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The fundamentals of being a highly effective and valued team member and employee are actually the same. That said, perception is reality and being remote does

The fundamentals of being a highly effective and valued team member and employee are actually the same. That said, perception is reality and being remote does add some friction to certain aspects of the job and the way the team works. If you take a proactive approach these can be managed or overcome, leaving you with just the benefits of working remote. Things that come to mind: - Written communication: Crisp emails and IM that get the message across quickly. Know when to optimise for speed and for run. Some things that come to mind: - Verbal communication: take the time to speak with your team mates. Depending on the culture this may mean you never talk work by phone/Skype but you should still speak to everybody occasionally. - Establish a rythym that works for you and the team. Be present and visible in ways that demonstrate and reinforce your reliability and commmitment. Just make sure you're adding value and not just making noise because you want to compensate for being remote (or not actually delivering). - Respect other folks' time (and timezone, work arrangements). - Actively contribute to the team and workplace culture. Don't just follow the lead of others but make suggestions and/or take the lead on initiatives when appropriate. [edit: Formatting]

lil1729 10y ago
+1 to all the points made. I have been working remotely for a while now. These are the things I learned. - time difference matters. It is better if there is some overlap with at least some people in the team. - "showing up" (via various communication channels) have more value at one of the places I worked than the actual work. - I was consistently rated less compared to others because my interactions were only over video, once or twice a week and via chat channels and it could never make up for face-to-face communication. This is highly subjective. At another place, I never had such problems. - Expect to add a lot of stress in your life (again subjective). - Pair programming with colleagues over video/google-hangout can be extremely valuable. - video calls mostly suck, especially if you have low upstream bandwidth (which was the case with me). - make plans to travel and stay with your colleagues for a week or so, once in a few months. - "everyone being remote" is better than one or two people alone being remote and the rest in a central office. That way, the company is "set up" for remote working and people take care to put everything online in a wiki etc.. Not so, with a centralized office with only a few people working remotely. - It is also very easy to get burned out working more hours, especially if the other side is in an overlapping your day. It happened to me many times. This needs fixing at org level and should meet the expectations of everyone. HTH.
- 0xmohit 10y ago
  "showing up" (via various communication channels) have more value at one of the places I worked than the actual work Reminds me of a Dilbert strip: When you don't have anything to do, walk fast and look worried. Carry a notebook, it helps. I even heard a coworker say: "It doesn't matter whether the work gets done as long as you are worried about your work."
  - thingamarobert 10y ago
    A useful tip even for a hard-worker when times are bad.
- psynapse 10y ago
  The addition of stress is under-represented when talking about working remotely. The more you have going on at home, the worse it is. You have to work out whether the "convenience" pays for the loss of clean separation from family life. The family will claim to understand that you have to work, sometimes (often?) uninterrupted. But the perception, especially for children, is that you are there; just not participating. This segues into to the other point I found pertinent - everyone being remote is definitely better. This is currently how I work, but I was previously a "minority" remote worker. Depending on the organisation, there is a whole political architecture that others navigate/recruit, but that you cannot access to the same degree. It doesn't matter how good you are, you can be undermined by people who resent advice/change/correction/omission/etc. This contributes its own stress.
  - lil1729 10y ago
    Yes, totally agree with your observations. I am also hoping to eventually move into the "everyone is remote" model. Minority remote model just does not work for me. I consistently get rated less in performance appraisals despite doing more contributions to the project. This is also because I have to deal with a stupid manager...

lil1729 10y ago

+1 to all the points made. I have been working remotely for a while now. These are the things I learned. - time difference matters. It is better if there is some overlap with at least some people in the team. - "showing up" (via various communication channels) have more value at one of the places I worked than the actual work. - I was consistently rated less compared to others because my interactions were only over video, once or twice a week and via chat channels and it could never make up for face-to-face communication. This is highly subjective. At another place, I never had such problems. - Expect to add a lot of stress in your life (again subjective). - Pair programming with colleagues over video/google-hangout can be extremely valuable. - video calls mostly suck, especially if you have low upstream bandwidth (which was the case with me). - make plans to travel and stay with your colleagues for a week or so, once in a few months. - "everyone being remote" is better than one or two people alone being remote and the rest in a central office. That way, the company is "set up" for remote working and people take care to put everything online in a wiki etc.. Not so, with a centralized office with only a few people working remotely. - It is also very easy to get burned out working more hours, especially if the other side is in an overlapping your day. It happened to me many times. This needs fixing at org level and should meet the expectations of everyone. HTH.

0xmohit 10y ago
"showing up" (via various communication channels) have more value at one of the places I worked than the actual work Reminds me of a Dilbert strip: When you don't have anything to do, walk fast and look worried. Carry a notebook, it helps. I even heard a coworker say: "It doesn't matter whether the work gets done as long as you are worried about your work."
- thingamarobert 10y ago
  A useful tip even for a hard-worker when times are bad.
psynapse 10y ago
The addition of stress is under-represented when talking about working remotely. The more you have going on at home, the worse it is. You have to work out whether the "convenience" pays for the loss of clean separation from family life. The family will claim to understand that you have to work, sometimes (often?) uninterrupted. But the perception, especially for children, is that you are there; just not participating. This segues into to the other point I found pertinent - everyone being remote is definitely better. This is currently how I work, but I was previously a "minority" remote worker. Depending on the organisation, there is a whole political architecture that others navigate/recruit, but that you cannot access to the same degree. It doesn't matter how good you are, you can be undermined by people who resent advice/change/correction/omission/etc. This contributes its own stress.
- lil1729 10y ago
  Yes, totally agree with your observations. I am also hoping to eventually move into the "everyone is remote" model. Minority remote model just does not work for me. I consistently get rated less in performance appraisals despite doing more contributions to the project. This is also because I have to deal with a stupid manager...