I’ve been a full-time remote employee for more than five years now. There are lots of benefits to working from home, but it’s also easy to lose transparency or negatively impact the productivity of your team. Today I’m sharing my best tips for being successful as a remote team.
1. Be Visible
The most important thing you can do while working remotely is to be visible! Don’t make your team wonder if you’re showing up or question your contribution. In my opinion, the single best way to do this is to favor open channels of communication over private ones.
If you have a question, and you know who you want to ask, it’s easy to direct message them and have a private conversation. However, you could also ask that person in a team channel so that everybody can see. Having these conversations “in the open” is great for team engagement and knowledge-sharing. It can also lead to you getting your question answered sooner–for example, if the person you’re asking is away but there’s someone else who can answer. Before you direct message someone, think about what you’re asking. Is it something that needs to be private? If it’s not, consider asking in a more-public way that will benefit everyone!
Slack is my preferred “open channel” for these sorts of things, but you could just as easily use Teams or even Discord. It helps me keep track of what my team is doing, and it also gives me an opportunity to jump in on a conversation when I have additional context. It also helps with socialization so I don’t feel isolated, and the mix of work-related and non-work-related conversations help to build and strengthen relationships.
If your team doesn’t do formal daily standups, implementing “virtual standups”–as an individual or a team–can be another good way to keep your contributions visible. At the beginning or end of your day, send a summary of the things you accomplished, what you plan to tackle next, and highlight any roadblocks that are getting in your way.
2. Use a Webcam
Webcams are one of those things that everybody says is a good idea for working remotely but that nobody likes using. It’s easy to be self-conscious, and it can definitely be awkward to be on a call where you’re the only one on camera. I try really hard to embrace the cam, though, because the benefits are so important.
One great benefit is that it opens up a whole world of nonverbal communication. You can see when another participant is shaking their head, making a confused face, or raising their hand to get a word in. These cues make meetings more productive by providing feedback about the pace of content and helping to moderate the discussion. You can also see when somebody is talking while muted–because everybody stays muted when not speaking, right? (More on that in a minute.)
The thing I like most about webcams is that keeps me honest about paying attention. It’s hard not to get distracted by laptops and cell phones in regular, in-person meetings when everybody can see you, and it’s even harder when you’re sitting at your computer with all its alerts and notifications plus your phone’s right there and nobody can tell what you’re doing! Being on camera helps me resist the temptation to multi-task, and it turns out meetings are more productive when everybody’s engaged. Who knew?
3. Mute Your Mic
This one’s more about being courteous than productive, but as a remote team member you’ll likely find yourself on a lot of conference calls. Stay muted by default so people don’t have to listen to things like you munching on potato chips, your dog barking, or you yelling at your kids. I prefer to use a headset that has a hardware mute button on it so I can quickly mute & unmute when I have something to say. It’s a small thing, but it can be annoying to have “that person” on a call. Don’t wait to get shame-muted by someone else!
4. Keep Normal Hours
Keeping normal hours while working from home is an important anti-productivity preventative measure. Similar to the webcam, part of the benefit is just that it keeps you honest about your day and helps you resist all the temptations from things you’d rather be doing. More importantly, though, keeping sporadic hours poses a big threat to the team’s productivity, especially when there are multiple people doing it. It’s incredibly frustrating when there’s one person who has the answers you need, but nobody knows where they’re at or when they’ll re-surface, and it’s easy to lose a day when “the early person” needs something from “the late person” and the two don’t connect.
Be honest with yourself about how you should be spending your time, and hold yourself accountable. Have a predictable schedule so teammates know when you’ll be available, and say something if you do need to be a way for a bit. Be visible!
5. Virtual Office
The concept of a virtual office, or persistent team call, is something that’s becoming more prevalent at my work. One of our teams has a recurring all-day meeting, and people just join it throughout the day. Usually someone shares their screen regardless of whether others are actively working on the same thing or not. It’s great for socialization and relationship-building, and it also drives engagement through knowledge-sharing and collaboration.
Another team uses Slack to create open calls when they’re working on things. I love Slack calls for this because you can set a title or topic that’s visible in the channel allowing people to pop in & out. Slack calls are also great because they give the ability to draw on a screenshare. It’s fun for doodles but also great when you need to say, “Right HERE!”
6. Have Fun!
Fun’s important for in-office and remote workers, but it can be harder to find the fun when you’re on an island. You can’t walk around and look for a conversation, and you can only see what others choose to make visible. So, how can you keep it fun?
Slack is a great way to spread some fun with its emojis, reactions, and gifs (used sparingly!). It’s easy to share a joke or tell a funny story about your kid that’s melting down upstairs.
My team used to use Skype’s whiteboard feature to make the most ridiculous drawings before our daily standup. Somebody would make something, and everybody else would just keep adding. It was a good way to flex creativity and almost always made us laugh.
Webcams can also be good fun. We have a few people that use green screens to replace their backgrounds or apps like FaceRig to replace themselves with avatars. Even just holding up a hand-written note at the right time can be hilarious.
What are some things you do to keep it fun while working remotely? And what other tips do you have for being a successful remote worker? I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences!
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