Has it hurt my career? Maybe. I work for a small company <50 people. Tech team of 2 people is remote, everyone else works at a main office.
As far as learning from others, I worked in office for the first 5ish years as a programmer. I learned a lot, but there is only so much you can learn in a tech department of 2 people. To offset this I secured a budget from my boss to purchase learning material, and go to conferences. In my personal time I occasionally go to tech meetups, and work on side projects. I am introverted so I wouldn't attend conferences and meetups if it wasn't for the fact I work remote.
Has it hurt my networking opportunities? NO! In fact it has helped them. The first 3 years after switching to remote, I made friends with programmers at several other companies, through the above mentioned educational stuff. These new friends at one time or another all promised to help me get a job at their company if I ever needed it. After that I started traveling. I went to 7-8 countries a year, living a location independent lifestyle. In just over 2 years I have made many new friends, and contacts. Some have taught me new things, and others have offered me contract work.
Has it hurt communication, and bonds with coworkers? Yes. With the other tech worker nothing much changed except he complains about my time shifted schedule when he can't reach me at noon, and praises that same schedule when I fix a down server at 3am. :-D With the non technical workers there seems to be a disconnect. I have done several things to offset this problem. First I show up at the office for 1 week every year to reconnect. I try to bring everyone a small trinket from some far off place. While at the office I initiate a performance review with my boss. While out of the office, I do many small things. Things like, initiate some small talk before the end of a 1 on 1, reach out to a coworker with a call instead of an IM, etc.
As far as learning from others, I worked in office for the first 5ish years as a programmer. I learned a lot, but there is only so much you can learn in a tech department of 2 people. To offset this I secured a budget from my boss to purchase learning material, and go to conferences. In my personal time I occasionally go to tech meetups, and work on side projects. I am introverted so I wouldn't attend conferences and meetups if it wasn't for the fact I work remote.
Has it hurt my networking opportunities? NO! In fact it has helped them. The first 3 years after switching to remote, I made friends with programmers at several other companies, through the above mentioned educational stuff. These new friends at one time or another all promised to help me get a job at their company if I ever needed it. After that I started traveling. I went to 7-8 countries a year, living a location independent lifestyle. In just over 2 years I have made many new friends, and contacts. Some have taught me new things, and others have offered me contract work.
Has it hurt communication, and bonds with coworkers? Yes. With the other tech worker nothing much changed except he complains about my time shifted schedule when he can't reach me at noon, and praises that same schedule when I fix a down server at 3am. :-D With the non technical workers there seems to be a disconnect. I have done several things to offset this problem. First I show up at the office for 1 week every year to reconnect. I try to bring everyone a small trinket from some far off place. While at the office I initiate a performance review with my boss. While out of the office, I do many small things. Things like, initiate some small talk before the end of a 1 on 1, reach out to a coworker with a call instead of an IM, etc.