Ways to Succeed as a New Remote Worker

In my previous position, I occasionally worked from home, but mostly I was expected to show up at the office, attend meetings I didn't want to attend, and then continue working at my desk.

I had the opportunity to freelance and work on my own projects, and with that came the responsibility to set my own hours and get the work done. Most independent consultants and freelancers out there work remotely but don't have a larger team to report to (unless they're working onsite for a specific client).

As a freelancer, I learned a lot about routines and discipline and how to structure my days, weeks and months. But I didn't learn how to work with a larger team based in another city. I want to give you 5 tips on how to be successful if you are a remote worker in a company for the first time in your career.

Visit the team in person often

Nothing beats meeting your team in person and building real relationships. When I first started, I tried to visit our West Coast offices as often as possible (I live in New York). On my first day, I participated in an internal hackathon where the entire team comes together and works on brand new ideas that can eventually be integrated into the Coda platform. During the hackathon I had the opportunity to get to know almost everyone on the team in a somewhat stressful environment (true to the spirit of hackathons, we work on ideas for 2-3 days at a time). During these days I had the opportunity to meet and work with my new teammates so that they could understand my working style.

Those: amazonaws.com

I flew back about once a month to attend company events or to work with my team. If you are a new one Remote workers and don't make an effort to get to know your team in person, your colleagues will only get to know you through Slack and video conferencing. If you take the time to build relationships with your team members, you will develop greater trust and productivity in the long run.

Be vocal through documentation

Not all field employees have the opportunity to have conversations that their colleagues do on site. These informal conversations can provide clarity about a business problem and promote collaboration among team members. Since you can't have these conversations in the hallway on a regular basis, you need to make your voice heard a little more digitally. That means email, Slack, and for me, Coda.

In addition to leaving feedback via Slack and email, I use Coda extensively to promote or demote questions I have about projects, document the status of projects, and more. The various company-wide Coda documents we have set up enable transparent exchange of company information and give everyone in the company the opportunity to express their opinions and feedback. I use our various Coda documents in real time during meetings so that the meeting leader can see any questions or feedback I type throughout the meeting.

Get a quality webcam and microphone

This is one logistical aspect of being a new remote worker, but many people choose to prioritize convenience over quality. It's easy to connect the headphones you already use with your iPhone or Android phone to your laptop and start Zoom calls. On the other hand, where your entire team is watching and listening, the quality can become very poor. You don't want to be the only person on all Zoom calls where the audio and video quality is poor and people want you to mute your microphone.

Those: kursfinder.de

One of my favorite podcasters is Jason Calacanis, and he has some very strict rules for his team when it comes to video conferencing. When someone on his team dials in remotely, he requires them to have a headset with a stick microphone, a webcam that plugs into the computer, and a wired Ethernet port. All these precautions contribute to good video and audio quality. There are headsets for $20 on Amazon that have great audio quality. I've been using this one for 2 years and it works perfectly.

Join IRL communities

Similar to tip #2, you won't have the opportunity to have lunch or rejoice in person with your team as often. Instead, I chose to join in-person communities in my city to get the social interaction that comes with being part of a team. For example, in my co-working space (WeWork), I started going to events and meeting people who work near me to have "work friends" even if they are not part of my company. I started a meetup for Coda users in New York and it helped me 1) meet others who have similar interests and 2) educate people about Coda.

In addition to starting your own community or meeting, you should also participate in other meetings with like-minded people. There are likely many remote work meetups where people new to remote work can discuss strategies for success as a remote worker (including tips from this article!).

Set boundaries for work and personal life

A topic that is in the world of Telework that keeps coming up is mental health. When you work in an office, everyone gets off work at a certain time, and activity on Slack and email slowly dies down. As a new remote worker, you may be working in a new time zone and need to adjust to new meeting times that don't fit with a traditional 9-to-5 day. Because of the flexibility that working remotely offers you, it is very important to set boundaries for when work begins and ends.

Those: medium.com

This is especially true if you don't have a co-working space or a separate office and work from home. When it's approaching dinner time and you're still working, what's to stop you from ordering something and just eating at your desk? The inhibition threshold for doing this is very low, and before you know it, you're working until you fall asleep. Avoid the burnout that many remote workers face when they don't have control over the number of projects they can take on. Your mental and physical health should be your top priority!