Working Remotely Versus Working from a Remote Location

I first met Darissel "Dottie" Rodriguez when we were sent to a trade show together. She works at a company that sprints 24/7 with offices and customers around the globe. 

It is exciting? Yes. Is it invigorating? Totally. Is it exhausting? For sure.

In meeting Dottie, I encountered a fun loving, gregarious woman. If she is in the office, you know it. She is energy.

She plugs in daily with a headset and demo to guide prospective clients in her role as Inside Sales Consultant. The line-up of prospects changes daily – as she and others talk to salespeople in industries from A to Z. 

Dottie has been in based in New York. Her day begins like all salespeople – working with multiple of personalities from the various prospects. As each call comes, she must improvise like a sax player in a jazz quartet. Some calls end in harmonious joy of the prospect signing on as a client – others can crash like a cymbal falling to the floor. In either case, Dottie, like other salespeople, picks herself up to connect with the next prospect.

As I have learned, the sales professional has a rhythm. And, the salesperson keeps the cadence going.

Despite the non-stop activity, for Dottie, the days became lonely. Odd that she speaks to 50+ people a day – but often in isolation. Salespeople are self-starters. And one of the values at the company is “be internally driven.”

The irony is that with dozens of human interactions each day – Dottie was missing human interaction

With drive, many salespeople like Dottie, are up early and working remotely from home to get the job done. The irony is that with dozens of human interactions each day – Dottie was missing human interaction. Yes, she does come to check in at the office weekly – but the typical day was an all-day affair talking to people around the world in her stationary remote spot.

As she noted, “When working remotely, I almost never left my apartment. Eventually the most human contact I had during the workweek was with my Uber Eats delivery people. The comforts of home made it so that I literally didn't even socialize with friends and family unless it was a weekend, or some big event was planned; I was literally becoming a crazy cat lady.”

Dottie needed to make a change. 

That drive for change led her to discover Remote Year, a program that allows you to work with your current job and live and work in different cities around the world for a month at a time with a group of other professionals.

So, despite the fact that Dottie had seen much of the world having been born in the Caribbean, and visited Spain, Lisbon, Estonia, Italy, Guatemala, Poland and Germany – she felt that Remote Year would get her out of the house literally for a year. 

With her willing employer that encourages and supports its people to grow, she began her journey last fall. A journey with the stability of work and instability of place.

So, she has been changing locations and managing the advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of seeing the world. Some days she has been able to work from the beach, and some days even snuck in paragliding. 

Working all night underscores the challenge of keeping up with time zones. Dottie keeps the same sleep schedule – it means waking up at 1pm and going to bed at 5am in Hanoi for example.

And through it all she has been traveling with a troupe of liked-minded Remote Year workers.

For Dottie, the biggest benefit has been submersing herself in other cultures. She said, “This helps me when closing certain deals. I now have a better sense of the customer’s culture and what to say and not say.”

But Dottie is braver than most, she gave up everything in New York. Of course, she misses walking the NYC streets, ordering a “bacon egg and cheese” at a bodega, and the polite rudeness of New Yorkers on a subway.

She is thankful to her employer for trusting her to carry out her duties while on this journey. And she is thankful for friends and family who support her throughout. 

We expect when Dottie returns from her year abroad, she will have evolved beyond that fun, gregarious woman -- to a force that is wiser and smarter.

And she will truly know the difference between working remotely versus working from a remote location.

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Note: The Remote Year program is outside the standard remote working policies of Dottie's employer. As a special program, it was approved by her senior leadership as a unique growth opportunity. If you are considering a program like this, it is best to check remote working policies with your employer first.