Best Practices for Working Remotely
Ensure your technology is ready for working remotely. But it takes more than just hardware to be successful.
Team communication is key
- Supervisors and teams should agree on their preferred method(s) for staying in touch.
- You will be missing context clues when communicating in writing only. Try to be neither overly long nor too abrupt.
- Keep your calendar up to date and let your supervisor and/or co-workers know when you are stepping away for a meeting, break, or lunch.
- Respect the busy and off times of your co-workers. Save non-critical messages for email.
- Respect your main working communications channel for work. Set up a social channel or tuck friendly/fun chat into threads.
- The rule of work communications always applies: “Don’t say anything in email/chat that you wouldn’t want read aloud in a court of law.”
Work is work
- Set boundaries around your work time. Let family, neighbors, and that guy at the coffee shop know you aren’t available for a 20-minute chat.
Test your online conferencing setup with your team
- Check that your headphones and mic give you sufficient ability to hear and be heard.
- Find out whether your network connection gives you good quality audio and video when conferencing. You may have better results if you call into a conference with a phone rather than using computer audio.
Be thoughtful during online conferencing
- Stay muted except when talking. Background noise from everyone’s environment is distracting for all the participants.
- Look like you are working if you will be on video. Pajamas are not appropriate for work meetings, even from home.