Myth busting remote working

The very first moment I felt that remote working was part of me somehow was when I started working as freelance developer while attending university. They were just small web projects but as I was a student, a little income was helpful.

The aspect I loved at most — though — was that I was the only responsible for the job, I had to learn new languages and technologies, and arrange the schedule on my own.

This was a crucial experience for me as I decided what kind of company I was suited to.

My career started in 2006 and I had worked in many companies since then — including web agencies, digital startups, international ADV agencies — but, even if I kept doing some freelance jobs here and there, I had to wait until 2013 for a real 100% remote job opportunity in Qurami.

Luckily enough, remote working is now on the rise and we have a lot of statistics proving this.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of misconceptions about remote working. A thread from a Facebook group gave me the reason to write this article.

This is my attempt to debunk some myths about “being remote”.

Myth #1: Productivity decreases

A guy who commented wrote that “remote workers are likely to miss all deadlines and waste their time”.

It’s easy to assume that someone who works outside the office is more distracted because there is nobody to keep eyes on him.

This is definitely the first and worst misconception about remote working at all.

Studies had proven that the effect is the opposite: remote workers are likely to increase productivity. In fact, someone who is at office could be easily distracted by the “break room effect” — imagine a colleague who breaks in your room to have a chat over coffee, some room noise, or whatever. Remote workers usually avoid these interruptions and the time needed to refocus.

Of course this is not “automatic”, as you become extremely good at cutting out all the noise and focusing on the task at hand. Like anything, it takes practice.

Some hints:

• Setup a proper work environment: use a secondary monitor, adjust your table and chair, use a laptop stand, check the lights in your room, etc.
• Shut down notifications on your smartphone, they are going to kill your concentration!
• Take regular breaks to freshen up your mind: stand up, look outside the window, have a quick walk
• Maybe listening some music will help: there is a lot of concentration playlists that you can use to enter “the flow”

Myth #2: Communication suffers

This could definitely be true if your company is not well organized.

In fact, when someone works remotely it doesn’t mean the quality of communication goes down. Telecommunication removes in-person nuances and helps employees to dive right into the meaningful work. Moreover, the biggest part of communication is often written, and this means that you have to think more about what you are trying to communicate.

BUT, for this to work, companies need to SET clear expectations and deadlines for their employees.

At the beginning of a new task — no matters if you are the requester or the executor — be clear about:

• Who is in charge of what (responsibilities)
• What each part does expect from the other (requirements)
• How to reach the “success” status (acceptation criteria)
• How to handle failures (backup plan)

Communication, though, is not only between managers and employees.

There is also a different type of communication, the one which involves socialisation between peers.

This is possible for remote workers as it is a growing trend of remote companies to set intentional blocks of time for casual “breakroom events” on regular basis.

Some companies run non-work related video calls, for example.

In Qurami we do have an “off topic” HipChat channel where we greet each other, share links or we just have fun.

We also run real-life meet ups once every three or six months for two main reasons:

1. To get the “long term view” of the company as a unique group
2. To build up the team having fun together

Myth #3: Meetings are ineffective

This misbelief is based upon the fact that 80% of communication is body language. If you can’t actually see your colleagues, you are missing some informations from them.

This can be true, but technology has provided us with several ways to avoid loss of information, as we have plenty of tools to run video chats for example.

On the contrary, online meetings could be more effective than real ones.

To keep the example of my company, we follow those rules:

• We only request meetings if strictly necessary (preferring chat and any other written methods to allow anybody to have a log of what’s happening and why)
• Meetings are scheduled according to the availability of every member involved, not imposed by the manager or the requester unless not necessary

This is a great advantage, isn’t it?

Myth #4: You are free to organize your schedule

Sometimes, when I tell I am a remote worker, it happens that people say to me: “oh, cool, you have more free time!”.

No. Not at all. Working from home can be just as demanding as any other job.

Keep in mind that remote working does not apply only for freelances. We are talking about companies.

As a remote worker I am part of a larger team consisting of a number of other people, and I am responsible for tasks that other members of the team are counting on.

Just to keep my example, in Qurami we do have strict regulations about what we can or cannot do during the whole sprint.

In fact, we are allowed to organize ourselves for completing a particular task, but we do follow a few rules.

For instance:

1. We are allowed to get up to a day and half off work during the sprint without giving any particular reason, BUT we’ll then have to work during the weekend to recover, if necessary
2. When we do have scrum meetings, we are not allowed to get any off time; plus, we are forced to have an high speed Internet connection
3. We are usually connected to our HipChat server during business hours

Myth #5: You only work from home

That is not true.

The beauty of remote working is that you don’t have to work in a physical office, right? So the same applies for your home.

If you are organized enough, you can occasionally decide to work in a café, in a coworking space, in a shopping mall, even on a train or… on a boat. Whatever.

Of course make sure you have Internet connection and you are compliant with your company rules.

This is also a chance to travel and experience different cities in the world.

For example, in the last three years I’ve been living in three different cities all over Italy, and moving from one city to another didn’t affect my job routine.

Myth #6: You don’t have to get ready for work

If you are a remote worker, you don’t need to get out from your home. Well, this doesn’t mean you can wear your pyjamas all the day long.

Getting ready for the day is really important as it helps you switch into work mode.

That’s why even changing your clothes as you would go to the office would boost your focus.

The message here is simple: get your morning routine.

Doesn’t really matter what you do, as you can take a shower, have breakfast, read some news.

Just don’t switch from your bed to your laptop.

Myth #7: Remote workers are lonely

Working from home doesn’t mean you are lonely. Sure, you don’t meet other people in the day like in the office, so you miss out a lot of spontaneous interaction.

However:

• You’re never alone because you can always be in contact with your colleagues through chat or videocall.
• You can even work together on the same task in pair; for example, I’ve been doing pair programming for many months and I was never alone
• If you really need to see new faces, you can always work at a nearby cafe or check out a coworking space.

Conclusions

Remote working has grown in popularity over the last years and many people are searching for remote job opportunities all over the world.

As we know, there are so many benefits of remote working:

• It can be a boost for your company as you can access a worldwide market of talents, improving the quality of your team
• It increases productivity because communication could be easier
• It is cost effective since you can have no office at all
• Last but not least, it is eco-friendly as commuting is reduced

But, as far as my experience goes, remote working comes with a cost: methodology.

You need to be methodical:

• When hiring people: by speding time on your recruitment, hiring people you can trust and trusting people you hire
• In communication: sharing knowledge is fundamental to companies to succeed
• In production: setting routines affect positively the team and its processes

No matters if you are a manager or just a developer, the employer or the employee.

In my humble opinion, remote working is not only about tools. It’s about rules.

You have to set rules. And apply them.