Remote, Together: The Kids are Alright
With offices at home and cameras on, we get a glimpse into “Home Life.” We become comfortable with background noise, messy houses, less professional backdrops, kids asking for snacks, and the interruptions from dogs howling at the delivery truck. We’ve all faced these problems working from home, so let’s stop apologizing and expecting otherwise. Intermingling my home life with work life is a reality I try to embrace rather than fight. That acceptance eases a lot of anxiety and makes way for authenticity.
Pandemic Homeschooling
For most of the 20 years of my career as a software engineer, I’ve worked full-time from home as the only remote member of my team. I was used to juggling five kids and working irregular hours around their schedules. But the pandemic meant my kids were now at home full-time, and my 20 years of experience did not prepare me to homeschool.
We all tried our best and at first it was a fun adventure but it soon turned into a complete disaster. I got up extra early and spent hours preparing every day — I setup computers and work spaces, made checklists, consolidated links and passwords, wrote schedules, organized incentives. In the end nothing worked and we were all just frustrated, angry, and defeated. I honestly had never felt so inadequate as a parent (“why can’t I teach my own kids?!”) and I felt a new wave of working-mom shame (“if I weren’t trying to work my day job I’d have more time to help them with homeschool”). A bit of soul searching helped me remember there is a reason we have schools and teachers and it’s not just for childcare — kids benefit from relationships with other adults and will learn differently from people outside their family. It’s ok to rely on those institutions and the expertise of others for their education.
Flexibility
I know first-hand it’s hard to balance personal and professional demands. But I also know it’s not only possible to extend flexibility to employees, it can be the very thing motivating them to do their best work.
According to this Forbes article, positive work cultures that respect their employees’ time, health, and team goals are proven to increase productivity. Offering flexibility and allowing employees to find the right balance with their personal responsibilities, interests, and goals helps build a sense of empowerment, loyalty, job satisfaction, and ownership.
I’m forever grateful to all the companies, managers, and team members who were always flexible and allowed me to work from home. As they extended that level of trust to me, I became more loyal to those companies, performed better at work, and contributed more to my teams’ successes.
