Coronavirus has made remote work the new standard. But, lost reason and decreased camaraderie don’t need to be. Here’s the way to keep your company work culture alive:
1) Make time for small talk.
For Organizations, while managing remote workers, it’s easy to simply discuss the main priority and get done and end your call, and get back to executing. Furthermore, in some cases, that is actually what you should do; if you’re on a tight deadline, battling a fire, or just having a quick standup meeting that makes sense.
In any case, if that is all you do, you’re truly missing out on a basic part of the management.
You should build a report with *every* colleague. Rapport is the thing that will help you with working through issues each colleague has, trust they can come to you with things essential to them, and give you the best about you when you make on a mistake or a disliked choice.
Rapport (Compatibility) doesn’t come from doing and discussing work. Rapport originates from getting to know them as a complete individual.
2) Create morning and evening routines
As telecommuters, our “drive” is often only a couple of steps from bedroom to office – there’s no travel time to signal toward the brain that work is starting and closure. That implies it can sometimes be difficult to get into “work mode” for the day and also out of it at the end of the day.
I’ve discovered that it encourages a great deal to set up morning and evening schedules that advise your brain when it’s an ideal time to begin working and when it’s a great opportunity to finish.
I try to keep my schedules simple, and I use an application called Streaks to help me with building new habits and stay responsible. I’ve discovered that the way to building habits is to be consistent and disciplined.
Quick takeaways: Morning and evening schedules can help open and close your day as a telecommuter. Keep your schedules simple and consistent.
3) Communication Issues and Being Out of the Loop
Why communication is paramount for a remote team—and why it’s such a challenge:
When the bulk of your communication happens through skype, WhatsApp, email and so forth, it doesn’t take much for bad blood to develop unless everyone is making their best effort unexpectedly. Little misunderstandings that could have been halted from developing in any way with the wink of an eye or a specific manner of speaking can rapidly snowball into the drama.
Remember that Remote work needs additional communication.
The communication issue is intensified if some of your team operate from office but you don’t. You miss all the overheard conversations and work area meetings.
You may feel distrustful that others are having meetings and settling on their own predictions without you—and you’d probably be right. Except if the organization has built a remote work culture of inclusion for telecommuters, you may be no longer of any concern.
The main genuine solution is to convey as much as could be possible—explaining whatever could be a misunderstanding—and to be proactive in speaking up.
Conclusion:
Despite the above challenges, remote work is exceptionally rewarding — as long as you know what you’re getting into and can handle these common issues in the job. If you drive forward, you’ll appreciate flexibility, self-satisfaction, the opportunity to work in your best environment, higher productivity—and maybe also more time for an actual life that exists outside of work as well.
