Six months ago, I started as a Senior Front-End Developer for Helix Education. Most of what I do now is identical to what I did for my past employer–making websites, writing code, collaborating with writers and designers, and all while navigating the choppy waters of higher education.
The only difference is that now I’m working remotely. In fact, I’m not even in the same time zone as most of my coworkers.
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into my first remote job. I did a lot of research before taking the plunge. Ultimately, though, I wasn’t sure if it would be as glamorous as others made it out to be, or if I would find it counterproductive to working, learning, and performing to the best of my abilities.
As it turns out, it’s a mixed bag. A lot of positives… and some negatives. If you’re a remote employee (or considering a remote job), here are my top ten tips that I’ve gleaned in the last six months.
1. Be as available as possible
This is probably the best piece of advice I received from a friend prior to starting my new job. Things move quickly back at the home office, and since you’re not there, there’s a built-in delay for someone wishing to communicate with you.
If it always takes hours for someone to get your ear for just a minute, you’ll build a reputation as someone who’s “never around”–even if only subconsciously–among your coworkers.
As a remote employee, you have to work harder at being available to avoid the impression that you’re never available.
Strive to build a reputation as someone who is quick to respond. Be eager to hear the latest developments on projects so that you’re never out of sync with everyone else in your office.
Sometimes there are time zones that separate you. I’m two hours ahead of the rest of my team. If it’s not possible to align your working hours with those of your team, make sure there’s a clear expectation for when you will be at your desk, and be there. Use your alone hour(s) to be as productive as you can be so that you can spend time communicating with others later. Speaking of communication…
2. Communicate clearly
You may find a majority of your communication happens over chat, Slack, HipChat, text messages, (GitHub commit messages?) and the like as opposed to face-to-face conversation. With non-verbals and facial expressions removed from the equation, miscommunication is just waiting to happen.
Until your coworkers get a chance to really know you, avoid sarcasm to prevent misunderstandings. Read what you write before you hit “Send” to make sure it can’t be easily misread in a different mood or tone of voice.
When talking via video conference, exercise brevity and conciseness with your words. The occasional “glitch” in the video can cause words to get cut off and can leave people confused or asking for clarification. Also, smile. It improves your face value.
3. Go out of your way to be human
Spend time getting to know your coworkers–especially if you’re coming into a new job with new people you’ve never met before. Don’t make every conversation just about work.
Ask your coworkers how they’re doing, what the weather is like, or what the mood in the office is like lately (without being too nosey). You won’t be around the office to hear the banter and water cooler conversations.
Unless you make a concerted effort to be a part of what’s going on, your coworkers’ birthdays will come and go, people will leave the company, important announcements will be made… and you’ll miss it all.
4. Offer praise and positive sentiments early and often
You will also need to go out of your way to foster a sense of teamwork. You won’t be around to share the little daily “wins” with the rest of the team, but having positive relationships with your coworkers is essential to being able to do your job well.
Some of your coworkers may not communicate with you very often; in those cases make sure what little they do hear from you is positive and optimistic. This all goes back to the fact that you need to work actively to shape others’ impressions of yourself. And no one like a Negative Nellie.
5. Create a comfortable space conducive to productivity
The idea of being able to work from your favorite coffee shop everyday is tempting to wannabe remote employees… but it’s also extremely impractical. I am three times as productive when I’m sitting at my normal desk at home (which incidentally lets me work on three times as many screens–laptop + 2 external). Get out every now and then for a change of scenery if it’s needed, but ultimately you’ll work best if you shun the nomadic life.
Also, don’t work out of your bedroom. You absolutely need to separate your work and personal lives (and taking a nap on your bed is just too tempting). If possible, have a dedicated space in your home where you can be productive, work undisturbed (especially important if you have kids… or an attention-starved kitten like I do), and leave at the end of the work day.
To keep from being too sedentary, I recommend getting an adjustable sitting/standing desk. I’ve also invested in a ball chair which helps me burn more calories, have better posture, and just keeps things more interesting overall.
6. Put your pants on
Another good piece of advice from another friend who has worked remotely for a long time (bonus tip: you can learn a lot by asking people their advice) is to get completely ready in the morning. Make your bed. Fix your hair. Get dressed (completely–yes, that means pants). Just because they might only see your face via video chat doesn’t mean you should get that comfortable.
You might consider holding yourself to the same dress standards as the others in the office—you don’t want to be known as “that guy who works in his pajamas all day.” Putting yourself together at the start of the day will put you in a productive mood and help you fight lazy tendencies from the get-go.
7. Go outside
Even if you enjoy the solitary life (I include myself here), resist the inevitable tendency to become a hermit. I realized there were some days I didn’t even go outside the house–not even once.
Go check your mail (I mean the physical mailbox… outside). Walk around the block on your lunch hour. And on the weekends, try to do something away from home, even if it’s running errands.
A quick, brisk walk and some sunshine will do wonders for your productivity, boost your mental health, and maybe get the creative juices flowing again when you’ve hit a wall.
On a related note, when you’re done working, leave work (and don’t come back if you can help it). It’s harder to “leave work at work” when “work” is just in the other room. But try not to return to your desk. At the end of the day, make a list of things you want to accomplish tomorrow, and then wait until tomorrow to do it. This is another reason why it’s ideal to have a dedicated space in your home just for your “office.”
8. Turn on your camera
You can’t foster the right kinds of relationships if you seclude yourself and only ever talk over the phone. People need to see your face to connect with you. A friend told me once that he can never get one of his remote employees to turn on his webcam for their team meetings. As a result, he has very little insight into this guy’s life.
9. Work on more than one project at a time
You read that right. It might sound counter-intuitive to “burn the candle from both ends,” so to speak, but when you work remotely, you can’t always get someone’s attention right away when you need a roadblock cleared. Always have something else you can work on while you’re waiting for a response from a teammate.
Communication is almost always slower when you’re remote—be forewarned and plan your work accordingly.
10. Take advantage of the perks… and be responsible
I won’t lie–there are a lot of perks to working from home. This isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. You’re saving time and money in ways that your commuting coworkers aren’t. So, don’t flaunt it (no one likes working with that person).
Use your extra time to your benefit and that of your company and coworkers. Since you don’t have to fight traffic for an hour every morning, you could choose to get that extra sleep if you need it–but then show up and work hard when you’re at your desk. You could also choose to use at least part of that time reading, listening to podcasts, or learning a new skill.
In conclusion…
Working remotely is a privilege. It isn’t always ideal, but it can be incredibly rewarding. Know the potential pitfalls and make a concerted effort to compensate for them. You will be more productive, have better relationships with your coworkers, and make your employer look great.
Back to work.
And for goodness sakes, put your pants on.
Thanks for reading! What are your best remote working tips? Leave a comment or follow me on Twitter at @peteranglea and start a conversation.
Latest comments (65)
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Lessons learned from a year working as a Remote worker
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In my experience over the past 4 years of remote work, the "list of tips to help with remote work" should just be the "list of tips to help with
remotework". If everyone not remote on the team followed the same tips then it makes the remote work a lot more productive and beneficial. Great article.I switched to working remotely 8 months back for the same company for which I used to work from their office. Can't agree more to all the points. I wish I came across this article 8 months back. I've setup my office at home. Working everyday from home got boring. Occasionally going out and working from a co-working space has been very refreshing.
Great article! Unfortunately I just found it now, and couldn't read ALL the comments, but there's a point I haven't see: schedule regular 1:1 meetings with everyone (or almost) in the team, just to get to know each other. Like, personally!
Obviously some work/tech stuff should come up, but try not to talk only about them. This works greatly towards team building. It's invaluable to me.
Old thread so hopefully I'm not too late to the party...
Slack and HipChat get a lot of attention. Is the call quality better than Skype?
Our main tools for the past 7 years have been Skype for real-time communication, JIRA for questions/discussions/task management/feature requests/bug reporting, Confluence for documents, and SVN for source control.
I'm based in the Tokyo office. We also have a Toronto office and dev partners in India. It's definitely been a challenge and, in my own experience, I would say there is no upside to it at all.
I totally agree, about the pants as well. In my job, I work remotely around 6 days every 15 of work in the office, so it doesn't apply 100%. But when I do, it's sometimes difficult to be always available or separating time for yourself (so many people pinging you or wanting something immediately). So I try for some time (i.e. for preparing lunch) to be with some away status that people can recognize. And I totally agree in going out from home, it helps, although sometimes in winter you just don't really want to.
The last paragraph in 5 is lazyness with extra steps, just go to the gym people... or get out to do some running, or meet with friends to play soccer, or any other sport.
Great article. I agree 100%.
Ah, and one more team. Trust your team. Without them earning it first. You want to be trusted from the very start, right?
The funny thing regarding no. 6 - I feel that a lot of people see us - remoties unkempt, disheveled and wearing pajamas. Oh, so not true ;)
And if it's true, you'll go insane soon so please, put your pants on ;)
I worked remotely for 3 years and it took me some time to shape right habits. It's important to keep yourself in check not to become a total hermit. And building relationship with a remote team is much more challenging. But it's great when you get it right.
Also, work when you're most productive since you probably can (though I once interviewed for the remote job when they required me to still work more or less 9-5) ;) And travel if you want. And can. (I did. And I recommend.)
I just started working remotely for this very website and I find all of this invaluable.
I am really introverted and really socially awkward, so turning on my webcam is something I try not to do. I know this is bad practice and will surely rectify it, as the dev.to team are great people.
Small talk is super hard for me. I am not the best communicator when I just meet a team. But your tips here are a lifesaver for someone as awkward as I am.
Thanks and cheers.
My first remote job was with a startup where the team members were all over the map. We had lots of difference in our timezone and couldn't communicate unless some of us sacrifice their sleeping time to join a meeting or collaborate on a lunch of a product. It was very nice to work with them but I couldn't keep it for a long time, because of the chaos.
The current company is better in their timezone and management. We have like a range of 6 timezone (like from 1 to 6) and we have our 4 hours intersection where all the team can meet and discuss stuff. It is alright for me to wake up earlier then the rest of my family but it is manageable and perfect for me to say the least.
The problem that you a remote employee can face, is when the company or his client doesn't have an idea or experience with remote working. That would be a problem for both sides and one of them will sacrifice something to keep things going.
But for most cases, if the employee prepare himself to work remotely by reading others experiences and discipline himself to be more comfortable with it. Lots of problems can be avoided.
Thank for your post, I will start my remote job next month and this really useful. Just a question, do you think the remote worker needs the higher standard than the office worker? e.g., more experience, more senior...
One thing that I will NEVER do is wear pants!
This is the most "human" article covering this subject I have ever seen.
Hooray Peter, this is Such a great read full of insights, is there some kind of advice you would give to a remote job seeker and where to start
Nice man. Thanks to my hermano Skatox (Miguel Useche) I got your article. Nice read. I am working since this year from "the road", but based in Amsterdam... I got a team of 9 people around the globe, so I know what you mean, with waking up and getting ready and not being the guy looking like coming out of the bed. If it´s morning here I call in Tokyo, to catch my copywriter (martinahollweck.com - just amazing person) and if its midday, Mariela wakes up in Argentinia... inbetween I do a lot of short videos through skype, not video calls - real videos. To make jokes or to tell them a story from my honeymoon trip (alealife.tumblr.com) - the most important is COMMUNICATION.
That is why I give each Friday a story via Video for 5 minutes about my world trip (bike4peace.eu)
What I like in your article is the fact, that you describe a daily workflow and I agree with you... there are benefits and there are also things, that are really different from an office day.
But I am honest, I am deep inside a very free and creative person and no office and no management ever could give me the space to work, like I wanted to work. So I keep going and if you want to connect, please add me on Facbeook: Alexandros Tsachouridis Mondon
Peace and all the best from Amsterdam and thanks for your energy and the time to write this article. Very nice from your, dear Peter.
Peace
Alexandros