My top 2 myths about remote work

Looking back on more than 5 years of fully remote work, I felt Inspired by Mandy's article. So I looked back and considered what the #2 biggest myths about remote companies and working in distributed teams are.

1️⃣ You automatically have more time to focus when you don't work in the office. [𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘]

2️⃣ You have less social contact with your team members when you don’t work in the office. [𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘]

First, both points depend on whether you organize your remote work well.

1️⃣ More time for focus work. Do you remember? In the past, we were saying: "𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥; 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸."

Hand on heart: Who of you, who slid more or less bumpily into #remotework during the pandemic, has the feeling that you have more time for #focuswork at home today than you used to have in the office? My feeling is instead the opposite. I hear from many people that they don't know when to do their actual work because of all the meetings.

But that doesn't have to be the case. It's just a sign of a lack of #organization. As mentioned earlier, I ran a company of 60 people with six hours of focus time daily. And I talked to each of the 60 team members at least once every 6 months for 10 minutes. I'll let you know more about that another time.

2️⃣ And that takes me to #socialbonding.

If you set up distributed teamwork correctly, there can be even more social bonding than by putting a ping pong table in the office. 😉 That's because social bonds can be created through more than just face-to-face time and conversation. Many Frontastic team members said they have never felt as connected to team members as they did at Frontastic. And that's despite having only worked in office-based companies before!

𝖡𝗎𝗍 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝗅𝖾 𝖻𝗎𝗂𝗅𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗌𝗈𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗅 𝖻𝗈𝗇𝖽𝗌 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗇 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝖿𝖿𝗂𝖼𝖾 "𝖻𝗒 𝖺𝖼𝖼𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗇𝗍," 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗂𝗍 𝗂𝗇 𝖺 𝖽𝗂𝗌𝗍𝗋𝗂𝖻𝗎𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝖾𝖺𝗆.

𝗧𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁: Unless there's a person on a distributed team who's 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱, who enjoys 𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 and 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀, and who understands the 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 (it's essential to successful teamwork), should, by all means, avoid distributed teams and either terminate the team or commit it to an office.

Sounds harsh? It depends on your level of ambition. If you're satisfied with the mid-range, it can be done differently.