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Emergency Guide to Remote Work

COVID-19 is making your work from home? Make the most of it!

Sara Vilas | www.saravilas.com

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Table of Contents

0. Why it’s crucial to stay at home these days

1. Remote working myths

2. The tools and software you need

3. Change management

4. In short

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0. Why it’s crucial to stay at home these days

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Why it’s crucial to stay at home these days

This image says it all:

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No, it’s not just like the seasonal flu. The WHO (World Health Organization) has confirmed Coronavirus an pandemic.

Actually, in this video we can see how Connor Reed explains his experience with COVID-19. He was living in Wuhan, and it all started as a flu. When he was getting better, it suddenly transformed into pneumonia. He’d never had lung problems, so when he woke up unable to breathe properly; he got really scared. He also felt pressure around his eyes and nose (sinusitis symptoms). He ran to the hospital where he was treated.

That’s where the main problem lies: collapsing the healthcare systems.

Pneumonia is quite a serious. You can’t just rest it out, taking just some paracetamol; it requires medical assistance. Even though the mortality rates are rising, it’s still quite low, of course. Most of us have strong immune systems that can fight the virus and get rid of it relatively quickly and on our own. However, it’s a big problem if it gets to the pneumonia stage, especially

for those with a weaker immune system or those with respiratory problems.

If we all get pneumonia and we all need special medical care, the system will collapse. This is what already has happened both in China and Italy. When there are not enough medical facilities, doctors and nurses available, more people die.

It’s super important to take responsibility: keep social distance, wash your hands frequently, cancel all social activities for a while (like going out to parties or to the movies) and stay at home as much as possible. In many countries, this is no longer an option, police are in the streets asking where we’re going, and supermarkets only allow a certain number of people in at a time.

It’s not the end of the world, though. This is not The Walking Dead. We’re not all going to die. But we need to protect those in need, and allow the healthcare system to do their job by not contributing to spread the virus.

By the way, did you know that black seed oil and propolis are great for strengthening the immune system?

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1. Remote working myths

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Remote working myths1

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Let’s get into what brings you here, though! Remote work, distributed workforce, location independence, working from home, virtual working… You name it!

For all of us that already do most of our work through a computer, working from home is ideal to avoid the infamous virus.

Maybe your company has forced you to work from home. Maybe you run the company and decided that this is a necessity at the moment. Most likely, you’re not used to working remotely and it could be that you share some of the false ideas we all have heard about remote work.

So let’s start by busting the myths!

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There are just so many distractions at home! “I have to do some laundry.” “I should watch the last episode of this Netflix series.” “I’ll just have a short nap…” All of a sudden, the whole day is over and you haven’t done a thing.

Yeah, I know that feeling. It happens sometimes.

However, it also happens sometimes that it takes you one whole hour (or more!) to get into the office every single day. And when you start focusing, someone comes to ask you something. And then someone else. And then everyone sings “happy birthday” because it’s Jason’s birthday.

Distractions are everywhere, not just at home. That’s the truth. It’s on you to be productive and deliver what you have to.

Here are some tips from the ones who work remotely on a daily basis:

Make your workspace sacred. Think about your desk as an office where you should, and have to, take work seriously. It’s your space for focusing and getting shit done.

Get rid of as many distractions as you can. If you can, put your phone on silent mode. Deactivate Whatsapp notifications. Try not to look at your email every 15 minutes. Switch off the TV.

Establish some boundaries. Many of us struggle with this. Since we don’t have to commute, we try to overcompensate, and we also tend to lose track of time. Try to avoid this. Work your regular office hours, and then close the laptop.

Myth 1:Working from home is not productive

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What am I going to do at home all day? How am I going to work without my colleagues around? So boring!

Being at home doesn’t have to equal loneliness or isolation. You can chat or talk over the phone with your colleagues while you all take a remote coffee together. You can do a group video call and make some fun of this weird situation we’re all in.

It is going to be hard, but we need to focus on the positive side: at last, time to finish that unfinishable project! Finally, some time to focus on the important things. Enjoy listening to any music you like while working - as loud as you want and even sing along!

And my favorite: finally, some time to have a proper breakfast without rushing to take the bus/train/car and waste half of our lives commuting.

We’re now talking about temporary remote work, just to avoid spreading the virus. However, those who do this all year round actually benefit from some other cool things, too. We can travel while we work (digital nomads). And if we need some social contact, we can use this app to find the best coffee shops to work from; or we can sign up for a coworking space to not miss the office at all.

Myth 2:Working from home is boring

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This is definitely my least favorite one.

I’ve heard it quite a few times and I understand where it comes from. When we think about super successful businesses, we know they don’t do everything from their kitchen counter. They have an office where they spend many hours a day and spend a lot of time traveling to meet clients.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. We’re now in the XXI century, in the Information Era. Most of the office jobs are already done through a computer and internet. Most medium and large companies have multiple office that are, essentially, collaborating remotely.

What’s the difference then? How is that so different from each one individually deciding where they want to work from?

Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re thinking that at least they’re in groups where they can get to collaborate and solve problems together. If everyone is in a different place, that won’t happen.

You’re not that far off. Some companies like IBM, Yahoo, HP, Reddit, and Best Buy have all banned their employees from working remotely since 2013. At IBM, almost 40% of its workforce was fully remote! It obviously doesn’t work then.

Well, wait a second. We need to look at it in a bit more detail.

Right now, about 56% of companies are hiring remotely. Remotive.io already has over 2,500 companies listed. From those, quite a few have more than hundreds and even thousands of employees. Not just small companies choose this way of working. In fact, some of them are actually disrupting their

Myth 3:Nothing important can be done remotely

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sector and gaining more and more market share. Here some examples:

Companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees○ Salesforce, the global CRM leader○ Dell, is there anyone that doesn’t know them? ○ Zoom, the biggest Skype competitor○ Spotify, anyone not using it yet? ○ Shopify, global leader in e-commerce software○ Pivotal Labs now VMWare Tanzu, software agency.

Because of the nature of these businesses, many are actually working remotely.

○ Atlassian, the creators of Jira and Confluence○ Udacity, online tech education○ Toptal, global leader offering the top 3% talent

(design, development, project/product management, and finance)

Between 500 and 1,000 employees○ Etsy, Amazon or Ebay for handmade products○ Auttomatic, creators of Wordpress and owners of

Tumblr○ Meetup, to organize local events

○ SurveyMonkey, if you’ve ever needed to create a form, you’ve at least considered SurveyMonkey

○ PETA Foundation, defending animal rights○ Gitlab, very popular tool for development○ Invision, very popular tool for prototyping

Between 200 and 500 employees○ SoundCloud, audio distribution, specially for

alternative music○ Transferwise, to easily transfer money to other

countries and currencies○ Yammer, internal social network for businesses

(bought by Microsoft)○ Wikimedia, creators of Wikipedia○ O’Reilly Media, education and books○ Intercom, the ubiquitous bottom right chat bubble○ Github, another great tool for development○ UserTesting, to get user feedback that allows us to

iterate on and improve websites and apps○ Grammarly, for perfect grammar○ Stripe, the online payments industry leader which

powers most online payments out there

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Menos de 200 empleados○ Doist, creators of the popular Todoist app to

create and complete to-do lists and be ultra productive

○ Airtable, competitors of… Excel! ○ Blinkist, read non-fiction in 15 min. They read the

whole book for you and summarize the key findings, sharing them in both text and audio

○ Dribbble, social network for designers○ Trello, a very popular tool to drive small projects

(personal and professional)○ Skillshare, education too, this time with courses

created by experts in many different areas○ Buffer, to schedule and publish in social networks○ Sketch, already more popular than Adobe for web

design○ TED, who hasn’t watched a TED talk yet?○ Pocket, save articles and links to read later○ Zapier, thousands of integrations without any

coding ○ Figma, the latest competitor of Adobe and also

Sketch

Can we then agree that important things can actually be done remotely? If it wasn’t possible, these companies wouldn’t be growing and achieving great things.

Blaming lack of collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving on remote work is quite lazy. The truth is, that we’re lacking training and information about how to lead fully remote and blended (partly remote, partly not) teams. It’s currently really common to see leaders treating differently those sitting next to them from those who’re on the other side of the country. And even though it’s quite natural and human, this is what eventually leads to that isolation, lack of collaboration, and disengagement.

We’ll dive deeper into how to avoid this.

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2. The tools and software you need

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The tools and software you need2

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Sometimes we think that because everyone is online, we may need some super software or tools. That’s not the case, though.

Well, needless to say, every employee needs a laptop or maybe the possibility to take home the office computer. Although that may vary job to job, since some can easily be done with just a tablet, other will need a phone which surely they already have.

We shouldn’t underestimate the need for a good internet connection. Most people have WiFi at home or at least internet on their phones. Keep an eye on telecom providers in your country. In Spain, for example, several providers are adding 30 GB for free to all customers to enable working from home without any additional expense.

Software-wise, let’s keep it simple, you only need three things.

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○ A tool to chat like Slack (don’t use Telegram or Whatsapp, please!)

○ A tool for calls (audio and video). My personal favorite is Zoom.

○ A tool for document collaboration. Google Drive and Google Docs are the ideal choice.

And, of course, ensure accessibility to any internal software like wikis, intranets, and so on, from outside the office.

What is it?

If you don’t already have an internal chat, this one is the best. It’s available for web (in the browser) and app for laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

How much is it?

They have a very good free tier.

How to use it?

You can create your own Slack workspace and invite everyone to join with an email invitation. You can then create channels (like groups) for different areas or projects. You can also chat 1-1 with any member.

Why use it?

Because it’s essential for people to be able to communicate at any moment, beyond chaotic email back and forth.

Any limitation I should be aware of?

It won’t fully replace email; you’ll still use your email to communicate with outside providers and clients.

Personal recommendations

Please do not use Whatsapp, Telegram, or similar tools to communicate with employees. Those are tools for personal use.

I also highly recommend taking some time to properly fill out the Slack profile (picture, name) to identify each other.

To chat: Slack

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What is it?

A modern Skype. Easier to use and much more stable in its free version, especially for group calls!

How much is it?

It has a free tier that’s really good. The only restriction is 40 min for group calls.

How to use it?

You register and create an event (link) for a call. You share that link with anyone invited and done! Up to 100 people can join in the free version.

Why use it?

Because both Skype and Google Hangouts are not very reliable, and because other corporate tools are too expensive. Also, because its ease of use.

Personal recommendation

Keep the microphone on mute if you’re not talking to

not generate background noise. Try to also use the camera as much as possible, it makes it much more personal than just an audio call.

For calls (video and audio): Zoom

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What is it?

It’s pretty much Word, but online. And much better. You can work online with anyone at the same time. That makes collaboration much easier and smoother.

How much is it? Free with any Gmail or G Suite (Gmail for business) - in which case the price is $6 per user per month.

How to use it?

Just create a new document in your Google Drive. It looks and works pretty much the same way as Word. You can share it with the button on the top right, so someone can edit it too, or just so they can view it. You can also restore older versions (don’t ever lose a document because Word crashes!). You can also set it up so you can use it offline.

Why use it?

Because collaboration is always key and the ability to access and write in the same document at the same

time is now possible. Much easier than sending documents back and forth and not knowing which one is the latest version. Plus, you can restore previous versions.

Any limitations I should be aware of?

It might be that some super-advanced Word features are not available on Google Docs yet.

Personal recommendation

Even if you don’t need it for work, please give it a try. I can’t live without it!

For document collaboration: Google Docs

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3. Change management

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Change management3

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Going remote is a bit scary, and not easy at all. It might seem like it’s just about getting things done online, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong.

The first step towards a good remote environment is to try to break the myths that I talked about at the beginning of this guide.

It’s also super important to be aware of the usual issues that working from home can create, such as feeling isolated from potential lack of collaboration and miscommunications.

We also need to take into consideration that for most people right now, this is just a temporary situation. Making remote work as close to an in-office experience is ideal to keeping a sense of normality. Of course, acting humane is important too: setting aside time for rest or caregiving during this stressful period.

We should also take into consideration three essential areas that need special attention:

○ Transparency○ Communication ○ Trust

Let’s dive in.

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When working remotely, transparency is key to fostering a collaborative environment. Essentially, transparency comes down to being clear and prompt in communication. Here’s how it can be achieved:

1. KEEP EMPLOYEES INFORMED OF OFFICIAL, CORPORATE-WIDE CHANGESNeedless to say, the situation we’re in is new and scary for everyone. There’s a high level of uncertainty in our personal and professional life. It’s essential to keep employees informed of any changes, so to not add additional stress and confusion. Consider these areas: ○ What communication channel are we going to

use? For official, important messages, make sure you use only one channel. This way people can easily check-in and access all information. This might be an email or a specific channel in Slack.

○ Who will communicate these things? Besides sticking to one channel, it’s even better to ensure just one person or department delivers the information. This will make it easier for everyone to understand who to ask any additional questions.

○ Additional recommendation: if this is your first time going fully remote, it would be helpful to have one unique point of contact for remote working. Assign someone from the company, or hire experts to help you out. There will be a lot of questions about what’s the best set up, how to keep yourself engaged at home, how to not feel isolated, etc. Having one person assigned to assist on this topic will help keep everyone else focused on their own tasks.

2. CLEAR EXPECTATIONS. Expectations need to be clearer than ever. If you’re a manager, please take some extra time for this. If you’re not, ask your manager to clarify!○ What’s the expected availability? The easiest is to

maintain your usual working hours. It might seem obvious, but when working remotely, we tend to work longer and harder to overcompensate. Don’t fall into this trap! Make sure your - and your team's - availability expectations are clear. Even in confinement, you

Transparency

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need time to rest. It’s good to mention that 100% of remote companies usually allow employees to work asynchronously (everyone chooses their own schedule), but this adds a level of complexity that might be too much for companies that are new to working remotely. In this case, keeping things as similar as possible to our normal days is the easiest and best choice.

○ Is there a clear sick day policy? This special pandemic situation requires a special HR policy, too. How should you communicate you are showing symptoms of COVID-19? What about caregiving to our loved ones? Who can take over our tasks if this happens? The policy should protect all employees, as well as the company, during this stressful time.

○ How are we going to communicate with each other? It’s highly important to plan this out. Again, it might seem like an obvious one, but trust me, there are a lot of tools out there, and if there are no rules, every team will be using a different software. If you’re choosing Slack, keep in mind that it can contribute to information overload when everyone is posting messages there. Make sure

that there are specific team or project channels to group conversations. Also think about routine meetings. Which ones are going to still happen online? Keep it to a minimum, taking into consideration that network issues are very likely to happen when literally everyone is at home using internet connections. Keep the most important ones (like a weekly or daily call) to make sure the team is still communicating openly.

3. DEMAND TRANSPARENCY.When sitting at an office, it’s really easy to turn around and ask about the latest priorities. However, when working remotely, this is just a tiny bit more difficult. As employees, we want to know we’re focusing on the right things. As managers, we want to make sure things are getting done. Let’s make sure expectations are super clear at all times:○ What are this week’s or month’s goals? If you don’t

currently track this online, this is a great time to start doing so! It can be as simple as creating a Google Doc or creating a Slack channel just for goals. Make sure everyone knows where to find this information.

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○ Any changes in priorities? Communicate it. Keep that source of truth updated and, if relevant, ping those involved in the tasks. If you’re using Slack, you can simply use the @channel tag in the project’s channel. The risk of not communicating priority changes is too high: a chaotic environment where everyone is moving in a different direction.

○ Feedback, feedback, feedback. Feeling isolated when working remotely is closely related to not hearing anything back about our own work. When we’re in an office, it is easy to just smile or nod; but when working online, we need some explicit (oftentimes written) feedback about our work. If you’re a team member, don’t be afraid to ask your manager or colleagues for it.

Transparency helps optimize remote communication. But we should also take into consideration a couple more things.

1. Don’t be afraid of writing. Think about writing as talking… with your fingers. Don’t try to overthink it or make it too formal. Just write like you talk. This makes communication more natural, contributing to building trust and relationships online.

2. Use emojis and gifs. This makes it even more natural. It adds a bit of fun and lightness to communication that might feel too serious or even artificial otherwise.

3. Be careful. It’s great to make things more natural, but we need to be careful, too. The lack of body language can easily transform into misunderstandings. Try to avoid issues by thinking ahead if a message might be misunderstood (an ironic comment, for instance). Add an emoji, or communicate it in a different way.

Communication

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Building a trusting and supportive environment remotely can be a bit tricky. But it’s just as essential as it is in a regular office. Here are some things to help create it:

1. Be explicit with the positive feedback. I’ve already mentioned the importance of feedback. However, negative feedback tends to come more naturally than positive. It’s easy to say what we don’t like about something, or how it could be better. Positive feedback is just as important to keep people motivated, but it’s a bit harder to communicate remotely, it needs some extra effort. Make it explicit with some comments like, “I totally agree with Susan” or “I love this 👍”.

2. An extra writing effort. Also mentioned in communication, but still highly relevant to build a trusting environment, too. Writing doesn’t come as easy or natural for everyone, but in remote settings, it’s a non-negotiable. It just needs extra effort. Don’t say just “yes” or “no” if you wouldn’t in person. It can feel very distant and cold.

Trust

3. Practice empathy. Not everyone will view this situation the same way. Not everyone loves staying at home. Even worse: some will be affected by this virus by either getting sick or by losing their job. Or this might be the case of their loved ones. Let’s be aware of the differences and try to support each other through these crazy times. Give people time, offer help if you can, be available for them to talk to you. Let’s be human above everything else.

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4. In short

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Bust remote work myths.It doesn’t have to be boring, less productive, or just for the tedious tasks. We’re already working online most of our time, anyway.

Think about the tools you need. You need a computer, an internet connection, and some software. My recommendations are Slack (chat), Zoom (calls), and Google Docs (document collaboration).

Take change management seriously.

This won’t be easy. We’re in a very tricky time and working remotely is not about just working online. Avoid the usual pitfalls like miscommunication, lack of collaboration, or feelings of isolation by taking into consideration the following:

Transparency○ Stick to one channel for corporate-wide

communications to prevent messages from getting lost.

○ Assign one person to be the point of contact for remote-related topics (how to use the tools, how to avoid isolation, etc.)

○ Be extra clear with expectations: what is the availability expectation? How are we going to communicate with each other? What’s the company policy regarding Coronavirus?

○ Transparency is also key in day-to-day operations: what are this week’s goals? How do we keep them up to date? Are you giving and receiving clear feedback?

Communication: ○ Write like you talk to make communication more

natural. Use emojis and gifs when relevant. ○ Be careful with the use of irony and any possible

misunderstandings. Write like you talk, but think before hitting the “send” button to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

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Build an environment of trust online○ Be more explicit than ever with positive feedback ○ Practice empathy, everyone will have a different

view of this chaotic situation. Some might be personally affected by it.

And please, stay at home. Do your groceries online, if possible. Communicate more with your loved ones through Whatsapp, WeChat, FaceTime, or anything else that you already use daily. Get into video calls with them.

Play video games. Do some arts and crafts. Play music. Sing. Dance. Read the books you haven’t read yet.

Try to enjoy these days as much as you possibly can. We’re all in this together. 🌈

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Stay strong!

Sara Vilas | www.saravilas.com

My special thank you to Diana Glozman for copy editing and providing great ideas!