How to work remotely
Teams at 37signals, Automattic, Press, Soundcloud, Spotify, Atlassian and Fotolia work completely or partially remotely. So let’s look at the differences between office and remote work, look at situation through the eyes of employee and manager, think how to make work more productive and make transition simple and painless.
Find 10 Differences
To begin with, let’s.highlight the difference between a freelance and remote job.
Freelancer is not a part of a company and doesn’t become full-fledge member of a team. Mostly he doesn’t know what other members of team are doing and may even not know them in person, hired to solve a specific problem. Some people prefer to have a main place of work and freelance in spare time, or work with several clients at same time.
Freelancer join team/company for a while, receives payment for hours spent or completed assignment. In general cases, not interested in the project as a whole product, it’s goals, successes and mistakes. Freelancer works strictly on the brief, which limited it’s responsibility.
He usually works when he wants. He’s less motivated if compare to a full-time employee, which means there’s higher probability that the task won’t be done with same quality or freelancer can even disappear at all (sometimes it can happen too).
A remote employee is a full-time employee. Just working outside the office. He’s hired not for specific task, but to work on the whole project. Has position in the company and responsibilities.
Working on the project for a long time, he is more involved and understands it more deeply. He receives a salary, work relations are documented. Responsible not for a specific task, but for the project as a whole, therefore, is more flexible and has a stronger effect on the product. It is easier for him to set a new task or change the direction of work.
Remote employee is always stay in touch at least during working hours. More responsible, predictable and reliable.
Remote Job — is New Black!
For the first time distant work was formulated and proposed by an American scientist Jack Nilles as early as 1972. American cities were faced with the problem of traffic congestion, and communications at that time already allowed some employees to work from home. A study conducted by the University of Southern California confirmed the assumption and the idea of a “flexible workplace” was supported at the state level.
So remote work is not an invention of the Millennials who wanted to work from Starbucks. It gained the greatest popularity right now due to the development of the Internet, the increase in computer capacity and the emergence of convenient tools.
So remote work is not an invention of the Millennials who wanted to work from Starbucks. It gained the greatest popularity right now due to the development of the Internet, increase in computer capacity and appear of convenient tools.
Different views
Office work stereotypes often seen as hard labor in huge noisy open space, when a typical remote employee imagined relaxed with a laptop in a hammock somewhere near the sea. Of curse both are extremes. Office work as well as remote and freelance has it’s own pros and cons.
Let’s look at them from the perspective of an employee and a manager, and at the same time dispel some popular myths.
Employee view
One of the advantages — the ability to manage their time more flexible. Not everyone is equally productive from 9 to 17 hours. Early birds and night person can work in their most effective hours. Taking a nap or taking a walk after lunch is also not a problem (and certainly this is better than stucking in Facebook or trying to wake up already in the office, finishing the second cup of coffee). Don’t forget that the value of your work is not in the number of hours spent on it, but in a successfully solved task.
No need to spend time and money on the road. Someone was lucky to get to work in 15 minutes, but many spend on the road in big cities from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Suppose you have to spent an hour to get to work. So, in a month the whole day is dropped out from your life, which could be spent on more useful things. Of course, this time can be used for reading or podcasts, but during rush hour it is a doubtful pleasure.
Less distractions. And more at the same time. A remote employee is not distracted by talking about the weather, office manager calls or migration of colleagues to the kitchen and back. But nothing insures against a noisy company in a cafe, a sudden repair from the neighbors (and the neighbor’s repair always happens at the wrong time). But at home there is always a sofa, a cat and a family, whom not always remember that you should not be distracted while working with household issues.
It is easier for one to concentrate in silence when nobody is making noise. Others, on the contrary, feel a surge of strength, being among people. Someone more pleasant to work in loud crowd, and someone will do the work faster in a few hours on a bench in the park. Everything is individual. Create for yourself the conditions in which it is better to work for you. Find a balance between work and other activities, based on what time you are faster and easier to do this or that.
It’s not about working from home, but about working from a comfortable place.
When you working on your own, it is easier to get distracted with social networks even if you don’t want to. Instead of blocking social networks, track your reactions and desires. Often this is a trigger that signals you that work is not interesting or the task is unclear. Then it’s worth deeper understanding of problem, maybe you just do not what you wanted to. But unimportant notifications on the smartphone should still be turned off.
No live communication with the team. It distracts less, but there is a high risk of losing the necessary contact with it. However, work in the office does not guarantee close contact, especially if employees sit in their offices and see each other for 10 minutes during lunch.
Don’t turn remote work into complete isolation from people. Meet colleagues in an informal atmosphere. Sometimes get out to the office or talk on Skype, especially if you need to brainstorm new ideas or discuss difficult issues. Messengers don’t transmit the magic of intonation, gestures and attitudes, so on complex and large-scale projects it is useful to come to the client (even to another city or country) for a few days or weeks and work closely.
When working at home, do not forget to communicate with the team and try to go out: meet friends and colleagues, go to a cafe next door, or just walk down the street.
No improvement. At the same time, a remote employee doesn’t lose mentoring of a manager or more experienced colleagues. Don’t forget about it and plan your own self-improvement. Get feedback from the manager, make a plan of your progress with him and work on weak points. Remote is not an obstacle for professional improvement and career growth.
Manager view
Employee control. If the employee is present at the workplace from 9 to 17, then all this time he is busy with work. This is a common opinion among managers, but it is only an illusion of control. A person who doesn’t want to work won’t stop procrastinating even if boss suddenly jumps out from around the corner — people are very creative. In addition, no one is able to work equally productively for eight hours in a row.
There is no difference what an employee is busy at a particular time, if he performs his tasks well and on time. Measure employee work not by the number of hours spent in the workplace, but by the volume of tasks completed.
Nobody needs an employee who doesn’t finish task, just like the boss, who checks every minute what the one is doing.
Savings. For large companies, a distributed team will help reduce the cost of renting an office and equipment.
Talents. Another important factor is access to talents. Not limited to your city or even country when looking employee, you can find rare specialists who share your values and ideas or with other salary requirements.
How to start working remotely
Start slowly. The transition to remote work after the office will be difficult. To get started, try working in the new mode a day or two in a week. For several months, you will analyze the mistakes, understand whether such a regime is suitable for you personally, and you will be able to restructure the workflow without serious consequences for the company. Remember that new habits are a way out of the comfort zone, and they are developed gradually by you and your colleagues.
Work and travel — is top of the line, but amount of pitfalls are more than it seems. Local problems can always be solved when you don’t have emergency work. Start small, and everything will come with time.
Analyze your habits. Understand when you are most productive, and when work harder. Note that you will need to keep in touch with the team online at certain times. Don’t forget about friends, family and, of course, healthy sleep.
Choose a place to work. You may be more comfortable at home, in a cafe or co-working (and sometimes you can go even to the office). Sometimes it is useful to change environment.
Plan. Lack of strict schedule leads not only to laziness, but also overworking. Don’t spread your work hours from morning to evening and leave yourself time to relax. You can always do more, but better spend your free time on yourself rather than please your internal workaholic. Keep a balance of work and personal time. While working remotely, plan your tasks for a week (or other convenient periods) with your supervisor and complete them on time (or inform about delays and sudden difficulties ahead).
Understand the task. Don’t rush to start working and set deadlines for a new task, until you figure out all the nuances. It is better to spend the extra half an hour and find out more than pass the task and realize that they didn’t take into account something important. Record the result you need to achieve, and estimated time.
Negotiate. Discussions and negotiations at the stage of setting the task is one of the key factors for effective remote work. Your work will be based on pre-planned schedule, and your boss knowing what you’re busy with will be calm. Discuss and record how you will interact with the team, what tools you will use. Understand how much tasks you must complete and set deadlines. Plan for the long term and have a backlog so you’re always on a track. If you understand that the task takes more time — inform other participants of the process immediately.
Communicate effectively. Limit time for calls and discussions to the required minimum. This will help to resolve issues faster and not to slip into chatter. Reply to the letters on time, and if you cannot answer immediately, let people know that you received e-mail. Appreciate your time and respect colleagues time.
Take responsibility for the result. This is a sign of a specialist who is responsible for his work and doesn’t need whipping and control. If your work is delayed due to the fact that it doesn’t depend on you, renegotiate and specify the deadlines.
Important is not what you do, but what you have done.
Customize tools. Google Docs or Confluence helps you work with texts, Google Drive or Dropbox — share files, Trello, Basecamp or Jira — keep your tasks organized. It is convenient to record time in Toggl or Harvest, and to be in touch — in Slack or Skype. How you set up work tools depends on your comfort and the time to switch between tasks and information search.
Be flexible. Plans are not implemented 100%. Something will go wrong. The plan will break. Be prepared for unforeseen situations.