Work from home full time — the survival guide you didn't expect to need

It ain't easy

Your coworkers might think you have a cushy job working from home. Maybe it's even seen as a perk at your company, reserved for senior employees.

Working remotely is hard. It requires constant, active effort. Communicating to everyone is almost a full-time job in itself — let alone the actual work you have to do.

Working from home is not:

• Fewer meetings
• Better work-life balance
• Less corporate oversight
• No 9-5 schedule

If you want any of those things — you need a different job, not a remote job. If anything, working from home makes each of these issues harder.

Writing > Talking

When you work over the internet, nobody knows what you're doing. The default assumption is 'nothing' — it's part of your job now to actively prove them wrong.

Default to Transparency

The most successful remote companies have 'default to transparency' as a core value, and that's what you need to adopt if you're going to thrive as a full time remote worker.

The key is to get comfortable doing your work in public.

• Don't write notes on a notepad. Write them in Google Docs or Notion and circulate for the rest of the team.
• Don't just email progress updates. Post them in an open slack channel instead, where curious colleagues can observe.
• Don't host a 1:1 training session. Do a Zoom call and record it, and you never have to give that training again.

If you restrict your communication to 1:1 calls, you'll be a ghost in the organization. If you write consistently well, you can leapfrog your on-site colleagues. Who's more influential — The New York Times or a man on the street?

Shift to asynchronous communication

Lots of synchronous communication — calls, video chats, taps on the shoulder for a "quick question" — are a distraction and symptom of a lack of planning. Why should a lack of planning on their part should constitute an emergency on yours?

All high-performing remote teams learn to interact with others through asynchronous means — emails, task managers or Slack messages — especially as things start to span timezones. Learn to feel comfortable not having an immediate answer to everything, and plan projects accordingly.

When you get interrupted, don't shrug it off. It takes nearly 30 minutes to re-focus after a distraction. Investigate the root cause and fix the process so it happens less often in future. Can you document more so your colleague can find the answer they're looking for? Can you nudge them towards scheduling time in your calendar rather than letting them interrupt you?

And of course, the best you can do to get people to work with you asynchronously is to yourself be a model of asynchronous communication — lead by example.

As a fulltime remote worker, your lack of distraction is your superpower — don't let it get ruined with constant Slack pings.

Making friends

Being good at your job is not enough to do well at the company — to get ahead, you need to build real, meaningful relationships with your coworkers and manager.

Visit the office as frequently as you can

A visit every quarter is a minimum, or more if you live in the same state/country. In addition, try to time your trips with major all-hands, offsites or company retreats if possible.

It's on you to push for organizing trips. Once things start to settle in, everybody will get complacent and it will be too easy to defer trips.

Take the lead organizing social activities: team outings, sports games, team dinners, etc.

Bring your full self to every one-on-one interaction — be dialed in, eager to connect and a good confidant for gossip and drama. Effort spent teasing apart the personal relationships between people is worth its weight in gold.

Try to get time with influential people in the organization — your manager's manager, your manager's peers, and cross-functional partners. Them putting a face to a name and having a general positive opinion of you will help you a great deal politically.

At this end of this process, you should feel exhausted. Social relationships are hard work, and you need to cram it all in a few days.

Counterintuitively, you might find you build better bonds than your non-remote colleagues. When you're all forced to be together every day, inertia sets in and people tend to under-invest in relationships. Meanwhile you're on mission, maximizing face time, making the most of every interaction — don't miss this advantage.

Your coworkers

Try to find the interests your coworkers have in common and be the social glue for the group. For example, if your coworkers are into sports, be the one organizing the fantasy league.

Keep a pulse on the team banter in the Slack or group chat — be a part of the conversation, and bring out your best memes.

Your manager

The people who get promoted are those who make their manager's job easier. It's not enough to just be aware of your own work, your need to also be aware of your manager's work — what are their main initiatives? what's blocking them? how can you help?

The biggest mistake you can make with your one-on-one interactions with your manager is focusing on status updates — leave that to emails. Focus your time on understanding the bigger picture: What's holding back the team? How can you help?

Read the guide on performance reviews for more tips on running effective one-on-ones.

Managing yourself

Working fulltime from home is lonely. Many adults don't make many friends outside their work environments — you have an extra burden to build quality IRL relationships to keep yourself sane.

It's also important to set expectations with family or housemates. Be clear when you're working and set yourself a routine — take your full lunch break and don't eat at your desk or working space. If you need to work past your work hours, tell your spouse as soon as you realize so they can work around you.