The Phases of Remote Work

How Remote is Your Company?

Since the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, many companies have been upended and forced to let their workers work from home. Many did it begrudgingly but had to do it for survival.

Before the virus hit, there were a handful of companies that were considered "experts in remote work". They include Automattic, Basecamp, Buffer, Doist, Gitlab, Help Scout, Taxjar and Zapier. These companies have remote work in their DNA and have created tools, workflows, blogs and books to help promote the cause. Many of these companies have been able to continue on, "business as usual", without much disruption to their workforce or output.

Besides these top remote-first companies, some other companies dabbled in remote work, often using it as a perk for certain employees.

But if the companies were not setup as "remote first", employees could often find it difficult to feel like valued parts of their companies and it can be difficult to gain acceptance into their teams if they were the only remote member.

For other companies that were recently forced into allowing work from home arrangements, I believe remote work will likely come in phases:

Phase 1 - Forced acceptance

It took a couple of months, but the basics are now in place. Employees are able to VPN into the office, access the required resources, support their customers and have virtual meetings with their teams. However, some employees are already complaining about burn out. Outlets for letting off steam are limited due to the lockdown.

Many families are stuck at home together, trying to stay out of each other's way and there is no clear cutoff between "home" and "work". There is no informal water cooler talk, and workers are out of sight from their managers so they are working longer hours, trying to prove their productivity and stay employed. All while watching their investments crash and seeing unemployment numbers climb to historic highs...

Many of the working hours are spent on video calls and virtual meetings. This helps keep communication up but can be as draining as sitting in meetings all day in a regular office.

So we proved we can eliminate our commutes, work from home and still be productive, even under the worst conditions.

Some companies may stop at Phase 1, satisfied that they can offer employees the perks of "working from home", mainly no more commute!

But where do we go from here? How do we improve working arrangements, reduce burnout and stay productive?

Phase 2 - Asynchronous communication by default

This is a term you may come across often while researching remote work. But what does it mean?

"Synchronous communication" happens in "real time". Imagine a face-to-face conversation. You ask a question and expect an answer quickly. For informal chit chat, this may be efficient but it is a disruptive practice for workers trying to get "in the zone" to do deep, meaningful work. It also may not work well for people in other time zones.

This contrasts with "asynchronous communication" where someone asks a question and expects a response in a "reasonable amount of time", similar to email or message boards.

Since this can not work in EVERY situation, some remote companies employ a protocol of "Asynchronous communication by default, synchronous communication when necessary". Sometimes you just have to "pick up the phone" and get an answer quickly and there is no shame in that. But you might be surprised at how few things are really THAT urgent. Think of "asynchronous by default" as "less meeting, more reading".

For example, take the daily "stand up call" that many companies employ for their development teams. This is typically an in-person or video meeting where you go around the room to gather everyone's daily update with questions such as:

• What am I working on today?
• What did I work on yesterday?
• Are there any blockers or concerns?

Many times, people in the meeting end up daydreaming or checking their email when the topics do not directly apply to them. And sometimes these discussions turn into tangents that waste most people's time. How can asynchronous communication solve this?

Instead of getting the team together for a meeting, why not have each member of the team write his updates in a shared document, have the team review the updates and give feedback? This way, interested parties can chime in, offer assistance, ask questions and express their concerns, all at a time convenient to them. If conversations turn into a tangent, it could be moved to another document where interested parties can continue on...

Most importantly, everything is documented. So if someone was out of work, or unavailable for the daily stand up meeting, they can still review the day's updates. After a few days pass, most people will have different recollections of what was discussed verbally. Clear, written communication will also solve that problem.

For companies that employ "Asynchronous communication by default", strong skills in reading, writing and empathy are considered essential super powers.

Detractors argue that asynchronous communication slows things down and they are right. However, it also forces disciplined, well thought out-decision making.

I have heard it said that "synchronous communication" favors those with the loudest voices and biggest personalities in the room. While "asynchronous communication" levels the playing field, gives everyone time to process the information, contribute their thoughts and come to documented consensus.

If the topic requires a quick turnaround, set a tight deadline and gather as much feedback as you can. If that's still not fast enough, remember sometimes you just have to pick up the phone... just be sure to document the decision so nobody is caught by surprise!

Phase 3 - Work from anywhere, any time

If your company has matured enough to default to "Asynchronous communication by default, synchronous communication when necessary", does it really matter where and when you work?

At this phase, you are hopefully evaluated by your contributions and output, NOT by the amount of time spent in your seat. Your management chain and company are comfortable with remote work and trust workers to meet their deliverables.

Being able to work from wherever, whenever, starts to open up amazing possibilities for companies and their workers. Companies can hire from a global talent pool and let their existing employees work during a schedule that works for them. Everyone has different obligations and rhythms and is most productive at different times. Think of the diverse talent pool your company would be able to employ if they were not so concerned about location and working hours: military families, caregivers, retirees, people from other countries and cultures, etc.

Building a global team across timezones can present special challenges depending on the level of communication and team interaction that is expected of the role. For example, if your company is looking to expand its support hours, having team members on the other side of the world may be ideal. However, if the role requires constant communication across time zones, constantly forcing inconvenient meeting times, then it might not be a great fit.

Where does your company fall on the spectrum of remote work? So many companies have been forced to try it, but not many of them have the necessary experience, level of trust, or processes in place, to fully embrace it. Attempting to work remotely for a company that does not fully embrace it can be a miserable experience.

Research and experience has shown that the most successful remote companies consistently follow certain key processes. You can find reviews of remote friendly / remote first companies on remotescorecard.com. Each of the companies listed on Remote Scorecard are reviewed and rated based on those processes.

If you would like to read more of my thoughts on the topic of remote work, check out my Kindle book titled, "Making Remote Work, Work For You", available at Amazon.

About the Author

Joe Giglio is a 25 year veteran of the software industry. In his career, he has worked for a local dial-up ISP, startups of all sizes and a well established, slow moving enterprise. There were important lessons learned along every stop.

His guiding principles are: Remote first, quality driven, customer champion and lifelong learning.  He was an introvert and practiced social distancing long before it was cool!

He currently resides in North Carolina and is always interested in new opportunities, meeting quality people and learning about exciting projects.  

Contact Joe Giglio: [email protected] | Website | Twitter | LinkedIn