Welcome

Have you ever heard about “Remote work”? There are a lot of resources regarding this topic analyzing it from several perspectives. We want to sum up all the best practices of this way of working picking the best resources on the web.

Spread the Word

Ask your company to let you work remotely! Become an evangelist of the future of work!

What are profiles of remote work?

The northcarolinadeportal.com give us a good recap of the main profiles

• Hybrid employee: The employee works part of the work week in the main office and part remotely
• Full time Employee: The employee works full time from a remote office location for the employer
• Outsource / contractor: A single individual or entire department that performs work remotely. Not an employee.
• Temporary: A short term remote work application OR use of online meetings / conferencing.

^{Taken from: What is remote working?}

Pros and cons

Working remotely, whether you’re an employee or worker, has some pros and cons you should be aware of before you make the leap.

For companies

Pros

• Improved HR capabilities
• Increased productivity
• Budget friendly
• Lower infrastructure costs

Cons

• Culture clash
• Loss of “real time” interactions
• Management challenges

Pro: It’s more eco-friendly

As a remote employer, each member of your workforce who works from home greatly reduces his carbon footprint by not having to commute into the office. Fewer office supplies are used, and energy used to run their home offices is also lessened.

Pro: Your staff will be in better health

With more time in their workday, remote workers often incorporate more physical exercise into their day than office workers, who are either stuck in the office or commuting to and from their homes.

Pro: They’ll be more loyal

When you give your employees the ability to customize their schedule so that they can better balance their professional life and their personal life, an interesting thing happens: they become grateful

^{Taken from: 6 Interesting Benefits of Remote Work}

For workers

Pros

• Increased productivity
• Saved time
• Budget savings
• Access to infrastructure
• Flexible location

Cons

• Workaholism
• Work methodology
• Isolation
• Loss of face-to-face networking

Con: workaholism

So, there is no commute, no office gossip, no coffee or lunch breaks with your teammates, and next to no human interaction. This could be a disastrous combination if you are prone to burnout. You’ll end up pushing yourself harder than you should, and since there’s nobody around to notice that you could use a break, chances are you won’t figure it out until it’s too late.

^{Taken from: Things To Watch Out For While Working Remotely}

I propose that most remote workers work at least as hard, if not more so, than their local counterparts. This is fueled in no small part by guilt and fear. We DO feel guilty working at home. We assume you all think we’re just hanging out without pants on. We assume you think we’re just at the mall tweeting. We fear that you think we aren’t putting in a solid 40 hours (or 50, or 60).

^{Taken from: Being a Remote Worker Sucks - Long Live the Remote Worker}

Working-asynchronously

“An asynchronous working style is one where the entire team rarely, if ever, gets together for big agreements and discussions. Each individual team member more or less works on their own and at their own pace, with collaboration and agreement being handled by asynchronous mechanisms such as e-mail and shared online documents. Working asynchronously certainly enables the team to be geographically distributed, or telecommute, or maintain flexible hours.”

^{Taken from: Working asynchronously}

This is — by far — my favorite aspect of working at GitHub. Everything is asynchronous. ..Asynchronous communication means I can take a step out for lunch and catch up on transcripts when I get back. Asynchronous communication means I can ask my coworker a question in-chat and not worry about bothering her since she’ll get back to me when she’s available. Asynchronous communication means I can go to rural Minnesota and feel like I’m working from the office like normal.

^{Taken from: How GitHub Works: Be Asynchronous}

Hours are great ways to determine productivity in many industries, but not ours. Working in a startup is a much different experience than working in a factory. You can’t throw more time at a problem and expect it to get solved. Code is a creative endeavor. You need to be in the right mindset to create high-quality code.

^{Taken from: How GitHub Works: Hours are Bullshit}

Make email work

• Be clear and precise. It’s very easy to misinterpret email, especially across cultures and languages. Re-read your emails before sending.
• Document everything. Document all decisions - if it’s not recorded in email, it didn’t happen.
• Share everything. Use email to share face-to-face hallway, office, lunchtime or post-meeting conversations.
• Be inclusive. Leave time for other sites to read and reply before closing the issue (as appropriate).
• Set up inclusive DLs. Having all stakeholders on the appropriate distribution lists is the easiest way to keep from forgetting other sites. Don’t hide DL membership.
• Answer all questions asked. Incomplete answers lead to frustration and wasted time.
• Avoid unnecessary questions. Ask yourself ‘is it really worth a 24-hour turn-around to answer this question? Can I answer it myself, or ask someone local? Don’t block an important thread with a trivial question.

^{Taken from: 30 Tips for Successful Communication as a Remote Worker}

Make meetings effective

Do you really need a meeting? Meetings usually arise when a concept isn’t clear enough. Instead of resorting to a meeting, try to simplify the concept so you can discuss it quickly via email or im or Campfire. The goal is to avoid meetings. Every minute you avoid spending in a meeting is a minute you can get real work done instead.

^{Taken from: Meetings Are Toxic}

• Pick the right forum. Use meetings rather than long email threads to discuss complex issues. For small meetings, it is often better if everyone is in their own office rather than using a meeting room. this promotes equality between local and remote team members.
• Share the context and goals. Shared context is critical to clear communication. There are often a lot of assumptions you know in a particular location based on side-conversations, etc.
• Share a deck. It’s much easier to follow the conversation if everyone is looking at the same thing. Even if you are sharing via OC or Live Meeting, send the deck or a link to the deck by email well in advance (home connections can be slow) and call out each slide.
• Send minutes promptly. After every meeting, send minutes documenting all decisions and including clear actions and owners. Avoid cryptic or overly-concise notes,imagine them being read or reported out by someone who wasn’t there, six months later.
• Record and share brown bags. Brown bags are often at unsociable hours. Recording and sharing helps partner teams as well as your own.

• Speak clearly and slowly. The connections aren’t always clear.
• Be precise and concise. Help to keep the meeting short and productive.
• Speak one at a time, otherwise no-one can be heard.
• Ask for confirmation that the callers heard everything clearly.
• Sit near the microphone, especially if your voice is soft.
• Ask for comments. It’s hard to break into the conversation over the phone.
• Avoid jargon and culture-specific phrases. English is not the first language of many people on our teams, and can also vary greatly across cultures.
• Meet face to face from time to time. Meeting in person builds your knowledge of each other’s mannerisms and communication style. Subsequent remote communications are much richer and misunderstandings rarer as a result.

^{Taken from: 30 Tips for Successful Communication as a Remote Worker}

Remote companies

• 
  Automattic
• 
  Basecamp
• 
  Buffer
• 
  Circleci
• 
  Digital Ocean
• 
  Github
• 
  Ghost
• 
  Toptal

Marketplaces

• Crew
• Codementor
• Flexhire
• Upwork
• Twago