3 Problems I Had By Working Remotely
How can we improve the remote work?
Last week, I met my team for the first time after 1 year of working remotely. It was such a nice moment to meet people and laugh in person.
Also, I had an insight: after I lost my job during the pandemic in 2021, it was hard to find a place to work because the remote culture was not well defined in some companies I worked for. Today I will list some difficulties I had working remotely that should not exist and I hope we can bring awareness to the world if we talk about it.
1. Onboarding
The first difficulty I had was the onboarding process. No documentation, no help, no buddies to guide me, no commitment to ramp me up, etc. Wait? Is it a remote culture problem? No! I used to have all this when I was working in the office for some companies, too. So now imagine: if it was hard in person, imagine having all those problems to solve remotely. That is why we need to care about the onboarding process for new hires and internal movements. If we want to succeed working remotely, we need to be good at onboarding people. How is your situation today? Do you have enough documentation for someone who is starting to work for your team? How about a buddy who will be available to guide and answer all the questions the new employee finds in her/his way? This is the first item that can help your team become remote forever and eliminate all the doubts some companies have created about working from home.
2. Communication
My second difficulty was communication. Some people do not like Zoom, slack, and teams. Also, you have the ones who do not know how to communicate asynchronously, so the communication can be a disaster, depending on the profile of the people you work with.
I worked for a company in Quebec, and they knew I preferred communication in English, but they always communicated in French with me. No problem! The problem was HOW they communicated with me.
I have a picture of how the manager answered me once:
It is a chat in French, and he is writing: "seriously, with your age and level of studies, I think you are capable of doing it, so you will find, thank you".
This was the answer I had by asking a manager how to deliver my computer back to the company. I left this company after 3 months because they had communication issues even before starting on my first day of work. I really hope you do not need to handle any situation like this one.
To master our communication, learn how to be kind to people behind the screen. Also, learn how to have effective async communication, it is a game changer! And last but not least, read the posts about communication I already wrote here at Substack!
3. Respect and Trust
The last difficulty is the lack of respect and trust. Some people think we are just machines, not humans. They do not respect the human being on the other side. The example I shared before shows that.
Respect also allows everyone to talk, not cutting people; it cultivates a safe space for everyone. And when you have respect, you start to have trust.
If your team does not have respect or trust, it is a red flag!
All this to say:
These problems exist in the office. It will be even worse remotely if the company/team does not know how to handle them. Try to change the environment where you are today by practicing what I brought to you. Be the change you want to see in the world!
I believe if everyone learns how to work remotely, we will have no doubts about working from home in a future soon.
Sponsorship:
This newsletter is sponsored by Playbook DPI - Desenvolvimento Profissional Internacional. The product is in Portuguese, and the price is in R$.
It is a practical guide with everything you need to get a job abroad based on my experience. Also, it includes a goal and habits tracker to help you in 2024.
You can access it right now by clicking here.
Podcast:
The last episode of Tech & Accent Podcast:
EP 04 - The Life of a Developer in Italy with Augusto Galego
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Here is one thing I've enjoyed in the past few days:
I am planning a trip to Mexico next week and need someone to visit my cats! I have been using this platform, and I love it. P.s: I am not sponsored by them, I am really a customer: https://en.pawshake.ca/
I hope it can be helpful for you, too! :)
Job to share with you this week:
Conseiller en architecture de sécurité - ESI TECHNOLOGIES Montreal.
Requirements:
As you can see, you need to know French for this job:
BAC en informatique ou dans une autre discipline pertinente;
Au moins de 5 ans d’expérience en sécurité de l’information;
4 années d’expérience en architecture de sécurité;
Habiletés en matière de négociation, de gestion du changement et pour les communications interpersonnelles;
Habiletés à travailler en équipe en collaboration avec d’autres spécialistes;
Excellente maîtrise des éléments suivants : confidentialité, authentification, identité et accès, gestion de risques, normes, politiques, détection d’intrusion, sécurité du réseau et du périmètre, protection des systèmes, etc.;
Excellente maitrise du français à l’oral et à l’écrit;
Maitrise de l’anglais à l’oral et à l’écrit, un atout;
Détenir une certification parmi les suivantes : CISM, CCSK, CISSP, Risk Manager ISO 27001-2, ISO 27001LI ou LA, CCNA-Security.
Apply here.
Have a great weekend!