Holding it Together in a 100% Remote Role
Get real with a “really” remote employee.
There is working remote, and then there is “really” working remote. Some have an office locally and go in a few times a week or month even. Then, there are those of us who have no office to go into and might be the only one in their entire company locally.
Regardless of how remote of an employee you are, the challenges remain.
In my last role, I was the “really” remote kind of employee. Technically, my boss and I lived in the same city for the first year, but we saw each other maybe once a month or once every other month for a few hours. It often felt as if, we lived states apart.
I am someone who is energized by others. The value of collaboration is invaluable. Talking out loud with team members had been crucial in solving business problems in past roles.
Now, I was in my house, in a room that I determined to be my office. I was there all day. No one to see. No one to naturally collaborate with. No one to run into in between meetings.
I continuously found one of my biggest obstacles to be myself. Without having others to regroup with and get the smile or nod you get in an office, I was constantly questioning myself.
I constantly had to reassure myself:
- JUST BECAUSE I wasn’t on a big call, didn’t mean I wasn’t needed.
- JUST BECAUSE I didn’t get a response right away, didn’t mean I did something wrong or whatever I was working on wasn’t important.
- JUST BECAUSE I didn’t hear much from anyone today, didn’t mean they were conspiring. After all, they were working, too.
- JUST BECAUSE I got an email at 9 PM, didn’t mean I had to respond then.
If you can relate, stop and think about everything you did last week or even today at work. It is so easy to worry about what is out of our control instead of what it is in our control if COVID-19 has taught us anything.
For me, I knew I was meeting deadlines, doing quality work, and continuing to show my value. I immediately realized how much I took that human office interaction for granted. I never thought the eye contact in a meeting, hearing a senior leader say my name when walking by, or even the “water fountain” chats would be so missed until they were gone.
It was in this role that I developed an ability to coach myself. Here are a few examples of the reassurances and coaching I gave myself:
- For the big call, I wasn’t on. I didn’t need to call my boss about it.
- When I didn’t get a response right away, I could give it a day or two before a follow-up.
- Use the quiet days to get those projects you have kept putting off done instead of worrying about what everyone else was doing.
- Finally, I didn’t need to respond to every email in 5 minutes just to show I was working.
This last one is a big one.
The working remote, “Do they know I am working?” fear is real.
Initially, I had an obsession with making sure my boss knew I was working. If I finished what he needed, I would email him asking if he needed anything else. However, I soon realized there is showing initiative, and then there is being a nuisance. In the beginning, I was probably, no, I was definitely, on the nuisance side.
If he emailed me, it didn’t matter what time of day, I would make sure to respond as quickly as I could. After all, it was a new job, I didn’t get to talk with my boss much. I wanted him to know he hired me for a reason.
This mindset resulted in careless mistakes from replying to quickly. I would get responses that he didn’t have anything else for me or what he did have was busy work or random items it seemed he made up on the spot, which made me feel minimized and underutilized.
Eliminating this fear takes time. For me, I had to build my confidence in knowing that I was valuable and that they weren’t nearly as worried about it as I was. I had to change my mindset by reminding myself they didn’t care how much I worked. They cared if I got the job done and done well, which I did.
Don’t get me wrong working remote has its perks, but with those perks also come fears and challenges. Positive self-talk will be your best friend. Do your work with quality and integrity.
