Working from home: Long-time remote workers offer tips
Many have found themselves working from their bedrooms and couches since the spread of the novel coronavirus all but shut down public spaces. And while you might be struggling with how to arrange the company monitor on your dining table, long-time remote workers have spent years perfecting their work-from-home routines.
Doug Odegaard is the Senior Automation Engineer at Q2e Banking, President of intraLogix, and a frequent contract software architect and business consultant. He has been working remotely from Missoula since 2008, after his company of three people at intraLogix realized they weren’t spending much time at the office anyway.
Working from home lends itself to the technical work he does, and he can become extremely focused.
“Over the years, I’ve gotten to a point where I’m comfortable with blocking out what else is happening in my home, and I can get into a groove where I can sit and just punch stuff out,” said Odegaard.
Christin Hileman is a Brownfields Specialist and Project Manager at NewFields. The national environmental engineering and consulting firm has offices in Missoula and Helena, but Hileman has worked remotely from Havre since 2013.
Hileman agrees that she is more productive working remotely without some of the distractions of an office, such as ‘water cooler talk.’ The friendships and communal spirit of a shared workspace, however, is what she misses most about working in an office environment.
“[Remote work] takes a while to get used to and it can feel very lonely and isolated at times,” she said. “I think that those who are just venturing into this just need to give themselves some time and some grace and understanding that this is an adjustment and it takes a while until you get used to it.”
Odegaard said that if he notices out his window that the lawn is overgrown, he has gotten to the point that he no longer feels spurred to immediately cut it during working hours. For those who are new, however, it’s easy to succumb to distractions. Without discipline in maintaining a schedule, you can waste a lot of time.
Hileman appreciates the flexibility that working remotely affords, such as being able to drop her son off at preschool and pick him up during the workday. Since the coronavirus outbreak, she now home-schools her kids each morning and works in the afternoon or evening. Despite these adjustments, however, she values a set work schedule and encourages people to stick to it.
“I think that that’s really important for working from home; maybe your schedule changes as mine has during the pandemic, but I still have a schedule, and I think that helps me be accountable to others in my office and clients or others outside my organization.”
Hileman also dresses as if she’s going to work when she steps into her home office. “My husband kind of jokes with me like, well, why don’t you wear sweatpants or your pajamas? And I just think you have a different mindset when you’re dressed and you know you’re ready to work and be professional.”
With many workers sharing internet and physical space with family and roommates, it’s unreasonable to expect a seamless jump into a highly-productive new routine. Understand that part of addressing challenges with concentration is to be diligent in terms of work-life balance.
“At the end of the day, one hard thing for me is I don’t necessarily walk out of my office here and [disconnect] with my job. You know, my home is my office,” said Odegaard. “It could be seen as a con for some people that there’s too much blend of work and life. Honestly, I think people are getting a big taste of that right now.”
The world is going through uniquely stressful times, and routine stress relievers such as getting a drink after work, going to the gym, and spending time with friends, are also disrupted.
To prevent work and personal time from bleeding together, Hileman suggests jotting down the top priorities you hope to accomplish the next day before signing off. With a note waiting for her, she feels more confident that she can pick up where she left off the next morning.
Before COVID-19, Odegaard found it useful to vary his routine by working in parks or coffee shops. Since quarantining, he’s taken to sitting on the porch when he hits a wall or feels unproductive. Although it’s more difficult with a stay-at-home order, the occasional change of scenery is important for both work process and mental health.
Even if you don’t have the room for a home office, establishing a corner or desk where you can focus on work will help to set boundaries. Odegaard also recommended that people spend time making their work spaces personalized and functional. He removed the virtual background of an alpine lake to reveal his own home office, which has a large dry erase board and dual monitors. Soon he’ll be moving the setup upstairs to a room with natural light and a view of Snowbowl. “I realized, ‘Why am I in the basement?’” he said. “I need to have a spot that’s inspiring.”
Lastly, Odegaard expressed the importance of investing effort into improving soft skills and people skills. He practices what he calls “over-communication.” There are more tools than ever before—such as Slack, Zoom, and screen-sharing—that help facilitate communication within teams. Still, without thoughtfulness and intention, communications won’t be effective.
To be more active in conversations, turn on your camera and microphone during a virtual call. Talk frequently with your co-workers so you are communicating more, not less, than in the office, and when doing so be thorough in voicing your questions, expectations, and assumptions.
Hileman hopes that this forced experiment will help individuals appreciate time they have spent in the office. “I value remote work very much. I also believe that technology cannot replace those face to face interactions,” she said. Because of this, Hileman makes trips to Missoula to meet new employees and connects with clients in-person every few months.
Remote work in a post-COVID world
Since the pandemic, Odegaard has noticed that a few coworkers have realized that they work well remotely and guesses that they might ask a manager to WFH three or four days a week moving forward.
“I think it’s going to be interesting after this period of time when people have had a taste of it. I mean, honestly, from this point, when this is all over, and people go back to their offices, what does that look like?” he said.
Anne Boothe, who started a company called Rural Montana Freelance, enthusiastically agrees with the prediction that businesses might consider work-from-home as more standard than before the crisis.
Boothe is the chair of the Montana Economic Development Association’s working group to advance remote work at a local level in Montana.
The group consists of government workers, grant writers for remote education, and broadband experts. It was organized a few months ago and meets informally about once a quarter.
Hileman is part of the working group and hopes that this time will expand understanding around a remote workforce as an option for companies.
“I think there are a lot of managers and supervisors that are very scared and intimidated by the idea of remote work, and it’s something that they haven’t wanted to experiment with in the past. And so I’m hopeful that this has maybe broadened their horizon and consideration of remote work.”
Those involved agree that investing in remote work will contribute to economic development in Montana, particularly in rural areas. The goal of the group is to educate employees, employers, and contractors about working from home as well as advocate for regulations and laws that support remote workers.
During a meeting early in April, the group met virtually and discussed how much had changed since the previous meeting, which took place months before COVID-19 had affected Montana. Boothe, who is based in Malta, suggested that a silver thread in the pandemic is that remote work will gain momentum and rural communities will begin conversations about how to support a remote workforce.
After the October 2019 meeting in Havre, the Department of Labor put together a Remote Workforce Toolkit with policies, resources and guidelines to support workers.
“People always dream of living in Montana. And, you know, if we can ensure that we have the appropriate backbone to support their industries and their connectivity, there’s no reason they can’t live here,” said Boothe. “I think our remoteness is an asset and we need to learn how to tell that story to attract and retain people.”
About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is an association of more than 230 high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information visit MTHighTech.org.
