise of softwares like Slack, Jira, and Skype, collaborating online is easier. Company culture and trust with your colleagues matters now more than ever. It is really different from the typical staying and working in a co-located place, new processes and practices should be implemented for it to work.

While remote work is also gaining more popularity throughout the years, I hope it is here to stay and in my opinion more companies will adapt it. In the future I will write more about my experiences and things I tried which worked or did not. For now, I am very grateful to have such a great opportunity and more time to spend on what matter most.