Working remotely once the novelty has worn off
There have been many posts about the positives of remote working, but not too many about the negatives. Cronofy has been distributed from the beginning and I’ve gone through various levels of working remotely as part of that, and seen others do the same.
Initially it’s great, the novelty gives you a lot of momentum, and you see all the positives and many of the negatives take time to build up. However, it does happen. The novel becomes the norm, and the niggles become deal-breakers.
Loneliness
Humans are inherently social animals, and even the most introverted of us need a bit of social contact to not feel lonely. Working in an office or even semi-distributed naturally minimises the chances of this becoming a major issue. In fact, this is one of the reasons we at Cronofy meet in-person with our team once a week rather than being fully remote as a rule.
Working fully remote, that safety net disappears. Passive communication and interaction does not happen. If working from home, as many of us are going to due to COVID-19, you may not need to leave the house for days on end.
As an individual you need to be more pro-active about seeking out interaction, and the higher fidelity the better. If in-person is off the table, video is the next best thing, then voice, then chat, then email. As a leader, you need to facilitate opportunities for this to take place. That can be as little as providing a subscription for something like Zoom, but it can also mean implementing scheduled meetings, and allowing more leeway in subject-matter.
The simplest win is a daily check-in, at Cronofy we have daily sit-downs rather than stand-ups. Usually we’re pretty strict about timing, but when working fully remote it’s possibly the only chance someone will have for social interaction that day and so they should be allowed to wander more than normal.
Scheduled interaction may sound forced, but it signals both “this is important” and “this is ok”. Both those signals may be necessary to get the ball rolling. On a similar note, have more checkins with your colleagues than you would normally. Consider scheduling them if you’re concerned about interrupting people.
This will likely all feel rather forced and unnatural at first, but a concerted effort is necessary to establish a pattern so that it becomes second nature.
One of the things we’re experimenting with to help on this side is pervasive voice comms. We’re trying multiple tools, but Discord seems to be working well for this. Pervasive video solutions exist but feel way too intrusive to have on at all times. I don’t want people to see how much I’m idly touching my face and hating myself for doing it, but I’m much more aware of the noise I and my keyboard are making. Or at least I’m less concerned it could be embarassing.
Body pain
Many people’s ad-hoc setups for the odd day working from home start causing health issues after several days back-to-back. Slumping on the sofa is fine now-and-then, but starts becoming problematic when done for days on end.
Your posture is extremely important, read up on how you should be sitting, and get the correct furniture to make it easy.
With less in-person interactions, and your kitchen only yards away, you may not end up moving much as a matter of course. You’d be surprised how many steps you get in commuting, going to the coffee shop, etc. Working from home your steps will be dramatically impacted.
Build some exercise into your week to counteract this. Some tactics that have worked are “commuting” by taking a walk around the block to start and end your day, and building an extended lunch for a run or cycle a few times a week.
You should also try and drink more water! Not only is this generally good for you, but it will ensure you leave your desk fairly often, if only to refill your glass…
Also try to eat well. It’s easy to survive on crisps, cake, and biscuits, but you won’t thrive on it. Consider having fixed meal times and preparing something more involved than you might normally. That will make for a proper lunch break away from your desk rather than 5 minutes grabbing another snack before getting back at it.
On a similar note, even more advisable then when you’re in an office, don’t eat at your screen! Take the opportunity for a change of scene and posture, your mind and body will thank you for it.
Blurred boundaries
When work is at home and home is where you work it can be unclear which is which. It’s much easier to start 10 minutes later and finish 10 minutes later to compensate when you don’t have a train or bus to catch. It can also be easier to “just” do a little more to finish what you’re in the middle of as the cost is much lower.
It’s much healthier in the long term to establish a schedule and stick to it. Beyond a schedule, establish a routine. It can be tempting to dress less formally than you would normally, at least from the waist down where no-one can tell, but how you dress can help in switching mindset to and from work. For example, I used to wear shoes at my desk when working as that’s what I always do in an office.
This is another way a “commute” can help. 5–10 minutes away from your desk but also away from home can really help you switch between the two. Switching off after work was something I personally struggled with, somewhat sitting in a daze if I went straight to the sofa with my wife. It doesn’t have to be active, though I’d recommend it, playing game or something for 20 minutes can help draw the line between modes.
Boundaries need to be established between work and home, but also home and work. If you live with people then there needs to be an understanding of when and how you can be interrupted. This became more challenging as I had kids, so that may involve setting up where there is a door that can be locked!
Key takeaways
To summarise, the 6 things I would recommend to make working remotely sustainable, in roughly priority order, are:
- Over-communicate in as high a fidelity as you can
- Have correct posture at your screen
- Establish a routine
- Define clear boundaries between work and home
- Get away from your screen during the day
- Add deliberate exercise to your life to replace the incidental exercise that you’ve lost
