Early Lessons in Remote Work

1. Access to Systems, Devices, and Offices: It wasn’t easy at first. Many companies helped their employees set up an in-home office.For the employee, it was a question of where will my office be located. That took time to figure out. Living and working in the same location was not a trend. Carving out a space in any room or even taking over the kitchen table at 8am and disassembling it by 5pm became a norm. We managed.
2. Staying Connected: There were more meetings to just check in. Virtual office hours became a norm, virtual team building was a focus, and watching for signs of burnout was on everyone’s mind.
3. Navigating In-Person, Hybrid, and Remote Work: We welcomed remote and hybrid work environments, but they brought new challenges: navigating online conference services, managing miscommunication, and watching motivation turn into frustration. But we moved forward.
4. Blurred Work-Life Boundaries: Before, we were looking for something we called balance. During this time, we were just looking for clarity of beginning and ending. Once a commute was for quiet time, wind up and down time, catching up on sleep, or making personal calls. When commute was now a mere few steps, all of that disappeared. Some physically gave themselves a commute. Even walking around the block or around the house was a ritual to give the mind a chance to separate. Others were unable to do so.
5. Adapting on the Fly: We can do anything for a short period of time. And we thought COVID was to be a short period of time. Weeks turned into months.

The result was that we figured it out.

Then came the reality: we could all go back to work. What did that even mean? We never left work, just the building.

What Still Works Today

Today, more than five years after our immersion into remote and hybrid work environments, we are still struggling. Today’s questions are a bit different from those of five years ago. Today we ask, What is it that I cannot do at home? What is the logic to return to the office?

Organizations answer for our culture, for our communication, and for our employee well-being. Employees are trying to see the reasoning behind organizational decisions about these things.

What we do know for sure is that some of the early lessons we learned still apply.

Here is what we know for sure works:

1. Setting Clear Expectations: The what, how, and when must be discussed. Deliverables are the new language of business, so make sure you are focused on the outcome and the stakeholders’ needs. Who needs what by when and how.
2. Ensuring Connectivity: Make sure you have access to all the systems you need to deliver the expected results on time, if not sooner.
3. Checking In Often: Check in, not only for deliverables, but for well-being. Check in on the office policies and procedures that are working and which are not. Offer suggestions for improvement.
4. Being Seen: Be willing to share your thoughts and opinions as well as to be seen. Not having a camera on or not speaking in a meeting are not behaviors of a savvy worker today. Name recognition is key to your success and for opportunities to flow your way. You might be very productive at home; however, what about that productivity added any value to what your organization does? Find a way to add value and then talk about it.
5. Giving and Receiving Feedback: Ask for and/or offer feedback often. This has not changed about human nature. How we go about giving it hasn’t changed either. We all need it, just like we all need to feel connected. How it gets satisfied deserves exploring.

The Bottom Line

What we know for sure is that people want to be good. To be good at what they do, they must know what is expected. People want to be recognized. To be recognized, people need to associate the outcomes with the person. People want to grow. To grow, we need feedback that can be actionable. People want to belong. This is a primal aspect of being human. If we want to satisfy this need, we need to look at what we are asking people to belong to.

Make that something you can’t get anywhere else, and people will want to work for you.

To learn more about what you can do, join me in my webinar, Strategies for High-Performing Teams in Hybrid or Virtual Work.