Remote Work for Humans

I wanted my first blog post to be a little welcome blog that helps people orient to this space and what they will be seeing in future posts. I’m thrilled to be able to share what I’ve learned through my years of remote work! (For more about me click here)

What do I mean by remote work best practices?

When I say “remote work best practices” I am talking about the lessons that I have learned from reading up on companies that were remote well before the COVID-19 pandemic. There is so much material out there about how they operate, what has worked well, and what they have learned to avoid to run their remote companies successfully.

GitLab was a particular bright spot in this space as their whole operational handbook is online. They have also developed training and materials for those outside of their organization that emphasize best practices they have learned. I took their remote team management course through coursera and it was lovely.

I blend the lessons learned from remote companies with the research behind how humans can work well. Working well for me means that we are not just churning out work products and smashing deadlines (at all costs). For me, working well means being engaged with the work in a more meaningful way. It’s the ability to solve problems more creatively, learn and grow, and hold space for life outside of work. For me, that’s working like a human.

Who is this blog for?

This blog is for anybody that is dealing with overwhelm. That feeling of being overstimulated by pings from chats and emails (and then the chat is just telling you that you just got an email). People who saw an exponential rise in meetings when their company went remote but don’t understand why that happened or how to stop it. My goal is to help us to reduce the manufactured urgency that leads to these situations by helping people understand how to create work flows more in tune with working remote.

This blog is also for people that have looked at the remote work guidance and info out there but disengaged because it seemed geared towards tech start ups and that is just not their reality. This one is close to my heart because this was me. As much as I enjoyed the resources online and learning about best practices that other companies had learned, it was a bit hard to translate this to my public sector job. I could not just download the best software for the job and I wasn’t in a management position that could make major decisions about how our organization is run.

I’d love for this blog to be the resource that teaches they why behind the how of remote work best practices. I found that by understanding why I needed to make certain changes and why certain things work better in a remote work context, I could figure out how to get some of those changes going in my context even without being a top level manager or having access to the latest tech tools. Whether you are free to download the latest software or limited to outdated tech and free open source tools – I truly believe you can learn something from this blog.

What will this blog cover?

Remote work strategy (that why behind the how) the biggest chunks being:

• Communication
• Tech and Tools (but likely not in the way you think)

Books and Research

• Basically, things I’m reading that help me with my remote work strategy

Mindset

• Yeah, we growth mindset over here
• Boundaries
  • Not sure if this is mindset or remote work strategy but it’s SO important

What will this blog not cover?

This blog will not cover the physical aspects of remote work like how to set up your office space, best accessories/desk etc. I’m literally sitting in the worst ergonomic set up typing this, you definitely do not want this advice from me.

Ok, how much do I have to pay for this?

It’s a free blog. I think this information should be freely available those who seek it.

I am thinking about creating some sort of paid offer to work with me 1:1 (so we can really get into specifics about your particular context) so…watch this space.

How often will you post?

I will aim to post once weekly (though I anticipate this could get a bit wonky for the first couple of months while I find my blogging groove). If you want to be sure that you don’t miss a post, subscribe below.