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.
1๏ธโฃ You automatically have more time to focus when you don't work in the office. [๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ง๐ฅ๐จ๐]
2๏ธโฃ You have less social contact with your team members when you donโt work in the office. [๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ง๐ฅ๐จ๐]
First, both points depend on whether you organize your remote work well.
1๏ธโฃ More time for focus work. Do you remember? In the past, we were saying: "๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ; ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ."
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.
2๏ธโฃ 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. ๐ 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!
๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐พ ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐บ๐ ๐ป๐๐๐ฝ๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐บ๐๐๐พ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐พ ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐พ "๐ป๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐พ๐๐," ๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐บ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐ป๐๐๐พ๐ฝ ๐๐พ๐บ๐.
๐ง๐ผ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐ฎ ๐น๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐: Unless there's a person on a distributed team who's ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ, who enjoys ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฒ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด and ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐บ๐, and who understands the ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด (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?ย It depends on your level of ambition. If you're satisfied with the mid-range, it can be done differently.
But that's not my thing.