Ms. Career Girl Blog: 6 STEPS TO BUILDING A REMOTE WORK ENVIRONMENT THAT’S SUSTAINABLE
When COVID-19 began, work-from-home seemed like a blessed stopgap — a way out of working in potentially health- and life-compromising environments, and a way to (partially) manage kids who had nowhere to go during the day. But now, more and more organizations are focusing on how to transition to remote work for the long-haul — from Twitter to Google, work from home is the new office, and likely will be after the long shadow of coronavirus has finally faded.
How do I know this? Because I run a 1,000- employee strong remote organization aimed at helping companies build connected, collaborative cultures outside the traditional office, and we’ve been watching the remote work wave come toward us since long before coronavirus set in. We started all the way back in 1999, and despite the raised eyebrows and lack of roadmap, we’ve fostered some unthinkable transitions. Today, I believe virtually any business can — and should — go remote for optimal results. My book, Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture With Virtual Teams, outlines all of the tips we’ve collected along the way.
One of the most common concerns we hear from businesses of all sizes and industries is: How do we make remote work last over time? How can we keep this from feeling like there’s no real connection or organic collaboration?
Below are some of the tips we’ve learned for making a remote work environment stick and stay productive: