I\u2019ve been reading a lot of bloggers who try to brand their own spin on \u201cwork from home\u201d It\u2019s a bit exhausting. I kind of liked \u201clocation agnostic work\u201d and I liked a whole lot less \u201cliving at work\u201d The second just makes you really depressed but maybe that was the point? Ah yes, a counter point to work from home. Genius. When I talk to people socially, I hear the same line over and over \u201cthis is my 11th Zoom call of the day\u201d<\/p>\n
What a great story in timing by the way. Zoom, despite all of its flaws and privacy issues and the way they treat their users, we have people performing work on it. Not Skype or FaceTime or Microsoft Teams or Slack but Zoom is the winner here. Really a shame because there are a ton of companies who care more than Zoom but the reason Zoom wins 2020 is because they didn\u2019t require participants work at the same company or have any sort of licensing lock in. They also allowed anyone to join for free and invite someone and you were talking face to face no matter what platform you used within 30 seconds. Skype required you create an account. Zoom, just one person needs an account and it\u2019s \u201cfree\u201d for most people. Great story in market timing and Zoom emerged like Facebook into a social utility of the decade. I just hope, unlike Facebook, they take this brand awareness and become better. Better at user data security and privacy, they throw up the middle finger to China and they charge for a service instead of selling people\u2019s habits to the highest bidder. Zoom should also really focus on how safe their service is for kids and others who want to know they\u2019re not being watched by a stranger. The Zoom success story is also why it\u2019s so dangerous and sensitive to failure.<\/p>\n
Sorry for the digression. I\u2019ve been working at home since early March. I\u2019ve watched our company who up until now had no work from home guidelines and used the \u201cwork it out with your manager\u201d guidance that every big company does start to look at distributed work and how this looks over the next decade in our company\u2019s future. This is huge. I often reveal in trusted company that I had a manager at this job who never allowed remote work. You could not work anywhere but your designated office. He was in Belgium and I was in USA so for a month, I\u2019d get up at 3AM, go to the 3,4 and 5AM meetings in our office and then attend the local 3,4 and 5PM meetings with clients some of which were 4 hours behind. Then one day, I stopped. I setup my home office and worked from home 3-4 days per week that I didn\u2019t have in person meetings. Due to the nature of our relationship, I did this for 2 years until I was transferred to a new manager. The boss who forbid working from home had 2 remote employees that worked from home.<\/p>\n
I feel safe sharing this now not only because this was 7 years ago but because everyone, even the upper management of our company now understands how \u201chead in the sand\u201d his requirement was. I can only do work from an office? I can\u2019t work anywhere else? I\u2019m a single man with no kids and a gigabit internet connection with a home computer 4x as fast as the one you gave me to get work done and I can only work in these 4 walls? C\u2019mon.<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019m a manager of people myself and have spent 18 years in the professional workforce, I understand where he was coming from and can understand why it\u2019s easy to just forbid something than try to understand and work with it. The same can be said for a lot of our political space at this moment. For the first time ever, I have 6 100% remote employees. They have never worked at one of our offices or even visited. They\u2019ve joined our company from their homes with computer hardware mailed to them and I\u2019ve taken a year or more of reading about distributed work to apply what I think is a good culture and methodology that will lead to their success. I hope I\u2019m on the right track but if I\u2019m not, I have zero shame in throwing out an idea that doesn\u2019t work and trying something new.<\/p>\n
Internally, I\u2019ve said this a few times to colleagues. I\u2019m 33 years old. I\u2019m managing groups of 4-10 people now and doing so comfortably in an office setting. When I\u2019m 63 (or hopefully much earlier), I\u2019ll be living in a world where people are hired based on their skills despite where they live. The requirement for tech knowledge work in 2020 should be to hire the best person to do this job and if they don\u2019t live or won\u2019t live near one of your offices, you do two things for them
1. Provide a culture, tech stack and management style that thrives with a virtual employee
2. Ensure you take the savings of another warm body in an office and use that money to bring that employee to their colleagues or you regularly so you can breed a culture where the employees are bonded and there\u2019s a nurtured relationship.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so lucky to be in my early-30s to be able to learn how to manage remote employees now and not like one of my past managers and simply forbid it no matter the circumstance. To force people to drive to an office at 3AM to attend a meeting.<\/p>\n
With this new group of talented people, I have a set of standards that I am trying to uphold to them so our relationship can thrive and therefore their work can be successful.
1. Honesty above all else.
2. Be approachable and kind and available no matter what
3. Be available at a schedule that allows for work life balance
4. Don\u2019t expect them to be available at a schedule that interferes with their work life balance
5. Don\u2019t put up doors inside of the team. Every meeting except 1:1s is open to all
6. Utilize group chats so the team feels in touch with you and each other but educate each individual on how to mute notifications and enable do not disturb
7. Bake in social time with each other
8. Celebrate successes outside of the group and showcase what the individual and teams created
9. Remain honest even when it\u2019s a tough conversation<\/p>\n
One thing I\u2019ve really been working on lately and not in a smooth way since it\u2019s new to me is \u2018consent in communication\u2019 When I message someone, now that we\u2019re all remotely working I start with \u201care you free to talk?\u201d With a follow on \u201cabout X project\u201d Once I have consent, I may add \u201ca phone call would work better, can I call you now or maybe 5 minutes?\u201d This pitch with consent allows my team to feel that they have a choice whether they want to stop working and talk to me. When we do finally meet up, video is optional and everyone has agreed to be there. These ad-hoc meetings aren\u2019t planned (obviously) so I have to tread lightly when approaching them.<\/p>\n
Finally, this is my first time managing someone not on my time zone and we spent a few minutes on the phone talking about how we do this and what is a fair schedule and how do I ensure team collaboration and progress while still respecting those time zone boundaries? We\u2019ve adjusted our daily stand ups a bit and I make myself available until 7PM for any questions that come up but I disclose that I have DND enabled after 7PM so their message will go unanswered. It\u2019s my way to be available when they need me but not when I need some time off of the computer. We\u2019ll see how it goes.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t meant to be a long blog post about distributed work. I actually was going to talk more about my mental psyche and anxiety and stress in COVID-19 world but spoiler, I have none. I have a slight exhaustion from working too much lately which I\u2019m managing but when I had a session recently with my therapist (our first since February), we agreed to extend our break until October and convene again then because I was doing okay. Everything we talked about last year was no longer an issue and her hot topic was on the subject of how I\u2019m dealing with COVID-19 and the world we\u2019re in. To be frank and completely forthcoming, I\u2019m doing really well. …hmmm maybe this is turning into a 3,000 word post? Sorry!<\/p>\n
Her expectation likely derived from other clients (supposedly she has 95 of them…wow) was that I would be exhausted, over-sensitized from news and politics, feeling alone and lonely from white guilt and my place in the world of racial progress and White Straight American hatred against other people of a different race or gender or sexual orientation or that I would be sort of curled into a ball full of non-productivity and weight gain and depression. I felt overwhelmed probably the first 8 weeks of this new way of getting things done but I have since adapted for the better. do I miss people? Of course I do! Am I functioning? Today I am and for the foreseeable future? Will I have a break-down implosion in August? Maybe! Who knows, let\u2019s talk then! :)<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I can tell you about me personally. Born in \u201886, grew up online in a very diverse US State both racially and ethnically and then after realizing how much I enjoyed the gay and trans scene (mostly the parties), I found that openness, inclusion and technology were happening in San Francisco so I moved. I\u2019m straight but most of my friends were not and I had a blast in SF because it was the future. People were happy, they weren\u2019t judgmental or telling others how to live their lives and you could work from anywhere. You could build a company from a cafe and you weren\u2019t called a weirdo for it. You could then go to a 24 hour rave and cross dress and do drugs and party with men and women and then get up Monday, go back to the cafe and continue to change the world. I loved that and it\u2019s been almost 10 years since I left and nothing outside of SF has changed…well there\u2019s been change but the country is kicking and screaming throughout the entire thing.<\/p>\n
So when I see demonstrations (I hate the word protest \/ rioting) about black rights and I see people trying to work a job and being told they can\u2019t because they\u2019re transgender and my fellow knowledge workers struggling to work at home on their ideas and processes all the while in fear of losing their jobs because their manager can\u2019t see them and therefore they\u2019re not productive (not at my job but many are in that situation), I feel as if 10 years outside of San Francisco and nothing has changed. Hell, I don\u2019t even have Uber where I live. Surely by now I\u2019d have a local restaurant that delivered and 3G service at my house but instead I\u2019m without cell phone service or delivery and the nearest theatre is 2 hours away. Where the heck is the technology and more importantly, the inclusion and love that I felt in SF toward everyone no matter where they came from or the color of their skin?<\/p>\n
WTF America.<\/p>\n
So when my therapist asks how I\u2019m doing, I\u2019m doing great! Everyone else is pissed off and afraid. I lived through this weird remote-work, love everyone culture 10 years ago. In fact, I sought it out and flew across the country to it. It\u2019s everyone else who is having a tough time.<\/p>\n
Alright…that soap box is broken so I\u2019ll just stumble away as if none of this happened.<\/p>\n
There is certainly a lot going on right now for many people but my advise to those overloaded with news and indifference and anxiety is that they should really log out of Facebook and Twitter and stop consuming breaking news just for a few weeks. It does a lot to clear your mind and help you forget about the scary in the world. That\u2019s really hard with COVID and a presidential election year, I totally get it but all you need to know is there is no vaccine for COVID and given how much news coverage Donald Trump gets, he\u2019s probably going to win the re-election and if you can accept those 2 things as truth and acknowledge that 2020 is \u2018over\u2019 from a news & social time standpoint and you\u2019ll be in your house or standing 6 feet apart with your mask on for the rest of this year, it will help you to breathe a little bit easier. You and I will not wake up tomorrow to a just and fair system of political leadership or where companies are held accountable and people are given equal opportunities at every income level and background. We\u2019re not going to wake up to a COVID-19 cure and we\u2019re not going to to go hang out with our friends at a BBQ or club so with those truths acknowledged, you can start to recognize the things that are good and the people that love you and you can do your job to the best of your ability, save your pennies and look forward to a better year next year.<\/p>\n
Alright, 2300 words. Not bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been reading a lot of bloggers who try to brand their own spin on \u201cwork from home\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2020-06-26T12:46:06Z","apple_news_api_id":"04a758cf-bf78-4177-bf41-1ab4004c52b1","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2020-06-26T12:46:06Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ABKdYz794QXe_QRq0AExSsQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-life","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-29b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3261,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/the-ipad-has-me-zooming-on-my-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 The iPad has me Zooming on My Mac","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Double-Tap to zoom in via Mobile Safari and your view is focused on a story, image or part of a web page. Launching an app on the iPad will take you full-screen where the only distractions are push notifications. It's a fantastic system when it comes to focusing on one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11781,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2023\/01\/11\/technology-apple-is-ruining-maps-app-in-favor-of-their-maps-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":1},"title":"Technology: Apple is Ruining Maps.app in Favor of their Maps Services","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I wanted to open by saying this critique is not about Apple Maps\u2019 quality as in a slight of the map itself and all of its attributes. This is a product rant. I previously worked at a company supplying map data to Apple so I want to make that clear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/tNvBCrgf2N8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1714,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/02\/14\/why-ive-adopted-the-micro-four-thirds-camera-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Why I’ve Adopted The Micro-Four Thirds Camera System","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My eyes have been opened to a technological advancement of photography that has blown me away. The technology is known as Micro Four Thirds Cameras. According to\u00a0Wikipedia The\u00a0Micro Four Thirds system (MFT) is a standard created by\u00a0Olympus and\u00a0Panasonic for\u00a0mirrorless interchangeable lens digital cameras and\u00a0camcorders[1] design and development, announced on August\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Olympus E-PL2 w\/ Stock Lens","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3858,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/the-canon-s110-aka-now-is-the-time-to-by-a-canon-s100\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":3},"title":"\u2605 The Canon S110; aka now is the time to by a Canon S100","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Canon S series which was made new again about 3 years ago with the S90 happens to be my favorite digital camera series ever. These cameras fit in your front pocket, have impressive optical zoom (for the form factor), contain ultra-fast f\/2.0 lenses, revolutionary controls and button layout and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screen Shot 2012 10 23 at 11 01 41 AM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-Shot-2012-10-23-at-11.01.41-AM11.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-Shot-2012-10-23-at-11.01.41-AM11.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-Shot-2012-10-23-at-11.01.41-AM11.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3217,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/10\/10\/canons-s100-will-be-your-next-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":4},"title":"\u2605 Canon’s S100 Will Be Your Next Camera","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Canon PowerShot S Series is a line of digital cameras that have always been of a higher caliber than other digi-cams. The S2IS camera got me into photography. I loved that camera. It was bulky but had a nice zoom lens and I learned a lot! I upgraded to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My (recently repaired) Canon S95","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5290\/5230962171_3a3a15dd2a_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5290\/5230962171_3a3a15dd2a_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5290\/5230962171_3a3a15dd2a_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1139,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/11\/06\/my-canon-s95-is-broke\/","url_meta":{"origin":8257,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 My Canon S95 is Broken","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It was 5AM in Amsterdam and I was less than 50 meters from the Victoria Park Plaza where I\u2019d get 3 hours of sleep before waking up for a flight back to the US. I\u2019ve taken 2K photos on this trip and I was about to take my last photo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Last Photo in Amsterdam","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4091\/5162295167_2eb94060b9_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4091\/5162295167_2eb94060b9_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4091\/5162295167_2eb94060b9_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}