Blog Post

Staying Connected for the Remote Worker

John Timpane • May 29, 2020
Working from home doesn’t mean working alone. For both veteran and novice remote workers, it’s vital, more now than ever, to stay connected with boss(es), coworkers, clients, and contacts. Writing in the St. Louis Business Journal, Kristin Tucker, Managing Principal at TDK Technologies, says, “People who succeed in remote working scenarios tend to be open, honest, self-motivated, results-oriented, and good communicators.”

At the office, you can walk over and talk to your officemates or superiors. Once the scene shifts and it’s time to work from home, however, things change. Effective workers bridge the gap and make sure staying in touch — frequent, concrete, to-the-point, and above all human — is built into the workday.

That’s not just for the people you work with. It’s also for you. Being a communicator means being a part of a team, a project, a network. Good communication can ease that sense of being isolated or invisible. 

The key, says Aileen Izquierdo, 46, Interim Chair for the Department of Communication at Florida International University in Miami, is that “the basic tenets that work in the traditional workplace transfer well to the remote setting.” 

Below are some tips from the pros.

Be proactive. This is crucial, especially for those just starting out. Team members need to find out that their superiors, coworkers, and clients expect. Managers need to do the same thing: Making clear what’s expected right at the outset will head off a host of misunderstandings. 

“Instead of guessing,” says Izquierdo, “we need to ask questions.” Employees, she says, should ask, “How does my boss want me to communicate? Mornings? Evenings? Multiple check-ins daily? A daily wrap-up email or video conference? A status review at the end of the week?” If you are new to working from home, she says, take good care of your clients by laying out your schedule and intentions early: “ ‘Dear client: This is what you can expect from me. I will check in with you or meet with you at this time, et cetera,’ so the client is not wondering.”

Such steps may seem obvious, Izquierdo says, “but once they’re taken care of, we won’t have any confusion, as in, ‘Oh, I assumed this was what you wanted.’ ”

Overcommunicate. Whether you’re a boss or an employee, communicate often and with clarity and content. Touch base with people regularly. Always have something useful for them, even if it’s just a quick one-minute update. Team members, prepare well for conferences: Come with a few good ideas to contribute, a few good questions to ask. Be ready to engage queries. 

Overcommunication is important up and down the company hierarchy. Sara Sutton, 46, is CEO and Founder of FlexJobs, a working-from-home company with a virtual office in Newtown, Conn. She and her team “try to keep each other informed of what we’re working on. And when in doubt, we proactively ask questions and bring up subjects we’re unclear about. Essentially, the more transparent and open, the better.” That includes suggestions, doubts, news, updates, feedback, or doubts. 

Know the best stay-in-touch tech for your job — and use it. Technology can be overwhelming — but no one needs to know every app and program. If your group uses Zoom, your office uses Slack, or your supervisor prefers updates via Skype, master them (it’s easy). A good computer and excellent Wi-Fi are essential. If you haven’t already, consider investing in a good set of headphones and a comfortable, ergonomic chair. 

Don’t forget broad social-media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This is the age of social media marketing: Thousands of companies, sales officers, and entrepreneurs use them to expand the audience for their products and services. But these media are not just for marketers; they’re for everybody. Follow people you’d like as professional contacts. Use Facebook Messenger to engage contacts who follow you back. Master the fine art of social sharing — posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere in prominent, arresting ways, with links viewers can follow back to you and what you do. 

There’s also such a thing as a phone. It may seem old-fashioned in light of the many virtual means now available for staying in touch, but it remains a powerful way to reach people.

“We do see some video fatigue,” Izquierdo says, “and the phone can be a less stressful way to stay in touch, especially one-on-one.”

Change it up. Speaking of video fatigue, many of us are feeling it these days. Video isn’t right for all purposes; plenty of research suggests that it should be used judiciously, for work of the highest importance. Managers can vary the media they use for staying in touch with their charges, as can workers-from-home with clients and coworkers. Phone, email, file sharing, and messaging have their roles in maintaining variety and clarity.

Be professional. Remote workers should look as good as they want people to think they are. There is some dressing-down in the stay-at-home work world, but it’s better to look a little more dressed than a little less. Mary Acord, 62, a teacher in Fairfax, Calif., says that her first aim every morning is to “try to clean up and look reasonable for online meetings.” 

Give good camera. One cardinal rule is the same as for taking photographs: Face the light, don’t have it behind you. The ideal set-up is near a window, facing out. For windowless rooms or night conferences, put a lamp behind your laptop. 

No looking down at the camera. Your laptop should be about 12-14 inches from your face, at eye level; stack a book under your laptop to get the level right. Bright or glaring backgrounds tire the viewer’s eye, so prefer darker backdrops. Make sure nothing distracting is in the picture. 

 As for sound, most laptops have adequate mics at about a foot of distance. If it’s not sounding good, consider buying an external mic. Most important of all, know what you look and sound like. Do some dry runs. Record them if you can; it’s painful but informative.  

Practice good remote etiquette. Remote communications are just different from face-to-face interaction. “I try to keep in mind how the other person is going to hear what I’m saying,” says Tracy Quan, 42, a writer in New York. Some things might not come off quite right; be ready to clarify. The reverse also holds true: Be ready for, and patient about, unclear or uncomfortable moments, and take nothing personally. 

“There’s a built-in awkwardness, and it’s easy to sound rude,” says Julie Bort, a “50-ish” writer in Colorado. “Always be willing to explain, always ask questions.” 

Respond in a timely fashion when contacted. “The main thing that makes me a good communicator,” Quan says, “is that I follow up with people.” Initial contacts are time-sensitive; act on them. Superiors, coworkers, and clients get priority — but professional contacts deserve timely response, too.
One useful tool is the “snooze” feature found in Gmail, Facebook, and elsewhere. Snooze lets you schedule emails to resurface at a specific time. If you send someone an email, or they send you one, you can schedule that to come back up, as a timely reminder — and a prompt to respond.  

Keep an active communications schedule. Set a routine for certain kinds of communications — urgent in the morning, say, less urgent after lunch. Acord says early morning is her time to “start answering all the emails about how something isn’t working the way I’d hope.” Jeff Hurvitz, 70, a long-term care insurance specialist in Abington Township, Pa., says, “I follow up with emails and client contacts in mid-morning.”  

Consider keeping a communication log. Keep track of whom you just talked to and when. Know whom you need to contact and schedule it. Constantly revise and maintain your schedule. And plenty of cell phones and computers have alarm or prompt features you can link to your calendar, to remind you about calls or meetings ahead of time.

Keep it human. Depending on company culture and the personalities involved, both managers and team members may introduce a personal note to remote meetings. Ask people how they’re doing. Recognize their personal milestones, including birthdays, babies, and achievements.

Check in with people. “I have been calling everyone on my contacts list,” says Joe Diorio, 64, of Nashville, Tenn., “if for no other reason, just to say hello. It helps me keep sane and keeps me in touch.”

Supervisors, team members, everyone, Sutton says, “have to make a really solid effort to build and maintain good working relationships. One new thing we’re doing to start meetings is to have everyone offer a one-word check-in that describes how they’re doing. It’s comforting to know others may be sharing your feelings, and it’s a good way for us to keep a pulse on how our team is doing, emotionally and mentally.” 

 People who recently have gone from an office setting to working from home can find that they miss the water-cooler moments, the people they used to run into around the office, the informal ways they made friends and exchanged ideas. Izquierdo says it’s vital constantly to “establish and refresh lines of communication, check in, say hi to each other.”

And that may be the big takeaway about communication for those working from home: When you’re the most professional and the most effective, you’re also the most human.

John Timpane is a writer and editor working from home in New Jersey.


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