Remote, Office, and Work From Home: Three Different Worlds We Keep Mixing Up

Lessons from 20+ years of office floors, hotel rooms, and home offices and why “assume good intent” is the rule that makes them all work.

When I started my career, “remote work” didn’t mean sitting at your kitchen table. It meant being at a customer site. Home office wasn’t even in the picture. I had no plans to ever work from home. The office was where things happened.

And honestly, it was good to me. My colleagues were all on the same floor. We didn’t schedule meetings — we just walked over, asked questions, or jumped into an impromptu coding session. I learned by watching seniors, and sometimes I got to coach juniors. Long days at the office didn’t feel like a burden. They felt like a badge of honor. I loved programming, so spending more time at work than at home just felt normal.

Remote Work as Customer Work

As I grew more experienced, I ended up on customer projects. That meant four days onsite, one day at home, and then repeat. My life was hotel rooms, quick breakfasts, and long nights. Deadlines loomed, and the work had to get done.

It was exhausting, yes, but also energizing. Being responsible for solving real problems taught me a lot. Back then, that was “remote work”: away from headquarters, but very much present somewhere. The metric was simple — billable hours and deliverables.

Then the Blackberry showed up. For a while it felt like a superpower. I could reply instantly, be on top of everything. And then the burnout hit. Work followed me into every corner of my life. My daily rhythm didn’t change — I was still traveling to customers or the office — but my free time disappeared.

Work From Home Creeps In

Years later, I started to feel a shift. I was sharing more knowledge externally, speaking at events, blogging, even presenting at JavaOne. Problems at work felt repetitive. Growth came more from the community than from the office.

That’s when working from home started to creep into my life. Not as a grand decision, but as something that just fit better. Cutting out the commute gave me two extra hours every day. Did I spend them on family or hobbies? No. I put them straight back into work. Ten-hour days became the baseline.

But I noticed something important: I didn’t need the office anymore to be effective. Remote work no longer meant “customer site.” It started to mean my own desk at home.

A Company Built for It

The real turning point came when I joined Red Hat as a developer advocate. Suddenly I could focus on advocacy full time. No split role, no juggling between billable and non-billable. Just doing the work I loved.

And Red Hat had the culture to make it work. Offices were there, but trust and openness came first. People worked where they lived, not where a building stood. The tools mattered — video calls, IRC, Slack — but the culture mattered more. “Always assume good intent.” That one sentence made global collaboration possible.

Working from home, I learned, requires discipline. You need to:

• Keep your hours in check.

• Create space for quiet, focused work.

• Build a proper office corner at home.

• Teach your kids what “do not disturb” really means.

• And most of all, disconnect at the end of the day.

It also requires forgiveness. In a global team, things fall through the cracks. Replies take longer because of time zones. Decisions slip. What matters is how the team handles it — and whether respect stays intact.

The metric isn’t where you sit or how many hours you clock. It’s whether the work gets done.

The Pandemic

Then the pandemic hit, and the world finally discovered “working from home.”

It wasn’t pretty. Unions fought for equipment and internet subsidies. Parents tried to work while homeschooling. For many, home turned into an office they could never leave. People learned the hard way that being reachable 24/7 is not the same as flexibility.

I had it easier. I already knew how to structure a day at home. For me, the adjustment was minor. But I saw others struggle — including my partner. For the first time, she felt what home office really was like. That was a turning point for us, too.

Where We Are Now

Today, some companies are back to office-first thinking. Prejudices return. Raised eyebrows about whether work from home is “real work.” Formal definitions of “place of work.” The assumption that presence equals productivity.

This is where I think we need clearer language.

• Office work is about being co-located. That’s where mentoring, learning by osmosis, and spontaneous collaboration shine.

• Remote work is about being away from headquarters, often at a customer site. Productivity is measured in billable hours and deadlines.

• Work from home is about working where you live. It requires trust, discipline, and the right culture. The metric is output, not attendance.

Each of these modes has its place. Each requires different skills and expectations. The mistake is pretending they’re interchangeable.

A Few Practical Lessons

If you’re switching between these modes, here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:

• In the office: don’t waste it on heads-down work. Use it for what it’s good at — connecting, mentoring, and learning from each other. I still remember spontaneous coding sessions that solved in an hour what would have taken days over email. Offices shine in those moments.

• Remote at customer sites: guard your energy. Travel burns you out faster than you think. I used to go for early morning runs just to reset before another long day. Find your anchor — whether it’s running, journaling, or a quiet breakfast.

• Working from home: boundaries are everything. My home office door became the most important tool I owned. Closing it meant I was at work. Opening it meant I was back with my family. Small rituals make a huge difference.

• Across all modes: assume good intent. Really. It sounds simple, but it changes everything. Misunderstandings are inevitable when you filter communication through emails, chats, or bad microphones. If you start from trust instead of suspicion, you’ll get through them. The world needs more of that right now — not just in work, but in how we treat each other everywhere.

The office isn’t obsolete. Remote isn’t new. And working from home is not just “remote in disguise.” They are three different ways of working. Knowing the difference — and respecting what each is good at — is what keeps teams productive, and people sane.