Working Remotely

Secrets to Success for Employees on Distributed Teams

Teresa Douglas, Holly Gordon, Mike Webber

• Publisher: Barrons Educational Services
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781506271521
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Workplace Culture
• Index: Business

The world is now your office! You can work from home, from a coffee shop, or even from the gym—but how do you keep on task and stay motivated when you're alone. In Working Remotely, authors Mike, Holly, and Teresa discuss how to ward off toxic levels of loneliness, how to get what you need from colleagues spread across the world, and how to network and grow in your career when you are sitting in an office of one, plus many other topics that will help you survive and thrive as a remote worker.Mike, Holly, and Teresa use their different paths through Kaplan to help the remote worker figure out how to set up the right headspace for them." Working Remotely paints a very real picture of what it's like to be a remote worker in an organisation... In contrast to most books on remote work which have been written with managers, business owners or freelancers in mind, Secrets of the Remote Workforce speaks directly to employees, guiding them through their day to day." -Pilar Orti Director of Virtual not Distant" Working Remotely is a terrific map for helping employees who work remotely take charge of their own career. The authors have all survived and thrived as remote employees... While other resources focus on how to manage remote employees, this book highlights the power that employees have to drive success for themselves." -Susan Cates, Strategic Advisor

Chapter 1

Secrets of the Right Mentality

Of all the transitions you’ll have to make as you move from a traditional office into the remote workforce, the psychological adjustments may be the most surprising. Many people already know that they need a comfortable physical workspace. This chapter will help you think about setting up a comfortable mental space as well.

Settling into Your New Environment

Working in a remote environment is something that you may not have experienced before. There are many similarities between working remotely and working in a more traditional office setting, but there are also many differences. When you’re a virtual employee, you shoulder more responsibility to understand your company’s culture and ensure you are living up to your commitments.

What do you really know about the company you work for? When you started, what kind of research did you do? If its stock is publicly traded, did you check its performance on the stock exchange? Did you do an internet search of the company name along with keywords like “love,” “good employer,” and “quit”? Doing this type of investigative work before signing on with a company gives you both a sense of job security and some context for the information your interviewers provide. Gone are the days of a job for life. The best and brightest will likely work for several companies, so it’s important to control that process to be in charge of your career. Investigating potential employers is crucial.

Far too often, this investigation, if it occurs at all, ceases once someone accepts a job offer. This makes sense in the short term—after all, the interview was a success, the new job is yours, and if you did that important research before accepting the position, you probably feel that you know enough about the company to rest easy about your decision and how your new role fits with your long-term goals.

In reality, though, you don’t know enough about the company. You may know the likelihood of its longevity over the next few years, but you have no idea about the inner workings of the different departments you’ll soon be interacting with, what your boss is really like, or why your colleague, who is supposed to be showing you the ropes, is acting in such a cold manner toward you.

In a traditional office environment, a lot of your knowledge about the company’s history and culture occurs through a natural process of osmosis. You overhear conversations in the next cubicle. You run into a colleague on the way to the printer and take a few minutes to discuss why they look so frustrated. Lunch provides a great opportunity to learn the backstory of recent changes. While this can easily spill into gossip, it quickly provides a good understanding of why things are the way they are.

When you’re part of a remote workforce, that intrinsic knowledge is much harder to come by. It will come eventually, but by the time you have a full picture of the company’s history and its major and minor players, a significant amount of time will have passed (more than would have in a non-virtual work environment). There’s no point in waiting that long and struggling unnecessarily as you start out. The solution is to take action.

If your company provides you with a relevant company history, it’s an excellent sign of a company that cares. If you don’t receive such a history, or the one you’re provided is superficial at best, then it is up to you to obtain a history you can use. Ask for a summary of recent changes that affected the organizational structure of the company and your division. Ask for the background on any personnel changes that are relevant to you in your new position. Requests such as these are a big part of setting yourself up for success in the remote workforce.

Without this knowledge, you’re going to be guessing at how to best perform your duties and maneuver among colleagues and departments. But there is more at risk than just that. As we’ll discuss in later chapters, networking in the virtual work environment begins much earlier than in the traditional workplace. Knowing the lay of the land from the past to the present allows you to start mapping out your career right away and avoid falling into the hidden traps created by events that took place before you ever arrived.

If you are in the process of onboarding, you can ask your HR department if they have a video or a manual or other collateral that discusses the history of the company, including when your role or department went remote. If you are not in the process of onboarding, or your HR department doesn’t have any materials, then you may be able to gain this information in other ways. You could informally ask people to share their stories—how did they get hired into the role they are in now, when did they join the company, etc. This activity will help you build a picture of recent company history, and help you build your network, all at once. —Teresa Douglas

Knowledge and trust are keys to success as a member of the remote workforce. Know what you’re getting into before signing on with a company, and know what you’ve gotten into once you’re there. There is a baseline level of trust that every employer-employee relationship needs to have, but in a remote workforce, the stakes in this circle of trust are significantly higher. It is incumbent on you, the remote worker, to both understand the implications of this change and embrace the dynamics that now exist. Your company has given you freedom and responsibility, and you must understand both the opportunity and the trap that lie therein.

As you will discover, the world of working remotely can give you greater day-to-day autonomy, more control over your work-life blend, and a greater ability to craft your job in ways that you may have previously thought unimaginable. These are all exciting possibilities. Frankly, only time will tell whether you can do these things well while working from home. In the remote workplace, temptations are plentiful. You will need to manage yourself, internalizing the employer part of the contractual bargain and weighing each and every decision you make throughout the day as both employer and employee.

Until you begin to work remotely, it may be difficult for you to understand the extraordinary trust that your company has placed in you, and it may be hard for you to comprehend just how much effort and thought you will have to exert to understand the implications of that trust. As you begin (and continue) to work in the remote workforce, you must periodically ask yourself whether you are up to the challenge and determine whether you are fulfilling your duties.

It is not unheard of for people to agree to work remotely and then spend their days ignoring their responsibilities until their company inevitably lets them go. In a similar vein, not all managers thrive in this environment, where trust is crucial to success. A lack of trust often leads to micromanaging and, ultimately, the resignation or dismissal of the remote employee. However, these stories say much more about the individuals involved than they do about working remotely.

There are also many workers on the opposite end of the spectrum: those who fulfill all of their work obligations appropriately and use the flexibility remote work offers to lead a more abundant life. There are remote workers who train for marathons, foster children, and fulfill other life dreams they may not have been able to without the flexibility offered by remote work.

It is common for companies to be overcontrolling as workers migrate away from the office. It is equally common for remote workers to initially feel as though they are on the outside looking in as they get acclimated to new communication patterns and new logistical arrangements. Discuss these things openly and honestly with your manager and your peers alike. Work through your tentative feelings as you enter this new world.

Your company has gone all-in on your abilities, your maturity, and your discipline. Seize this opportunity. Fulfill the contract you have made. Build your particular remote existence within the parameters established by your company and reap the benefits that result.

Preparing to Work More

What kind of worker are you? Are you someone who looks for any job that gives you a decent salary? Are you after a particular line of work that you will enjoy, regardless of the financial benefits? Or maybe you want anything that keeps your evenings and weekends completely free. These are important questions to ask yourself before getting into the virtual workforce, because one thing is certain in this environment: You will work more.

This concept can be hard for people to grasp, as from the outside the assumption is that you have more free time. After all, there’s no boss in the room to watch over you. You have fewer distractions from coworkers, fewer clients coming in with questions, and just less noise all around. But the reality is actually the opposite. With fewer outside distractions, the right type of worker can suddenly have eight hours of pure work time. It’s amazing how much time gets used up with random interruptions that are commonplace in an on-site office environment. Once those are removed, all that is left is for you to work. Granted, there are other potential distractions, but it’s important to understand that contrary to popular belief, working from home means working more.

Let’s take a moment to consider your new workspace. You now have fewer reasons to get up to accomplish tasks. Things like walking across the hall to get supplies or to the copy room to get a printout are all but eliminated, as hard copies are rarely required when working remotely. In the event that you do need to print something, the printer is usually right next to you. Those couple of minutes spent on the move in a traditional office environment can turn into something much longer when they present the opportunity to run into a colleague or supervisor. Any situation involving leaving your desk—getting coffee in the break room, running a suggestion by your boss, heading to the conference room for a meeting—provides an opportunity for distraction. In the virtual workforce, most of these actions are done with a click or two of your mouse.

The other major difference is that when you work from home, it’s much harder to separate your home life from your work life. You no longer go out into the world and enter a different building to start your workday. Instead, work is just . . . there. Switching off becomes much more challenging, and it can be easy to start earlier, finish later, and find yourself working on weekends. It becomes harder to tell yourself that things can wait when in the most literal sense, they don’t have to—the computer is right there.

The tendency to work more in this environment isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but you need to recognize and manage it carefully to get the right level of satisfaction out of your job and your work-life blend. Ultimately, you have more freedom in how you work, so use that to your advantage. Schedule regular breaks in your routine: Set an alarm to remind yourself to get up and stretch, walk to a nearby coffee shop, or work on a craft project. The activity you choose is less important than the act of taking regular breaks. Just knowing you have a 10-minute break in your day to do something you enjoy can keep you happy and productive in your role.

When you work remotely, your office is really wherever you and your laptop are. I’ve learned that this makes my technological boundaries just as important as physical ones in a typical office. For example, I don’t have my work email go directly to my phone, allowing my phone to remain a personal device while my laptop is a work device. This helps me to feel unplugged when my work laptop is closed, and sends a clear signal that I’m only available for urgent needs when I’ve shut down my computer for the day. —Christine Terrell

Identifying what you want out of your virtual workforce job will help establish a base level of satisfaction. Know that you will be working more and recognize what that is: an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to immerse yourself more fully in exciting work with fewer distractions than you might experience while working in an office. You can take great satisfaction in helping your colleagues and clients in a more timely and efficient manner and make your job something more than just a 40-hour-a-week way to keep the wolf from the door.

At the same time, recognize that this is a double-edged sword you need to wield wisely. Schedule breaks for yourself and set limits so you don’t end up burning out. Walk into this working situation with eyes wide open, being prepared to both work more and reap the benefits of doing so.

Dealing with Reactions of Friends and Family

A month or so after I started working from home, I began getting calls from my mother in the middle of the day. At first I was concerned. We lived on different coasts, and a call in the middle of my workday used to mean that something momentous had happened. Someone was in a car accident, or sick, and I needed to either buy a plane ticket or call a relative in the hospital.

These turned out not to be those kind of calls. My mom missed having me nearby and thought that I would now have time to chat. I would gently let her know that I was in the middle of my workday, but it would still take 45 minutes to get off of the phone, and she would forget and call me again the next time she thought of it.

I found that the only solution was to not pick up the phone during work hours. She always left a message, and I could listen to it right away and decide if I needed to call back immediately. If not, I made a note to call her in the evening when I had time to talk. Gradually the midday phone calls stopped, and we went back to our regular routine of talking after my business day was done.

—Teresa Douglas

No one really understands what other people do for work. We have a much better idea about traditional jobs, the ones children are taught about in school: police officer, nurse, construction worker. But even with those jobs, it can be hard to picture what really happens. When do police file paperwork? How do nurses structure their days? What do construction workers actually do, when so much of their job appears to consist of standing about, waiting? It’s not a surprise, then, that it’s hard to visualize what a claims adjustor or regional sales director does day to day. Now take that confusion and multiply it by a factor of 10. Welcome to the way friends, family, and even some coworkers view the life of a remote worker, regardless of the job title.

Your home is your place of rest. It’s where you raise your family, where you do chores on weekends, where you watch TV and relax. Adding business to the mix, even if you have a designated office area to work from, complicates things. It can be hard for even the person working remotely to figure it all out, so it makes sense that others have a hard time understanding where the line between work and non-work is. Confusion and questions from friends and family are understandable. Fortunately, the trick to navigating these conversations is straightforward: Anticipate questions and comments and take preemptive action, or at least be prepared to respond to the usual queries and misconceptions.

Many people will assume that because you’re working from home, you are self-employed and therefore able to set your own hours and work as much or as little as you want. Being part of a remote workforce often means a significant amount of flexibility when it comes to your working hours, but not to the extreme that many people assume. Point out that you have a number of tasks to accomplish each day and that while some things can be moved around, most cannot unless you end up working late into the night to catch up.

Another common misconception is that when you tell an acquaintance you work from home, what that acquaintance hears is, “I’m in between jobs.” Providing a bit more detail about your routine can clarify the situation, but having to justify your employment status can slowly wear away at a person’s soul: “Trust me! I have a job! I swear it!” The sister reaction to this unemployment assumption is a kind of faux jealousy. This is where the person you’re speaking with tells you how lucky you are to have such an easy gig, working from home. Again, a brief description of all that transpires in your day-to-day activities is often enough to educate the other person, but this assumption (like the unemployment one) can make you feel as though you’re fighting an uphill battle.

It can be frustrating when friends don’t understand your work situation, but it’s not something that necessarily requires a lot of discussion. With family, however, it can become a more sensitive topic. A significant other or children living with you need to understand what working from home really means. At the same time, you need to accept that they are not likely to fully understand, so you need to be patient with them. To expect your family members to grasp right away why you can’t spend part of the day doing housework or helping with homework is just inviting trouble. There’s a flip side to this situation, of course. Working remotely may mean having the ability to arrange your schedule so you can take 30 minutes on your lunch break to vacuum. You can spend an hour in the evening finishing up work emails in order to spend an hour in the afternoon helping your son do his homework. But family should not assume this level of flexibility or conflict will likely arise.

Lay out the ground rules in advance to minimize confrontations and incorrect expectations. Set up your workplace and time so it’s clear, for example, that when the door is closed, no one enters. That until the tie comes off, you’re at work. That when the clock turns to 10:00 a.m., the workday begins. Control the expectations of those you live with, and your relationships will avoid dips into disappointment and frustration.

Ultimately, the answer is to be prepared. People who don’t work remotely will never fully understand what it’s like, and that’s OK. You’ll likely never know what it’s like to be a police officer. In being prepared, however, you’ll be better equipped to deal with the different situations you most certainly will encounter. As a bonus, after experiencing the misconceptions many friends and family members will have about working remotely, you’re likely to presume a lot less about what the construction worker’s average workday is like.

Overcoming Isolationism

Working remotely can be a lonely experience. Even if you are equipped with the secrets we are sharing, you’ll likely experience a sense of isolation that can be both overt and covert in its effect on the human psyche. You don’t feel the simple joy of stopping by a cubicle to chat with a friend or accidentally bumping into a colleague or high-level boss in an elevator. Even introverts may need interaction, however fleeting or trivial.

The volume of remote workforce decisions can overwhelm even the most diligent and organized person. It can be easy to think that no one in the company works as hard as you or that your team is the only competent one out there. You might lose sight of the big picture—or feel like you never had a grasp of the big picture in the first place. You might be surprised by sudden changes to your business unit or processes. Although not everyone who works from home experiences these extremities of emotion, those who do can feel them intensely.

So here is the secret to surviving these moments: Understand that you may occasionally be overcome by the isolation of the remote workforce life. Make your plan now to handle this psychological crisis, because we guarantee that if it does occur and you do not have a plan, you will not have the emotional gyroscope to finesse it when things start to go dark.

Build a support structure that you can lean on during tough times. The savvy remote worker ensures that structure includes people and actions both inside and outside of the company. Sometimes you need to speak to someone on the inside whose judgment you trust, either to vent or to ask for advice. Cultivate friendships now while things are going well so you know who you can talk to when times are rough. At other times, you need to remind yourself that there is a world outside of your home office. Consider joining a book club, or a professional association, or a game night at your local pub or library. Become a docent at your local museum. Volunteer on the weekends. If you have a pet or a hobby or a child, there is a good chance that there is a group out there of like-minded people who meet together socially. Try a few different things until you find your tribe and then attend regularly.

My team enjoys frequent virtual work-alongs that help us both stay connected socially and be more productive. If we anticipate that we will be doing similar work during a given week, we schedule a group video call to chit-chat and bounce ideas off each other while we work in parallel. —Brian Sabel

Sometimes changing where you physically work can ward off feelings of isolation. It may not be as efficient to do some of your work at a local library or coffee shop, but the act of sitting in a room with other people may help you feel more connected to the world in general. If spending two hours at a library every Tuesday morning can keep you feeling energized about your job, then it is time well spent. Take some time on the weekends to try out new places (and check the Wi-Fi).

If your life circumstances and role allow for it, you might consider taking a class in the middle of the workday. Some employees find that taking time out for a group yoga or drawing class helps them fill the need for human contact.

If you find yourself in crisis mode despite all this, don’t do anything rash. Breathe in and breathe out. Seek counsel from friends and family about the issue. Seek counsel from other remote workers. Go for a walk. Wait a preset period of time before making any career-changing decisions. You can opt out at any time, but once you do, it is very difficult to opt back in. We are not saying everyone can and will adapt to the world of working remotely. Many fine employees find that working from home is simply not a good fit. But we are saying you should not leave the remote workforce because of a predictable (and oftentimes transitory) wave of emotion.

Rely on your support network to weather the tough times. With the help of people and activities both inside and outside the company, you can experience the joys and flexibility that remote working provides for years to come.

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