What is remote work? What you should know about it in 2019.

You may know of remote work in a few different ways, let’s cover them:

1. Telecommute or telecommuting
   1. In the 1990s, this was the term used and brought to the media by way of pop culture. During this time mottos around telecommuting started to emerge as well, for example, “Work is something you do, not something you travel to.”
2. Digital nomad
   1. Someone who works from their computer and re-locates every so often to travel, explore and run their business from literally anywhere in the world.
3. Work from home (WFH)
   1. Still popularly used today as an alternative describing that you’re taking a WFH day or that you have a WFH job.
4. Remote work
   1. The all-encompassing and latest trending term to describe not working from a physical office.

Let’s say all you’ve ever seen are people working from traditional office environments, warehouses, taxi cabs, etc. and this is all you’ve ever experienced as an active member of the workforce. Going from that to then learning about working from home can be extremely jarring. There’s a big misconception that to do great work you have to be physically close to your boss, your co-workers and, even your customers. But as we become more and more distributed through social media and the access of the online resources and tools the more it starts to make sense why and how working remotely is the new norm.

Working remote, working from home is pretty much the same as working from an office. All that changes is now there is a laptop in front of you, you’re working from your home desk, and you talk and meet with your co-workers via virtual tools. As long as you have a decent WiFi connection, headphones and a comfy chair you are set. Oh! And you probably want to make sure you’re a stellar communicator.

63% of US companies now have remote workers, according to a 2018 Upwork Study

Taking up a remote job means that there’s no commute to your companies office, instead it’s a commute from your bed to your desk. Which is 10x better. It also offers freedom for professionals to work at their most productive hours and from any setting they please that allows them to execute their work successfully.

I don’t want anyone to think that remote work is slacking off, that it’s for introverts or people that can’t be socially present, that it’s easy or that anyone can do it. All of these are false. Working remote in my opinion is sometimes harder than working in an office. In an office you’re privileged with water cooler talks, company happy hours, walking to grab coffee with your co-worker, small talk riding the elevator to your office, the in person communication is a given. With remote work, we’re isolated. We have to put in the extra effort and be proactive when it comes to communication and building relationships. Remote work isn’t for everyone.

At the end of the day working from an office or working from home, we’re still getting work done and we’re still delivering outcomes while also keeping our mental health, engagement and, productivity in a healthy state.

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If you read this far (thank you), here’s how I can help you work towards forming or maintaining a fully remote team. I can also help in finding you a remote job.

Follow me on Twitter or follow my website to learn more about remote work, tech, psychology and coding.

Irma

Comments

[dozillo]

I think time is the most precious resource we have and being able to work from home greatly improves people's quality of life. Being able to work from home cuts out the daily commute and gives employees flexibility to work around their lives, rather than live around their work.

Great post. What tools so you use to manage projects remotely and common frustration do you and your team face?

[Irma Mesa]

Agreed! It's a great opportunity.

Tool for managing projects:

• Clickup, which is a project management tool. Myself and the Engineering team use this to track our priorities on user stories and technical tasks.
• Zoom and Slack for keeping aligned on those projects.

Common frustration:

• It's easy to get fall out of alignment when working remote. Lots of things get lost in translation and I've found that communications on Slack that require a lot of discussion sometimes don't result in any final decision. I've started to move bigger convos to a Zoom call.