Deep Thoughts from a Remote Worker

I’ve been a remote worker for over three years now, ever since I joined the wonderful team at Pivot. What exactly does that mean? The Cambridge Dictionary defines remote working as a “situation in which an employee works mainly from home and communicates with the company by email and telephone.”

But for me, the definition goes much further than that. Sure, I work from my house. But I’ve also worked in coffee shops, libraries, airports, hotel rooms, in houses of friends and family, and in multiple countries. My definition of a remote worker is someone who gets their tasks and projects done regardless of where they are located.

Pivot has embraced being a digital workplace and I am proud to be a part of a company that isn’t afraid of change.

But just embracing change doesn’t mean you are doing it well. So how can you not only work remotely but be a successful remote worker? Here are my top four tips.

• Abundant patience. If you are like me and your coworkers and clients are in different time zones you may have to wait for an answer. Or perhaps you can’t remember your computer login password that you’ve used for the last two years (not my smartest moment) and no one is immediately available to help you reset it. Whatever the reason is for your wait, you need to be patient and not expect instantaneous results.
  
  
• Communication skills. This seems self-evident, but you’d be surprised how often communication can create roadblocks for teams with remote workers. You may consider yourself to be excellent at communicating, but your communication methods may be different from your coworkers’. For example, while you might prefer emails or IMs, your Luddite colleague might communicate better on a phone call. You need to identify the best ways to interact with your team as a whole or individuals you work close with.
  
  
• Basic tech knowledge. Whether your company has three employees or 30,000, there is a good chance that you’ll have to troubleshoot some basic technology issues. It may be as simple as rebooting your computer or creating Zaps with Zapier to help automate your work. Remote workers need the ability to figure out the problem and come up with a workable solve (hopefully a permanent solution and not a quick fix).
  
  
• Ability to embrace change. In the past three years I’ve used at least seven project management software solutions. That may sound like a lot and yes, it can be annoying to switch to a new system or juggle multiple solutions, but I believe that is the price of progress. Your ability to be flexible and willing to learning new processes will ultimately help you keep track of your projects, collaborate quicker, and overall be more productive.

Now that I’ve mentioned my ability to embrace change, have a good laugh while you read why I am not ready for Alexa for Business. If you want to learn more about ways that Pivot can help your sales and marketing team accelerate the sales process while building customers relationships, take a look at Pivot Services.