Tips and Resources for New (and Old) Remote Workers

Everything has changed since I last posted about the #FlexGC project. Almost overnight thousands more public servants are beginning to work remotely as part of an effort to increase social distancing, slow the spread and flatten the curve of the coronavirus in Canada and, well, everywhere.

Photo by Djurdjica Boskovic on Unsplash

In this context, continuing my work on problem definition and ignoring the incredible needs of my GC colleagues wouldn’t be right. Instead, I’m going to do my best to provide tips and resources. While I’ll do my best to curate this list, keep in mind that there hasn’t been time to develop a methodology about what fits. I’ll try to do that retrospectively, but for now, here it is.

If you have a topic that isn’t covered, or a resource you have found to be essential, please be in touch at Ericka.Stephens-Rennie@canada.ca free.agent.esr@gmail.com or @erickasr on twitter.

Tips for getting started working from home:

1. Establish a place for work in your home, and set boundaries about when work happens and when not. Put the work away when you’re done for the day.
2. Make a plan for your day the night before or first thing so you can hit the ground running without the cues of arriving to your cubicle.
3. Find your natural productivity patterns, and follow them. This means both setting aside time for different kinds of work (focus, transactional), and for rest (eating, coffee).

Tips for distributed teams:

Photo by Oleg Magni on Unsplash

1. Establish a practice of daily virtual communication. Communicate daily about what you’re up to, what’s in your way, and how you’re doing. I also love doing 15 minute virtual daily check-ins by phone for the same purpose. [Note 2020/03/14: Do this by phone, as we are being asked to limit bandwidth usage.]
2. Establish a place to collaborate on work. Options I know GC teams are using include: Slack, GCmessage, Microsoft Teams, twitter. [Note 2020/03/14: The great news is, all of these resources are in the open and don’t need VPN.]
3. When you meet, use video instead of just audio. Research has shown video meetings are much more productive. [Note 2020/03/14: If you need to use WebEx, do it by phone only for the moment to conserve bandwidth. Or consider using an open video service disconnected from VPN such as Google Hangouts, Facetime, etc.]

Tips for managers of distributed teams:

1. Tell your team you support them in working from home, that you trust them, and that their work is valued. (Go! Tell them now!)
2. Connect with each team member daily to ensure they have clarity on their work objectives. Consider having a weekly team meeting by phone to stay connected.
3. Hold yourself and team accountable for regular team communication to maintain team norms, trust and culture.

Resources

• The FlexGC Network is a grassroots collective working across the GC that has come together with the aim of supporting the many public servants who have been directed to work from home as part of the public health response to COVID-19. Find out more here.
• CSPS Digital Academy and Transferrable Skills collaborated on a three part Bus Rides Series about working remotely. The series covers an overview of remote work (what, why, how, and approaches in the GC), suggestions for teams doing remote work, and a list of nine practices distributed workers and teams can use to elevate their remote work game.
• Trello’s curation of remote work advice from 10 global teams continues to be one of my go to resources to send teams and individuals when just starting out. It dispels myths and provides tips, discusses best practices on tools, communication, collaboration, and even covers how to build good team culture while being remote.
• Sean Boots has just created shoulditbeblockedinmydepartment.ca, a resource to help you figure out your access to reliable tools that you can use to productively work and collaborate with your team remotely.
• Two great round ups on tools you can use, categorized by purpose. The first is a round up and explainer of (mostly) free tools to use for data, design, collaboration and productivity compiled by three GC superstars, Ashley Evans (CSPS, Digital Academy), Natasha D’Souza (ISED), and Monique Ng (ESDC). The second is spydergrrl’s round up of collaboration tools GC public servants can use when working remotely in an emergency.
• [Coming soon.] Myself and a group of experienced remote workers in the GC ecosystem are pulling together a list of our top 5 across a number of categories including: working conditions, tools to enhance productivity either off GC networks or on GC networks, healthy practices for virtual teams, healthy work practices to help you thrive, and best practices for virtual engagement.

Do you have a resource you think should be added? Be in touch at Ericka.Stephens-Rennie@canada.ca free.agent.esr@gmail.com or @erickasr on twitter.

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