Deep remote work

Post originally published at on my blog

I have been working remotely for years. I've learned a lot during this time. I would like to share some of my thoughts with you.

Remote work is not as easy peasy as it may seem. People often see a nice image of a person who works on the beach when you find an offer of a remote job, but still, it is work not a holiday. I think that in order to handle remote work challenge we should focus on a few important points:

• Comfort

  As you know the comfortable position at work is very important for our health. So take care of the correct body position at work and suitable light. Peace of mind is also very important.

• Focus

  If you want to work efficiently and smartly you should find a place where you feel good and can focus on your work. To meet challenges: I mute all social apps. I check emails only twice a day. I work only on one thing at the moment. I attend only these meetings that relate directly to my duties.

• Tools

  Use the right tools for the job. I mean to use these tools which will make your work easier. For communication, e.g. slack or skype.

• Communication

  Communication whilst working remotely is crucial. It is harder than at normal on-site work. Think about setting rules for communication. I'm working in Scrum and we have one short daily meeting. We talk about what we have already done and what we are planning to do in the project. This method allows us to see and hear each other. Also, we know who does what. The most important thing is to communicate clearly, this allows us to avoid misunderstandings. If possible it is good to meet all the team members in the real world a couple of times a year. You should never underestimate the power of face-to-face communication. Email is great but face-to-face meetings are 34 times more successful as the following research shows: https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-face-to-face-request-is-34-times-more-successful-than-an-email

• Organization

  The level of understanding of the remote work in the company which you cooperate with is very important especially if you work in a mixed team - on-site /remote. How can you tell that an organization isn't friendly for a remote job?
  • You shout at each other on a daily call.
  • You don't get a summary of the meeting which you couldn't participate in.
  • The company prefers on-site workers.
  • Your supervisors don't trust you and they want to control your job all the time.
  • You find out about arrangements that took place in the company office related to your project afterward because someone forgot to tell you.

Wrap up

As I mentioned earlier remote work is not as easy as it seems to be and it is not for everyone.
It is crucial to reconsider all the pros and cons before you start. Good luck :)

Comments

[James Schleigher]

Wonderful article!
I was wondering if you had any more recommendations besides Skype and Slack?
Our team uses Quire for collaboration on team projects and Slack for communication, but we're recently thinking of switching Slack for something else.
Quire is a good choice, with agile features and a Kanban board. It's great for remote work because connecting with your coworkers is very easy. Slack on the other hand, is missing a few features. Hoping to find a good replacement!