Almost six years ago, I got the itch to work remotely. It started when the company I worked for at the time had its offices flooded (with a five hundred year flood…that happened two years in a row).
I remember working from my living room the day after and thinking to myself, “We could probably save thousands in overhead if we just started working from home. And what would we lose?”
Flash forward a few months to when I moved from Upstate New York to Nashville, Tenn. I was the first in my company to take the plunge into remote working. I still vividly remember my first day: I woke up four hours before the workday started, brushed my teeth, showered and got ready like I was going into the office. I even wore shoes.
Shoes. To my home office which was the spare bedroom across the hallway from my bedroom. I was committed.
At first, it was a little isolating to work remotely. The rest of my company worked from the offices back in New York and there weren’t many company communication tools out there yet that were sweeping the market like Slack eventually would.
To bridge the gap at the time, we used an excessive amount of GChat, Google Hangouts and GMail to communicate along with the occasional phone call.
When I was asked by the new friends I was making in Nashville what I did that allowed me to work from home, they were blown away that it wasn’t some multi-level marketing scheme, but indeed a “real” job with benefits.
For me, I didn’t think of working from home any differently than working in the office. In fact, I felt more pressure. When you work from home, you have to prove yourself by the results you achieve. Your boss doesn’t get a chance to catch a glimpse of you furiously working at your desk or staying late at the office. You also don’t get to blend in and go unnoticed for too long before someone questions where you are. Your team just sees what’s being done and what isn’t. In my opinion, working remotely quickly shows you who is a top performer and who isn’t.
Another myth I’ve battled is that I get to set my own schedule and work only when it’s convenient for me. That’s not the case at all. Sure, I get to go out on lunch breaks just as I would in the office. I can sneak away for a minute or two to have a beloved moment with my coffee pot throughout the day, but I don’t spend hours away from my desk at a time. I work 9 to 5 CT, Monday through Friday. My team counts on me to be there and available during those times, just as I count on them to do the same. We trust each other because we make good on our promises, the first one being available when we say we will be.
Contrary to other popular belief about remote workers, I also shower daily, don’t do laundry during the workday, don’t have a wardrobe full of yoga pants and I get to see my coworkers more now than I ever did in an office setting.
The team at We Are Mammoth uses video chats daily to stay connected. We have a morning huddle where the entire team gets together to talk about what they’ve accomplished and what they’re working on for the day. We know that we are only three clicks away from face-to-face video meetings and we make sure to deliver important news that way. We also make sure to have silly conversations that bond us that way, too. In fact, a recent study shows that 87% of people feel more engaged and connected with their colleagues through the use of video conferencing. I can say from personal experience, that is absolutely the case.
I shut work off by having a designated space for it. My office takes up a spare bedroom in my house now. It’s the house found in the small Tennessee town I adore, and I get to live here because my company believes that I should work where I’m happiest.
Most importantly, when life happens I can take my work with me without worrying about being in a physical space to complete the job. The reduction of stress from that alone is indescribable. I can head back to New York to see my parents or visit family in California and only take time-off when I actually need to, not just because I’m technically out of the space I typically call my office. I’m lucky enough to set up shop anywhere and complete my responsibilities: be it a coffee shop, a hotel lobby, a friend’s spare bedroom or a hospital waiting room. I’ve worked from them all easily. Then, I’ve been able to shut down and enjoy what’s happening around me when I was ready.
A few more interesting statistics about remote working outside of my personal anecdotes:
Remote working can drive employee efficiency.
Disciplined remote workers have fewer distractions within their home office. More than 30% of remote workers surveyed by ConnectionSolutions said that they accomplish more in less time, and 24% surveyed said they were able to accomplish more in the same amount of time.
Remote working can lower employee stress and boost morale.
A study by PGI showed that more than 82% of telecommuters reported lower stress levels and higher morale while working from home. The study also showed that 69% of workers were less likely to call in to work when they had the ability to work remotely.
Remote working is linked to a reduction in employee turnover.
According to a study published by Stanford University, job attrition rates fell by more than 50% when remote working became an option for employees. The report comes from studying a highly-profitable China-based firm with more than 16,000 employees.