What do you do when your computer suddenly stops stops receiving email? What do you do when your phone starts freezing? What do you do when you wifi router stops broadcasting a signal or your DVR starts to glitch?
You reboot. You restart. You take the batteries out. You power cycle and reboot.
Remote working is like a power cycle for your work life. It refreshes you and gives you a jolt that allows you to recalibrate. You get your bearings, you self-reflect, you change your perspective. All these are wonderful outcomes when you break out of your routine and take some time to work remote.
Certainly there are people who are permanently working remotely. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about breaking free from your usual work place and traveling to some other location to get stuff done for a period of time. We wanted to take a couple minutes to talk about the benefits and challenges of remote working.
The Benefits
Remote working refreshes and renews your work mentality. Think of remote working like that small pile of cold crisp ginger on your sushi plate. It’s a palette cleanser — meaning it is designed to reset your your taste buds in order to enjoy a fresh and different flavor that is about to be introduced.
Remote working can also act as a shot of adrenaline that renews your passion for work. It’s amazing how your work environment contributes to your productivity and enthusiasm for work (which we wrote about here). That’s one of the reasons why we invested into our office. If we are going to have an office where people come to work, let’s make it in such a way to encourage fun and productivity.
Remote working doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. You can intermix it into your regular work schedule. Our support team often does a #whereiswebconnex one day each week where the entire support team migrates and works remotely together. They have had some fun and outrageous destinations and adventures… including a ping pong match that got a bit out of hand.
We believe in the power of a remote refresh so much, we have taken our entire team to Costa Rica for a month for the past two years. We do this to build our community and culture along with having fun together. We believe fun inspires lots of productive things within the company.
But just like anything, remote working can have the occasional downsides. After-all, you wouldn’t want to eat a full plate of ginger!
The Challenges
Remote working can be glorious at first, but then needs its own adjustment. When you are away for an extended period, you form new habits and routines. For example, when I work remotely for an extended period, I can start looking like Tom Hanks on Castaway because I shave so seldom.
Working remote for too long, you can start to miss out on some of the face-to-face interactions that build rapport and foster deeper relationships outside of work topics. You can begin to feel isolated being the lone wolf out in the field working; and not to mention resolving conflict is always better done in person.
Working remote can sometimes be harder without the normal conveniences you have become accustomed to in the office — such as beer on tap, triple monitors and a refrigerator that magically always gets a new batch of food every Monday.
Working remote finally has some complications surrounding your home base when it comes to pets, bills and local gatherings. Most of this can be overcome, but it can complicate plans occasionally.
We have a team that enjoys to work and travel to new places with a different scenery. So for us, working remotely is a regular occurrence. Not only is it an enjoyable lifestyle, it regularly renews your mind, body and soul — and especially your work ethic.
