Remote Work Playbook
Remote Work Principles
Transparency
Without a physical office space, we lack the face-to-face interactions that can help share information in a less formal setting, i.e. water cooler chat. It’s important to make an effort to be purposeful with sharing relevant and necessary information to allow the team to build a strong level of trust
Asynchronous efficiency
One of the benefits of remote work is that we get to work with team members from different areas of the world. However, that also means that we are in different time zones, so working hours may not always overlap. Success in remote work requires a high degree of asynchronous efficiency so time is not lost waiting for team members from another time zone to wake up and start their day
Documentation clarity
Without face-to-face meetings and consistent, similar working hours, team members need to put extra emphasis on the detail and conciseness of documentation. No one wants to read through endless pages and pages of documentation, but people need to be able to easily access any relevant information required in order to move forward with their work without waiting to be unblocked
Empathy
Everyone has personal lives and working from home can be challenging, without the social fun of meeting people in the office every day. Take an extra couple of minutes to check in with your colleagues and see how they’re doing
Remote Work Starter Pack
If you can, it is important to have a dedicated workspace area separate from where you sleep, relax, or eat meals. This helps you to mentally separate working time from your personal time and allows you to unplug at the end of the day. Working from home increases the risk of burning out from decreasing the mind space separation from work life and personal life.
Having a separated part of your home that you only work in can help to set your focus and priorities, and then decompress at the end of the day when you “go offline.”
Chair
It’s important to have a comfortable office chair with appropriate back and posture support. We spend a lot of time sitting at our desks working and there are several studies that show proper chairs can have a major impact on employee happiness and productivity
Desk
Similar to your chair, your desk should be the appropriate height where you don’t need to sit hunched over to look at your computer screen
Monitor
Looking down at your laptop screen constantly can be really damaging to your neck and posture. With a monitor placed at eye-height, you can reduce the strain over time on your neck
Keyboard
Some people prefer to have a separate keyboard from the built-in laptop keyboard. There are keyboards that are specifically designed for ergonomics to support proper wrist and hand positions
Webcam
Turning video on during meetings help to build a stronger sense of connection and also allows people to read non-verbal cues from you, as well
Headphones
Using headphones (either with a built-in microphone or separate microphone) can help reduce background noise and increase the clarity of your speaking, so the other meeting participants can hear you well
Lighting
Having clear lighting helps the other video participants see you clearly during calls. If the room that you working from doesn’t have bright lighting, you can try adding a light attachment to your laptop or monitor to help even out or brighten the lighting
Remote Work Well-Being
You physical and mental health are important and should not be ignored while working as part of a remote team. Here are some recommendations to keep up your well-being:
Take Breaks
Try to get out of your chair every hour or so. Even just to fill back that empty glass of water that's drying on your desk
Get moving
Some people find it useful to squeeze in some exercise during the day or right after work
Meditate
There are some affordable apps you can easily pay for out of pocket.
- Petit Bambou (French employees get this for free with their insurance)
- Get Headspace
- Calm
Create a dedicated space just for work
Especially if you're working from home
- This makes it easy to end the work day and leave that space
- Also, you don't want to be setting up and clearing up your workspace everyday
Set up a work schedule
If you find it easy to get absorbed by work, try to force yourself to follow it
General mental health
Everything, included all tips above, is linked to mental health.
- Disconnecting and taking time off is important
- Keep a good work-life balance
- Tips from Buffer on this subject
Remote Work Well-Being
These are the main tools our team uses on a regular basis:
- Slack
- Slite
- Jira
- Gitlab
- Confluence
- Office 365
- Coda
- Loom
- Zoom
- Internal.io
- Help Scout
- Freshteam