How to Embrace Working Remotely
10 tips to effectively work outside of the office and communicate effectively with your fellow employees.
By: Louise Oliver and Sally Immel Goodloe
Here at Peritus, we have a great deal of experience with not only working remotely, but thriving and communicating better as a company by embracing flexibility, even during challenging times.
As a firm dedicated to connecting our communities with a #familyfirst mindset, this mentality has never been more important as our clients and community face uncertainty and changes in “business as usual.” You name a “remote” challenge, we have faced it—a team member separated 783 days by a seven-hour time difference, managing three office locations in separate time zones, and weekly demands that require our team to travel or plug into unexpected locations, like hot spotting at a rural Alabama McDonald’s, leading a conference call from an airport maintenance closet (true story) or working from a sibling’s kitchen table.
Chances are you are trying to work remotely this week while balancing childcare or other personal obligations, so we thought you may appreciate a few tips learned from personal experience. We originally wrote these for a holiday post, but many are still relevant for the weeks ahead that most employees are facing.
After many trial and errors, these are Peritus’ 10 Telecommute Tips to best optimize working remotely to bring more value to your company, peace of mind to your employer, minimize workload stress and optimize your wellness during this time.
Early Bird Gets the Worm: Once your partner or roommate is blaring The Today Show, it is hard to continue to focus on strategic or demanding projects. Join the early bird club and knock out that hard work before the house gets moving to feel relaxed when it is time to give your family some much deserved TLC.
Set Expectations: How many times have you had the best of intentions when working remotely, but others just don’t quite get the memo that you actually have responsibilities that day and can’t just “smoke and mirrors” work? For the parents out there, have conversations early to work out childcare responsibilities so each of you can get your own work done and still enjoy time together later in the evening. Or, if your roommate has a different understanding of “working remotely” than your employer, remind them that you have deadlines to meet and the Bachelor recap can wait until the work day is over.
Create Your Environment: Design a space free of distractions—that means buckle down and know that your laundry, news coverage or your spring cleaning to-do list can wait until you wrap up for the day. Whether it’s setting up shop at a desk with a closed door or at the kitchen counter with music in the background, find the environment that works best for you and stick with it. It might take a few rounds of trial and error at first.
Dress for the Day: When working from home, embrace “athleisure” when the occasion calls. But if you plan to have video calls with clients, suck it up and take those extra 10 minutes to look “sharp casual” to protect your brand’s credibility.
Walk It Out: Walking meetings have been proven to fuel creativity better than anything after being cooped up in a tight non-familiar space all day. When the workspace isn’t cutting it anymore, taking a walking break for some fresh air can help you avoid distractions and refocus when you need some creative inspiration.
Check Ins: Communicate with your team, even if they aren’t checking in with you by reassuring them that you are connected and available for support through open lines of communications. We use/love Slack and Zoom to communicate with each other, and the team members logged remotely go out of their way to say hello and goodbye when they arrive and leave. When it comes to working remotely, there’s no such thing as overcommunicating.
Let’s Lunch: Just because you are working remotely, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a lunch break. During these difficult times, there’s no better way to support our local restaurants than ordering curbside pickup and scheduling a virtual lunch with friends. Protect your time by ensuring your schedule reflects your lunch break, and remember to let the team know when you are back.
Cheat Time: When working solo, take advantage of extra time that isn’t eaten up by water cooler chat when you are normally in the office. During those precious quiet moments, do something proactive and focus on “brain hurting” tasks. Another great remote time cheat is optimizing those travel hours—podcasts, check ins with mentors, or quiet time to get in the zone and think big.
Get Focused: Know when you need focused time or when it is more of a multitasking project that you can enjoy during a Netflix marathon. Remember to let your teammates know when you will be focusing on a project and snoozing notifications so they don’t assume you are just “off the grid.”
Celebrate and Relate: If you are an employer and have remote team members, make sure to loop them into any big office news or updates. Help them feel connected for celebrations, successes or big wins that they may be missing through email. As for the telecommuters, don’t forget to catch up with coworkers and fill them in on little funnies you experience in the chaos of these challenging times. Just because you aren’t in the office, doesn’t mean it has to be all business conversations when you connect with colleagues.
Our PUBLISHED by Peritus takeaway is this:
This time is already stressful enough—you don’t need the added pressure of working under unreasonable expectations. Embrace opportunities to work remotely with early starts, focused time, clear communications and taking advantage of the many telecommuting perks. If you enjoy working remotely and would like to see your employer offer more flexible options, stay tuned for upcoming blog posts we have planned in 2020 to help you establish some of these in your workplace.