Remote Work — Not so Normal. Thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, remote…
By: John Mann
Tags: Remote Working, Working From Home, Remote Team

Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels

Thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, remote working has become a new way of working, but it is anything but normal. We no longer have lunch with our co-workers, casually see each other in hallways and say hey, take a break and walk and talk about life outside of work. Also, we don’t often stop at 5pm to catch our train home, the subway, or pick our kids up from school.

Humans are social creatures. Most of us thrive around others to bounce ideas off of, vent about a frustrating moment, and feel safe to be part of a team. We need that for our well-being. We don’t get that working remotely as easily and most of us will find another way to have some sort of interaction, going to the grocery store, calling a friend who can listen, going to a gym, or attending a church service.

All of that being said, we can create a great remote work environment when everyone understands the needs of everyone else. I use that word specifically, “needs”. It is not a desire that we have, it is a need to feel part of, to feel connected, and to feel valued. That leads to the ultimate questions:

“How do I know what they need and how do I express what I need?”

ASK THEM UP FRONT AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO TELL THEM UP FRONT.

You need to set the expectation the moment you join a team. You need to understand the “unspoken” rules of the team, and get them spoken. We often hold people accountable to an expectation that we have never told them about. We then get resentful at them for not living up to an expectation that they are not even aware of.

Recently LinkedIn hosted a poll about least appreciated quality in a remote co-worker. Here are the results.

An overwhelming amount said, unresponsive. Keep in mind there are 4 options there, that is like having an election with 4 candidates and no runoff needed because one candidate got a majority. That is a landslide victory, or in this case, concern.

Let’s talk about remote working etiquette and some rules you should establish for your team.

Communication

This seems obvious, but for the introverts out there, they may love this lack of human interaction, this lack of transparency, and the ability to actually focus without human distractions. They need to know about your needs for communication.

Methods of communication and rules:

Email — Slowest form of remote communication, if a task is assigned or question is asked, a response should be given within 2 hours during working hours, a response can consist of simple acknowledgement and that you will review it by a specific time frame, don’t say “I’ll review this later”, say, I’ll review and respond to this by End of Day, End of Week, by Noon tomorrow.” It acknowledges that you have received the email, the person who sent it can get a response by the time frame you set, and the lines of communication are open. Video Call/Phone Call — Fastest form of communication and also the most intrusive. Do NOT call someone because you have an immediate question unless it is that urgent. I like to always start with a request, do you have a minute to chat. Or schedule a call to discuss it. Slack/Teams — The ubiquitous remote communication medium. There are rules for this also. If you need to get information out there, then post it in the channel and no response is required. If you need a response, tag that person specifically, or in slack you can use the @here tag to alert everyone in the channel. If you are tagged, you should respond quickly (under an hour during work hours) simply to acknowledge the notification. Some responses may take more time for you to research the answer, but acknowledge the request.

As you can see the rules for communication are simple — Acknowledge a request, set a timeframe for a response, and respond. There was a company (I believe it was in NYC) that made ghosting a fireable offense. You were given 2 warnings about not responding (24 hour window for a response) and on the third no response you were terminated. That is a bit extreme, but I think they probably had a GREAT communication, but that was driven by fear not respect, so not my recommendation.

Simple Rule of Thumb: Be respectful of others communication and respond as if you were in the office sitting next to them.

Breaks

We all NEED breaks, we need breaks even more working from home. We need a bathroom break, we need to take our dogs out, we need to eat, we need to answer the door for deliveries, etc… It is crucial for our well-being that we take them. Being remote, we need to let others know if we are going to be gone for an extended period (over an hour). I do NOT need to know you are going to the bathroom, but thank you for over-communicating. Take your breaks, eat lunch, relax, and then get back at it. If you are taking lunch, maybe you do a zoom lunch with your team, maybe you go for a walk on facetime so they can see your neighborhood. Maybe you need to get away from screens completely, but let the team know. You don’t need to email, slack, and schedule the entire company that you are going for a walk, but your immediate team members should know since they may need you and can’t find you.

Work Hours

The second top complaint was not respecting work hours. This is easily fixed. Define work hours and stick to them. You can respond after hours, if you want, but that is a precedent you are setting. I have my phone while I watch TV to relax and if something comes through on slack, I may respond. If an email comes through, I usually will not respond until the next work day.

I know you are all saying, but what if… of course there are exceptions, and it is a case-by-case basis. Be respectful. Be considerate. Be a team player.

That actually will solve almost all remote working problems:

Be respectful. Be considerate. Be a team player.

I hope this helps you a little in your remote working and no, it is not the new normal. It is the current state, but definitely NOT normal.