Work From Home: 3 Things No One Wanted You to Know

Exclusive insights from someone who’s been doing it for years

“What kind of work can I do from home?”

“How can I start working from home?”

“Can I do my work from home?”

“How can I earn money sitting at home?”

“What is the best way to work from home?”

“Do online jobs really pay?”

“How should I manage my team from home?”

And you name it…

These and many more “work from home” related questions have been dominating Google searches over the past few months. And we all know why.

I mean, just look at this spike.

However, there’s a category of people who weren’t particularly interested in this topic. And they’re remote workers. Why? Because they’ve been working from home for years and now know everything about it.

So, ultimately, the pandemic hasn’t really changed anything for them despite except, for now, they cannot move from one place to another. We’ve been pretty much used to starting work without having to commute or look “presentable” at the office.

If you try, you can probably recall at least one time that you didn’t want to go to the office because you simply felt like not being social and just wanted to spend that day working from home. So, you asked your bosses to let you work from home for a bit. And what did they say? Most likely, the answer was no.

But what would they say now that you have to stay at home and work remotely? I guess that instead of coming up with arguments about why you cannot do your work from home as they did before, they’d actually need to come up with some to prove that you can. How funny is that?

The thing is, there are several reasons why some companies are afraid to let their employees work from home, and they usually don’t want you to know about them. But I’ll get back to that shortly.

Of course, some businesses that just cannot operate from home and require their personnel to be present at the office. Yet, even those companies usually have some job positions that can be covered by remote workers.

As a remote company owner with employees scattered all around the world, I believe it’s high time for a change in how we perceive work. And no, it’s not solely because of COVID-19.

This pandemic has only proved that if some companies were fully-prepared to switch to the remote workflow quickly, they could have saved themselves a lot of money. But unfortunately, for most of them, it was a struggle to adopt the work-from-home culture. Either there was no cloud-based system with all the vital company data, or the employees didn’t know how to complete their daily tasks, or managers were having a hard time trying to manage, or worse, micro-manage their team members.

So today, I’m going to let you know:

• Why working from home is as valuable as working from the office.
• The best tips and tricks on how to successfully manage your work from home.
• Why some companies used to be reluctant to let their employees spend some days working from home earlier.

Spoiler alert: Maybe because it’s too good, and it’s actually true? 😉

Remote Team: Does It Really Work?

YES. Remote teams do work. I hope you didn’t even expect any other answer from me.

Our company, Zima Media, has employees located in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Thailand, Mexico, and Italy. Different time zones, different nationalities, yet we’re all like one big family that manages to cooperate effectively and efficiently.

No, we don’t do daily Zoom meetings. Actually, we don’t use it at all. Google Meet works perfectly fine for us whenever we need to go on a video call to discuss the overall state of our marketing efforts or solve any client-related issues. Usually, it’s only once or twice a week.

No, we don’t make our employees use any time tracking software that takes pictures of both their screens and faces. That’s just weird. As a manager, I don’t care whether my team members are in deep thought, with closed eyes, meditating, or picking their nose. As long as they’re doing their job well and deliver quality results, they can do whatever they want and from wherever they want.

No, we don’t have strict working hours. Everyone works whenever it’s better for them, whether it’s 5 am or 11 pm. Why should it matter? After all, we’re all in different time zones. On the contrary, we try to automate as many tasks as possible so that each of us can spend even less time working. So far, Zapier has helped us a lot with that. To be precise, we’ve managed to automate 11171 tasks with Zapier over the past month.

And finally, no, we aren’t afraid to express our likes/dislikes and receive constructive feedback. We value communication, and we appreciate it if our employees share their ideas on how we can improve as a company. We all have unique experiences, and it’s always worth listening to each other to boost productivity and grow professionally.

Now, you should not doubt that remote teams work, and sometimes, even better than on-premise ones. From my experience, there’s always more trust and reliability when it comes to assembling a work-from-home team. As a CEO, I choose employees who are ready to do their job without me picking over their shoulders. I trust them, and they trust me. Simple as that.

Three Reasons Why Working From Home Is Much Better Than You Think

As promised, I’m getting back to this. So, why do some companies refuse to let their employees work from home from time to time, even if it’s absolutely possible to carry out their duties remotely?

My answer is: because some of them are afraid of giving more freedom to their employees.

Here’re some perks of remote working that your on-premise company wouldn’t really want you to learn about.

#1 You can choose your weekends

Yes, as a matter of fact, you can decide when you want to have your weekend. Of course, most people prefer Saturday and Sunday. But what if you want to have it on Monday and Tuesday? I say, go ahead and have your weekend whenever you want as long as you’re completing your tasks on time.

And if you’re feeling the burnout, take a day off to cool down and relax, we don’t count them. Companies should care about their employees’ mental state more than the hours they clock in. That’s what makes remote teams so much stronger.

Do you want to put more effort into finishing your weekly tasks in just four days to have an extended weekend? You can do that too. My main point here is that quality matters more than quantity. I don’t care if one of my team members spends only a few hours working. If they deliver outstanding results, I’m happy.

There’s no point in making someone work precisely 40 hours just for the sake of watching them sit and pretend to work when they’ve already done everything. As for me, it doesn’t make any sense, does it?

#2 You can have a soothing sip or two of your favorite drink whenever you want

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to encourage getting drunk while working. All I’m trying to say is that we’re all human beings. Some of us like to enjoy a glass of wine/beer with their lunch (after all, I’m French, we drink wine all the time) or sip on that delicious Mojito during a hot summer day.

When you work from home, no one should judge you if you, for once, decided to drink something else than water or coffee. As long as you don’t go ham chugging alcohol all day long or need to drive anywhere, take that sweet sip of your favorite cocktail and have no regrets.

Of course, this practice is usually banned or shushed in offices. Consider this: if your bosses believe that you’ll get drunk if you work from home, do they really trust you? If you’re a responsible employee, you won’t do it even if you could. And if otherwise, that’s on you, my friend.

#3 No one will knock on your door to interrupt your solitaire session or the final episode of that popular TV show everyone’s crazy about

Let’s be honest. We’re not robots. We can get tired. We can lose attention and find it hard to stay focused. We might be going through something personal that occupies our minds. Or we can be simply overwhelmed with what’s going on around us. In short, there are a lot of things that might prevent us from being productive or able to work at a particular moment.

We all know it can happen anytime.

My advice is straightforward. If you feel like you cannot focus on whatever you’re doing workwise, take a break.

Of course, sometimes you have to push yourself and deliver work to your clients on time to prevent letting them down. But in most cases, the world won’t stop if you decide to take a longer break during your workday and play a video game or watch your favorite TV show. If that’s what can save you from burning out and feeling stressed, you must do it.

It’s okay to feel like you need a distraction from work to bring your thoughts back together. There’s also nothing wrong with asking your teammates for help. To wrap it up, do whatever it takes to keep your mind clear and stay motivated.

And Finally: How to Work From Home and Stay Sane?

I know you might be new to working from home or having to manage the whole team, also from home. You even might enjoy working at the office much more, and a lot of people would join you on that. Yet, in case you have to keep on working from home or decide just to try it out, here are some productivity tips from our Zima Media team — experts in remote work:

1. Take it easy. It’s just work, not a life or death mission.
2. Always share your feedback, whether it’s good or bad.
3. If you’re a manager, try to eliminate micromanagement as much as possible and let your employees know you fully trust them to fulfill their responsibilities.
4. Focus on the quality of your work, not the quantity.
5. Don’t stress about the work hours; just do your best to reach desired results.
6. Take a break whenever you need to prevent burnouts.
7. Try to dedicate a separate work corner in your place to sustain a work-life balance and avoid feeling like being at work all the time.
8. Restrain from responding to work-related messages in your free time.
9. Make sure to move from time to time, whether it’s a mid-day yoga class or late-evening stretch, don’t let a sedentary lifestyle take control of your body.
10. Love what you do. If you’re not excited about your work, it doesn’t matter whether you’re at home or the office, you won’t be able to feel happy.

That’s it for now. I hope that my insights helped you change the way you see remote work. As the current situation shows, being able to work from home is more vital than being able to make it to the meeting with board directors on time.

Of course, it’s unfortunate that companies started to realize the importance of being ready to operate remotely only now that they have to do it. Yet, hope is still there. I’ve always believed that remote work is the future of work. So, it’s time to adopt the remote-work culture and embrace it as much as possible to succeed in these times of uncertainty.