Being remote first requires a very different way of thinking about work. Porting office culture over to remote doesn’t just leads to a mediocre (or bad) experience. Yet, that’s what most companies try to do.
“Remote Work” doesn’t just mean you’re working from home, or outside the office. It’s the ability to decide both where and when you work. If you don’t have both, remote work loses a lot of its advantages, making for a poor experience. In other words, a “good” remote work experience requires one to be Async First.
Remote work means we’re not working in a copy of the same cubicle workstations, row after row after row. We’re working from different places, so we will all have different needs. Leaders should create an environment that is inclusive to these needs and preferences. This may mean different equipment needs, spaces, and ways of getting work done.
This will help us to attract and keep talented colleagues, as well as make sure that current colleagues can do their best work while living their best lives.
Leaders and colleagues should encourage others to try out different work spaces and environments. Colleagues should be given the opportunity to figure out where, when, and what works best for their productivity.
Be aware that this changes over time. Working from a coffee shop may be great for a few months, but there may come a time where renting a desk at a co-working space becomes better for you. Or, maybe you’d like to work from your kitchen for a while.
In the office, you could see someone was at their desk and working, even if they weren’t. With remote, you lose that visibility. Instead pestering people in chat, requesting synchronous meetings, or even spying on colleagues using “productivity software,” we should just trust that people are doing their work. It doesn’t matter how or when someone does something, all that matters are the results. Was it done well? Was it done on time?
To make remote work, we should be as asynchronous as possible. See Asynchronous Work Principles.
We’re looking for results, not how long you burned the midnight oil. In fact, the latter should be discouraged, rather than celebrated.
Results are not just “getting things done” or “showing I did work.” Results are the act of completing Progress-Driving Work. Those tend to be OKRs, but not necessarily.
So that colleagues know what’s going on, and what’s getting done, it’s important to publish your results in ‣ as they happen.
Documentation is another important aspect of remote work.
It affects our ability to bring on new colleagues.