Remote Work 101: What To Do If You Find Yourself Working Remotely For The First Time
Whether it’s a new job, a family situation, or even a global pandemic, you may find yourself working remotely for the very first time. Plot twist: It may not even be your choice.
Fear not friends, while it may be completely new territory for you and/or your company, there are established leaders in remote work that can help you navigate this (seemingly) new way of working so you don’t feel isolated, build trust with your team, and deliver business results. Get your yoga pants ready and follow these simple measures to get started on the right terms and make remote work a joy.
- Recognize that remote work is different than being in an office
The simple act of recognizing that working remotely is different than being in an office will help you get in the mindset of understanding that the things that work for you in an office may not work for you at home (or wherever you’re choosing to set up shop). For example, when you’re going to an office, most of the time you have a dedicated space with office supplies, and you’re seated next to coworkers. Whether you’re in cubicles or in open office plans, you likely have conference rooms for meetings and the ability to pop into a coworker’s space when you have a question.
With remote work, you need to mimic this set up with digital tools and a digital workspace, in addition to setting up your own working area.
2. Designate and optimize a work area
With remote work, there is no office desk setup prepared for you: you have to make it yourself. The beauty in this is that if you can control your environment, you can set it up to be exactly what you want and need to be most productive. You don’t need to overhear all about Pat’s weekend or listen to Chris chew gum all day. Heck, you don’t even need to wear headphones to disturb others around you.
What you do need is a dedicated office space (preferably with a door that closes). People who work from home every once in a while may choose not to do this, working from the kitchen or couch because it’s just easier. However, if you’re working remotely for more than a day at a time, it pays to have some sort of set up, even if it’s just a desk by a window in a bedroom. Here’s why:
- Even though commutes are super annoying and soul sucking, they do establish a transitional headspace where you can go from being in home mode to being in work mode. Often people who work remotely full time complain that they can’t get away from work because it’s always there with them.
- The second reason to create a dedicated work area is to have a place to commute to where work stuff happens: even if it’s just down a hallway. Research shows that leaving work in a workspace helps with productivity, especially if that means not working from the place where you sleep (this is also important for optimizing sleep).
- Couches and kitchen tables are not set ergonomically set up for working. There I said it. You need to have your computer at eye level to avoid it being a literal pain in your neck. Just because your couch is there doesn’t mean it’s best to sit on it all day.
- You need the best internet possible. Optimize your workspace to be in the spot with the strongest connection at home.
3. Align with your team on a digital toolset
Mimicking the physical workspace with digital tools means aligning on which tools are used and the purpose of each tool. One of the hardest parts of using a new app or service is getting other people to use it (not to mention, everyone using it in the same way). Having a conversation as a team about what is used for something like status reports will make sure people are using email in the same way versus having some people use email for status reports, spreadsheets for status reports or Confluence for status reports (I can keep going). Digital tool alignment is important in any work environment but too many people assume everyone thinks the way they do: this creates miscommunication, misalignment, confusion and wasting time looking for things.
In my own team, we have a doc laying out which tools we use for what as well as communication guidelines for them. For example, we have a general rule that if a conversation takes more than a few minutes in Slack, to move to a video meeting via Zoom. This is especially important for conversations that can get emotional. I don’t remember who to credit for this brilliant sentiment but we always talk about “escalating the medium, not the message” when it comes to communication.
For every physical aspect of work, there should be a digital analog. For example:
- Being in a face to face meeting= Using Zoom for meetings
- Popping in to ask a coworker a question = Pinging a coworker on Slack
- Following social cues of when it’s time to arrive or leave = Communicating working status in digital tools
- White boarding = Using Mural
- Status meetings for a project = Async project status in Trello
Even if you don’t have a remote work long term plan, having some sort of system like this will help your team function well regardless of where you’re physically located.
4. Communicate. Then communicate again.
Research shows that in order to fully absorb a message, people need to hear it an average of seven times. Mixing up the mediums can also help. So if you’re delivering some important news consider delivering it over video, email, and in Slack. If it feels like overkill, it’s probably the right amount.
Keep in mind that when people work remotely, they don’t have the context of a shared physical space to deliver information. People also consume information in different ways. Put the two together and if you have something super important to share, make sure it’s shared multiple times and in multiple formats.
Video on this point coming soon (see what I did there?).
5. Come up with a shared context
One of the great complaints about remote work is feeling isolated from a team, or lacking a team culture. This does not have to be the case if your team comes together regularly to talk about the culture you’re building, and the culture everyone is responsible for creating. A shared culture means everyone on the team having a set understanding of the rules on your team. In a physical office that means “Don’t scream in the middle of the office.” In a remote context that may mean, “Don’t @all or @here in a Slack channel unless there is an absolute emergency.”
Some more examples:
- Physical office: Don’t leave your dirty dishes lying around desks. Don’t microwave fish.
- Digital office: Don’t eat while you’re in the middle of a video meeting. Mute yourself in a video meeting if your neighbor is moving the lawm.
- Physical office: Wipe whiteboards after meetings. Start meetings on time.
- Digital office: Organize files in the shared team Dropbox. Start meetings on time.
While some of these things may seem like overkill, they can greatly improve your experience of feeling connected, productive and aligned with a team when you’re working remotely. And the exciting thing is that all it takes is a conversation with your team.
If you’re working remotely for just a week or two, or in it for the long haul, consider making your time the best possible and giving remote work a honest effort. I promise you, it’ll be worth it (because yes, you can wear yoga pants all day long).
What questions do you have about remote work? Check back here for more posts soon.
