I worked from home for three years with two different companies. My job is essentially as a software engineer with a focus on infrastructure, operations and automation.
I started my career working with mostly on-premises infrastructure, but as of about four years ago, my work transitioned to more and more "in the cloud" stuff, to the point that it's almost 100% of what I do/work with.
Both of my remote gigs were primarily with west-coast teams/companies while I lived on the east coast. So I generally worked whenever I wanted. All communication/meetings were online, so I just generally learned to be extra responsive during normal west coast business hours (9-5 Pacific). That being said, I generally worked when I wanted to.
It was easy enough to stay responsive and be able to be back online by having a laptop and some sort of wifi hotspot on (or near) me. Going out to run errands, or a doctor, or just deciding that I wanted to start my day relaxing was easy enough, when I made sure that I replied to notifications that came to my phone and if necessary, letting them know that I would be back online shortly, so I could find a place to sit and pull out my laptop.
Aside from being responsive whenever called upon, I also made sure that I was thorough in documenting the work I was doing (in a task/ticket tracker) and delivering results within a reasonable amount of time.
Overall, I never had a complaint. If anything, my reviews have always been very positive.
That being said, when it came time to look for a new job, I deliberately looked for a place that I could work in a traditional office. Working from home can get very lonely (especially if you're single). Particularly when you move cross-country away from everyone you knew, as I recently did.
And while there is a lot of freedom in how you use your time, there is also the sense of never being "off the clock". This would probably be less of an issue if I didn't have the time-zone difference, but even then I suspect I would still feel more compelled to answer "off-hours" communications than I do now to compensate for the missing physical presence of a normal in-office job. Now, I might get a message but I'm far more comfortable with not responding until the next business day.
As I said, I don't work exclusively remotely anymore, but the place I work for is pretty lax about letting you work from home, and taking flex time whenever needed. It's worked out as a reasonable compromise, and I'm happy to be in an office for most of my work days again.
Then again, I might switch back to 100% remote again in the future, given the right opportunity. Lots of positives/negatives to consider and now I know what does & doesn't work for me.
