Lessons from 1 year remote work
638,3 kilometre distance - my hometown Aachen and my team in Berlin
A whole year of working remotely at Laika gave me many insights into what it means to work far away from “your office”. Simply put, you can work from anywhere in the whole world. The idea of sitting by the pool with your laptop or at your desk with a view of the sea makes the hype around the "remote office" working model very attractive for all digital nomads. To travel even more and earn my money in this way was also a tempting possibility for me. Nowadays and all quite natural, the internet connection in Thailand, Peru or Mexico allows virtual meetings to be held without boundaries, customers to be advised digitally, research to be done and always being available (while adapting to the time zone of course).
However, at the moment I am sitting at my desk in Aachen and no, I am not sipping from a freshly picked coconut from the tree. The best thing about it? Right now I wouldn't like to be in any other place than here. As we all know, remote work brings various myths along with it. Not only about fresh coconuts. I will share some of them with you and give you tips on how to handle hurdles along the way:
Home office or remote work is not the silver bullet for productivity
If you are used to the usual office routine - a home office day can be close to magical. No colleagues catch you on the fly and you may be able to focus more. But at home you also feel more alone with your tasks. There are no thought-provoking impulses that your dear colleagues can give you directly when they notice that you are sighing loud again (thanks to the Laika's swarm intelligence, we support each other in THAT moment). There are simply different sources of distraction at home: A neighbour listens to music loudly or the facility manager is mowing the lawn outside. It is all about yourself finding tools and disciplines that help you focus.
My tip: The nice thing about working remotely is that you can literally work from anywhere. That's why, in addition to my home office, I used a coworking space to work from once or twice a week (for example, I booked a flex desk at the Digital Hub in Aachen). That way I constantly saw new faces and was able to gather new inspiration and thoughts. Otherwise, a small spontaneous brainstorming session with friends can help.
Remote workers need to do more to be part of the team spirit
Of course, there are several chat possibilities for virtual teams all over the world and there are also video conference solutions to connect with your team. However, I noticed it does not compare fully to the interpersonal relationships and physical chemistry in a «real» meeting. For the team spirit, it was a challenge for me as a remote worker not to feel excluded and to be aware of what is discussed in the office during the day.
My tip: For me, commuting to Berlin every now and then was definitely a must and always contributed to the team spirit. This should be pre-discussed and agreed on with any remote worker you hire so it doesn’t come as a surprise.
Remote work can mean loneliness
Meetings are also scheduled despite remote work; Laika has weekly team meetings on Tuesdays and weekly or bi-weekly client update meetings during the week. Sometimes half of the day consists of meetings and you don't even get the feeling of being lonely. Days without meetings, on the other hand, pass slowly if you are isolated instead of the habitual packed days with colleagues constantly hustling and you later gather together in the kitchen to take a breather.
My tip: Do not only communicate in your work group chat, but also have individual conversations with your teammates (even a 5 minute non-related work call relaxes your mind). Once a week I also went out for lunch with friends in Aachen.
Work-life balance vs. work-life blending is a daily challenge
We all talk about the very well known work-life balance, and then, on the other hand, there is the phenomenon of the so-called work-life blending; i.e. your private and work life overlap and even end up merging. Being at home in your familiar surrounding can tempt you to deal with non-work commitments during your working hours. Usually you use a laptop from home for both work and personal life. That's why work emails can also pop up in your spare time for example.
My tip: Once my working hours were over, I logged out from my emails and programs for work and logged back in the next day. In addition, I did the housekeeping before or after work so that there is no overlap in the first place. Definitely track your working time with a time tracker program! We at Laika track our working time with a simple software called mite. I can only recommend this tool to everyone for work as it helped me to track my effective working time.
So to sum up...
It's the variety that counts! In my opinion, working 100% remotely is not my dream job, but changing the location of your environment makes a big difference. Going out for lunch and getting some fresh air promotes productivity and motivation. Networking outside the team in a coworking space brings new inspiration and thoughts. At the end of the week, it neither does feel like working from home anymore nor that you are far away from your team.
But now the day has come to say goodbye to working remotely from home. The reasons are simple: new exciting tasks are waiting for me in Aachen, which will bring me closer to people face-to-face and I am curious for a little change in career. I am very grateful and glad to have worked with Laika remotely and wish the agency all the tech in the world.
- Fatma