While the world seems to slow down a bit during the holidays, there’s still plenty of work to be done. And with employees traveling to see family, going on big vacations or just needing a break, startups have had to figure out the best way to balance work and rest during this time of year.
One solution is to allow employees to work remotely as they travel or work from home for certain parts of the month. Not having to commute in winter weather and getting to spend extra time with family is a big bonus, but working remotely doesn’t come without challenges, especially for employees who are used to working in a central office.
App development firm Robots & Pencils is based in Canada, but their U.S. headquarters is in Castle Rock — and they’ve got offices in Austin, London, New York, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, too. Between their distributed team and generous work-from-home policies, the company’s employees have plenty of experience with working remotely.
“Robots & Pencils is set up to allow anyone to work remotely," said Lara Aranador, talent support generalist for Robots & Pencils. “We have team members who work full time from home and some who work both from home and the office. This past year, we actually took our entire team to Cancun as a team building activity, so everyone experienced what it is like to work outside of the office.”
We asked members of the Robots & Pencils team to share their experiences and advice, creating a bit of a “survival guide” to working remotely for first-timers.
What are some of the benefits of working from home? How about challenges?
Ryan Harrison, iOS developer: Benefits are definitely cutting down on travel time (45 minutes each way) and being around the house to see my kids grow up. I got to see many firsts, like first steps. One challenge would be getting lonely. I’ve gotten use to it now, but anytime you’re in a situation where you spend a bunch of time with other people, like on vacation, coming back to working alone takes some time to get used to. The other challenge is not overworking.
Michael Beauregard, iOS developer: The benefit is being able to live where we want and raise our family away from the city without having to change employment or worry about commuting (we get to save an hour or two of commuting every day). The combination of a flexible work schedule, working from home and living where we do lets me do things with my family at the drop of a hat like boating, hiking or dirt biking. These are the “golden years” with my kids, and I like that I am able to max out our lifestyle in such a positive way. Loneliness and isolation are the biggest challenges for me by far. I'm a very social person, and I miss things like going out for lunch with friends.
Clare Tyson, sales representative: I love that I can wake up and begin working without worrying about the weather, traffic or what to wear. Working from home helps me live a healthier lifestyle — there is no excuse for eating unhealthy or skipping a workout. Sometimes it’s a little lonely, but I always have the ability to easily communicate with my colleagues through Slack.
Jen Lee, iOS developer: There are many benefits, such as schedule flexibility, no long commutes in traffic, no office distractions and the ability to work from anywhere. My partner also works at R&P, so one of the biggest challenges for us is that there is no mental break between work-mode and non-work mode, and we find ourselves working at all hours of the day because our client is usually in a different time zone. We often have to remind each other to take a break and stop talking about work.
How do you avoid some of the common working from home pitfalls like being tempted to do chores, loneliness, or other distractions?
RH: I find that making sure you spend time on voice/text chats throughout the day helps you from being lonely. Also, going outside. If you spend a ton of time inside because you aren't going to the office, you get cabin fever. Having a solid routine helps eliminate distractions and overworking. Set start/stop times every day, and throughout the day for breaks. Another piece of advice I have is keeping your home office separate from the rest of your house. On the weekend and evenings, I try not to go into that room at all, although the Xbox is there — so this can be tough sometimes.
CT: Working from home saves me over three hours a day, so I can use these hours to deal with chores and distractions. Often times I’m more distracted in an office because I tend to socialize too much. If I need human interaction, I will go to a coffee shop down the street.
JL: I try to stick to a routine. As soon as I wake up, I usually check my schedule and emails/messages, and then get ready for work as though I was going to the office. My morning routine gets my mind thinking about work and building a mental schedule and checklist of the things I need to do and want to accomplish that day. Whenever I have chores, errands or appointments to do that day, I simply schedule them in the same way I would when I’m working from an office.
What is your home work setup like?
RH: I just recently developed my basement at home, so I designed the office to be off by itself. I have an L-shaped desk, laptop/monitor combo, wall mounted TV that I can stream to, Xbox, drink cart, futon and big comfy leather chair.
MB: We have a nice building near the back of our property that is surrounded by huge trees. It has a workshop on the main floor and a large rec/room loft above. I'm in the middle of carving out part of the loft to create a great office space.
JL: We travel a lot so we don’t always have a proper work setup. We always have our basic laptop and test devices that we need, and occasionally we have to hunt down some cardboard boxes to get a bit creative with our work setup.
What advice do you have for people who usually work in an office but will be working from home over the holidays?
MB: I suggest either taking a day fully off or working a full day so that you can actually get into the flow. You also need a quiet place to work away from all the activity happening so that you can make your hours count.
CT: If you are surrounded by people that require attention (unrelated to work) you may want to go to a quiet place away from these distractions.
JL: Definitely set a schedule, stick to your usual routine, and have an isolated workspace to help minimize the distractions that you’re not used to having around.
How do you ensure you're still connected with your team while working remotely?
MB: Being the lead makes staying connected naturally easier as it's literally part of the job. It can be a little harder as an individual contributor, but having daily standups and frequent pair programming sessions (to solve a bug, discuss ideas, etc.) over apps like ScreenHero can really help. Recently, we also had a conference in Cancun, which was a fantastic experience to help form personal relationships.
CT: Most of my work applications are loaded onto my phone, making working on the go and at home seamless. My team is spread out across North America so we have a recurring weekly call to stay connected. Slack is also a tool we use quite often. I don’t know how I would function without Slack; it’s an amazing collaboration tool.
JL: We have regular meetings on Skype/Hangouts and consistently communicate through email and Slack. We make a conscious effort to keep talking with our team to ensure everyone is in the loop. Daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and impromptu discussions help with this.
Photo provided by Robots & Pencils. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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