Remote control: looking back at my first year working remotely

Even though I had experienced some resemblance of working remotely like freelancing, building a product with my buddy, and working from home one or two days a week, I had never embarked on a 100% remote journey. Until last year, when I joined Litmus (a remote-friendly company with offices in Boston, San Mateo and London, and the rest of the team distributed around the globe) as a Product Designer working right outside out of Toronto.

It was very tempting to start writing about my remote endeavor during the honeymoon phase, but I purposely waited for exhilaration to cool off, first impressions to fade, and new routines to develop so that my opinion could be less biased (who am I kidding?).

While one might think a remote job is a cool, relaxed version of the “normal” one, to me it meant quite the opposite: I had to figure out how all of the pieces move, and if this machine will work with some of the pieces missing. In short, I had to develop new habits.

Why remote?

What I thought about working remotely (frankly, more about the glossy exterior side of “remotely“ rather than down-to-earth “working”) was outright stereotypical.

• I like to experiment with my life because, well, YOLO. The remote job sounded like a brand new experience with all sorts of things to figure out.
• The idea of being able to travel for a prolonged period of time or even live anywhere was so compelling. I had plans to travel to Europe for quite a while, and remote work seemed to be a perfect fit to combine both travel and work.
• Even though I turned my commute into a tolerably productive routine, I still felt like I could use those 2–3 hours daily for more exciting things.
• Remote work looked like the next level in my career: surely a challenge, yet a contemporary way to work. Managing my time and being in control of when, where, and how was exciting.

On the surface, everything looked bright and shiny, though I took some time to stop and ponder over how remote work may affect my life negatively. That was the time when I deliberately allowed some concerns and hesitations to creep in in order to be able to withstand them. But the only way to find out whether those were real was to take a leap of faith. Come what may.

It doesn’t matter how much advice you got, the reality is always tailored to you.

Fears, doubts, and insecurities

I always try to keep my expectations low: if you expect too much, dreaming about all the good things that will undoubtedly come your way, perhaps, you are designing your future for disappointment. If all goes according to plan, there is nothing to be happy about: you have lived through that pleasant — though imaginary — excitement before good things happened. If not, then, well, you are in trouble.

No squealing, remember that it’s all in your head
— Gorillaz (Clint Eastwood)

That said, here is a list of fears, doubts, and insecurities I faced before diving into the “working remotely” world, in order of severity.

#1. The company won’t keep its promises.

More often than not a company pledges all sorts of things when hiring, and then its promises just evaporate under the label of “priorities have changed”, “oh, it doesn’t work this way”, “let’s talk about it later” or anything similar, usually preceded by yes-buts.

I was also concerned that the company might practice the “sink or swim” technique. I knew how to “swim” alright, but with this approach, swimming usually happens in circles, so it takes a great deal of time to fit in.

No company ever said “We are a mess, dude, you won’t be happy here…”

Looking back at my onboarding process and any requests I made throughout the year there is no doubt Litmus keeps its word. There were no hiccups with sponsoring my home office, paying invoices, approving expenses, letting me go on vacation. My brand new laptop was delivered a week before my official start date. And in summer 2018 I attended the “Mind the Product” conference in San Francisco without any pushback.

#2. Coworkers will suck.

Sometimes it happens that your immediate team is comprised of well-versed, nice people, but when it comes to cross-team collaboration or dealing with other departments, colleagues may not be as nice as you could have hoped for. They might have their own rules and ways of doing things and might not share your enthusiasm.

On top of that, there is usually a certain degree of skepticism towards the “new guy” ideas, who doesn’t know anything (phew, glad I found a proper word) about how things work here.

It also happens that during the interview process people are on their best behavior, and when it’s time to work together, they suddenly are not as friendly and supportive as advertised.

I was surprised how helpful, knowledgeable and humble everyone at Litmus was. It is easy to discuss matters when people are pumped to do their best for the greater good, not necessarily sharing the same perspective. Listening to others while collaborating is a rare commodity that the company possesses.

#3. I will become an errand boy.

Another potential problem was running errands for my family during my working hours. And since this problem involves family, it automatically turns into a delicate and difficult one. It’s so tempting to ask a family member who is always at home (albeit working) to do an it-will-only-take-you-10-minutes favor. Of course, I don’t mind to help if help is really needed, but silently encouraging this behavior might turn asking for a favor into a habit, which would be way harder to break later.

My family and I had a serious conversation about running errands and how it will interfere with my work. Luckily, they accepted without much resistance. I suspected it could be a ruse, and, indeed, after a week or so a harmless request was made. I refused firmly, maybe to a degree of being unreasonable, but now we all are in agreement that my job isn’t any different than a “normal” one.

To be fair to my family, they bought me a sign which reads “Office”. This sign sits on my desk and when it faces the outside it means I am working, please don’t interrupt. It’s funny how sometimes they ask if I have come from work yet when I am at my desk after my regular working hours.

I still help out dealing with doctor appointments, school bus cancellations, PA days and what else life holds, but household chores and random shopping are excluded from that list.

#4. My physical shape will give up on me.

If you work from home you aren’t really able to move around a lot: there is no commuting, going out for lunch, walking to meeting rooms, randomly visiting coworkers’ desks or getting a cup of coffee from the kitchen located on the opposite side of the office.

The very thought that the amount of my physical activity will get drastically decreased, pushed me to signing up for ping-pong, basketball, and a swimming pool. I started to run more. Every single day, regardless of the weather, I “walk to work” for 45 minutes. Within this year I gave up on my morning ritual twice, both times due to harsh weather conditions. Recently I even started to think that I should “run to work” instead of just walking. As a bonus (I know people who work out just to be able to eat more), within 4 months since I started to work remotely I had lost 20 pounds.

If you don’t feel like exercising — force yourself, there is a 100% chance you won’t regret it afterwards.

My relationship with the fridge (I was really worried about its proximity to my desk) haven’t changed either: we are nothing more than acquaintances.

Another great perk that rarely is available if you work from the office is that occasionally I can take a power nap if I feel tired or I’m stuck on a problem. It helps to quickly “reboot the system”, and instead of sluggishly struggling through the day recuperate your strengths and move forward.

I don’t know if this is related, but for the first time in my life, I had reported zero sick days within last year.

#5. Out of sight, out of mind.

My biggest question in regards to team collaboration was “How do I approach someone with an urgent matter?”. There is always a chance that the person I need to get a hold of will be busy or won’t be able to respond within the timeframe I need. Working with clients — as a freelancer or at an agency — is easier in this sense, as you just account for some buffer or idle time. If it’s a time-sensitive issue, you just call them or email with a note “until it’s resolved, the project won’t move forward”. Sometimes, when a handful of projects are being worked on simultaneously, delays on the client side are even preferable. But on a distributed team, often times working in different timezones, with lots of dependencies, it’s so easy to let down others “with good reason”. What, eventually, may end up with a blame game.

It’s scary to think that if you are not in the office you become a second-class citizen: conversations will be held without you, decisions will be made, and you’ll find out after the fact.

All of the above melted away after a few weeks. I was stunned by how quickly people respond to my messages, and I am doing my best to do the same. The core idea of working remotely is to trust the process and the team. This requires a whole new level of maturity from the company, and so far Litmus handles it perfectly.

#6. My social skills will deteriorate

When I saw that cartoon by Oatmeal, I was like “Yeah, this”. Not being able to talk to human beings for an extended period of time will definitely leave a mark on the way you communicate. What I found entertaining is that my social skills have improved (perhaps, it’s just the first symptom of the disease).

In the office environment, I had to interact with everyone whether I liked it or not, regardless of my mood or schedule. That sometimes led to not always following the conversation or showing my interlocutors lack of involvement. They could sense my absence and even be offended by it.

Working remotely helps me to reflect more, formulate my thoughts, questions, and ideas clearer and convey them in a more comprehensive way, to speak more freely and to the point. As English is not my first language, the ability to type/edit my Slack messages is pure gold.

There are no meetings for the sake of meetings, which the corporate office environment is so notorious for. Working remotely makes you be mindful of using other people’s time. Occasionally it backfires, so reaching the right balance between being an annoyance and keeping radio silence is important and, for the most part, is a matter of time.

I was afraid video chat will not be a proper replacement for talking to someone face to face. Thankfully, it’s virtually the same thing. And the best way to make video chat more natural is to meet your colleagues in person once in a while.

Litmus organizes an annual get-together event called “All Hands”. Everyone flies to the office in Boston for a week of socializing, volunteering, collaboration and getting aligned with the company’s goals and objectives. During this week lots of hugging happens, lots of new connections are made. I’ve attended All Hands twice, and every time I feel recharged after the event and look forward to the next one.

Things I’ve read about but didn’t think they applied to me

While I spent some time ruminating on how to optimize for efficiency, some of the issues I’ve read about seemed to be no-brainers.

Time management

Time management skills are honed over time, so I was positive I’d be alright if I work towards delivering results versus time clocking. Besides, that was my way of doing things forever.

As much as I am a guy who is driven by inspiration, I acknowledge it’s crucial to block time for the head-down work. Sticking to your focus hours has never been easier if you work remotely. It’s hard to be distracted while you are in the zone unless you want to be.

Setting the goal for the day helps to stay focused. It also aids with prioritization and planning your next day.

Unplugging

Unplugging happens naturally when you have a family and you have a life outside the company.

Unlike working in the office, where it’s nearly impossible to walk away when you are asked to stay late (people literally grab you by the hand and beg/demand), working remotely makes it immensely harder for anyone to abuse your time, and with team members working asynchronously — entirely needless. If an unforeseen issue comes your way and you are absolutely required to tackle it right here and now, it’s way easier psychologically to stay late at home than at the office.

Knowing that after my working hours I need to take care of my side project (an app helping to onboard new hires) gives me another reason for a hard stop. And that, conversely, aids with being more productive during the day.

Motivation

Motivation acts exactly the same way either when you’re working remotely or in-house. If you want to improve as a professional, obtain new skills and learn new technologies or whatever you’re interested in, you are motivated regardless of the environment. Once I embraced the idea that everything I do, I do — in the long run — for myself, I started to better my skills every day.

Motivation should come from inside, not rely on either the carrot or the stick.

Isolation

This issue is largely associated with one’s personality. Being a mix of introvert and extravert, I find it hard sometimes to shut up at team meetings or, vice versa, I fear an approaching meeting without a sound reason.

Working remotely I get the perfect amount of human interaction I need. What’s even better — I am able to control it. I know for some people it’s important to unwind from time to time by strolling around the office, have a chat with a random coworker, exchange occasional small talk and feel normal again. The randomness of conversations at the office is something that keeps your social skills fresh. With a remote environment, it’s indefinitely harder (almost impossible) to have random face time with anyone: a person needs to agree to talk to you right here right now, and it’s their controlled environment you are breaking in. That said, working from home indeed may become a prison-like setup for some folks, especially in the early stages of their career.

Mixing up working environments may help to avoid that isolation feeling if you are prone to it. Coffee shops and libraries are good places for a quick change of scenery. I hate silence, that’s why I can’t live without background noise and my radio or Echo Dot are always on (a nice little perk from Litmus — they cover my Spotify subscription).

If you have a family and friends, nothing changes regarding your routine, really: after working hours and on weekends it’s 100% family time, plus I go out for a beer or two with my friends periodically.

Distractions

Remote work is designed to remove day-to-day distractions such as side conversations, prolonged team lunches, and ad-hoc meetings.

If you are willing to perform, it comes down to the question “Is it better for me to spend time on social media or create something meaningful?”

With that in mind, my social media consumption decreased radically. At some point I was even considering shutting down my Facebook and Twitter accounts but left them be for the sake of sharing my design work.

And relatedly, the nature of a designer’s work is to be in the know, which means the time I spend browsing designs and illustrations on Dribbble, or reading tech news helps me to keep up with the trends in design and inspire my designs.

As most of our team communication happens through Slack, there is effectively zero traffic in my mailbox, which is primarily reserved for notifications from apps we use. And in Slack, I am in control of distractions as well. If I am in my focus mode, I ignore notifications until I’m finished and then I triage those based on which channels they came from: whether these are direct messages, team messages or general channels messages.

I don’t believe suppressing is an effective strategy for deterring an individual from distractions. That should be ingrained in one’s mindset. If you are deprived of cat videos and it causes you pain then you’ll find a way to watch those anyway. A grown-up should be able to control their behavior. That’s how you improve, that’s how you grow, that’s how you decide on priorities.

If you can’t really keep your temptations in check remote work is not right for you. Perhaps, no work is right for you.

Things that changed over time

Over the last year, some of my original preconceived assumptions have shifted, and now I have a clearer understanding of what to expect next.

Work from anywhere
Before:
This is rad, I can go to Bali and work from there!

After:
Hypothetically, I could work from anywhere and turn my lifestyle into nomadic. Realistically, I have a family, and I don’t really want to change my lifestyle that often. Since I started to work remotely I have not traveled more than when I worked in the office, though next year I am going to try to stay in some places for a month or two. 28 days of vacation cover my travel needs for the year. I mean proper travel when you are totally unplugged.

Knowing that you are able to do something is powerful enough even if you will never do it.

Being always at home
Before:
This is sad, I will die from boredom…

After:

The only way you can die from boredom is if you do nothing.

It is quite interesting how time flies when you are working without distractions. Plus, there were some unexpected benefits of being at home. I had a couple of situations when I urgently needed to get a kid who got sick from school or fix a flat tire on my wife’s car. And it might sound funny, but I don’t have to go to the post office anymore to fetch a delivery.

No more commuting
Before:
This is cool, I will save so much time…

After:
One of the advantages of not commuting is that there was no time that I was late to a meeting because my bus stuck in the snow, or the subway train was delayed because someone decided to walk on the railway track (true stories).

I used to commute to downtown Toronto for 1.5 hours one way. Someone might say “oh, boy” and feel sorry, except for me it was a great opportunity to have 3 hours for self-improvement, every day. How you spend these hours is what matters. One can be bored to death and hate their guts for doing that, but this is about finding opportunities. I’ve read a ton of books.

I felt bad when I realized my little commute hack was not as effective anymore (you can’t read while walking, can you?). After a few months of listening to music, I started to listen to podcasts like Hardcore history and 99% Invisible which proved to be a decent substitute for my need to read.

Before you put your rose-colored glasses on

Jumping onto a remote train is hard.

First off, there is a relatively small number of remote-friendly or remote-first companies comparing to the typical office-based ones. And those are limited to SaaS mostly. If you are not in tech there is a much slimmer opportunity of getting a remote job.

Secondly, you have to compete against the world (figuratively speaking, of course) and not just people within a 25-mile radius. With such an extended pool of candidates, there was no way I thought I’d qualify.

On top of that, the majority of the remote positions are open to experienced candidates. And when it comes to gaining experience, there are no shortcuts.

It matters today what you were doing yesterday.

Humans are social animals, still.

As much as I am not a big fan of office environment, I must say that a lot of my friends are my former coworkers. The office is the best place to find like-minded individuals. There is a better chance to build a long-lasting relationship when you're able to chat informally on a daily basis finding similar interests and shared ideas.

It could be harder for some people to make new friends working remotely without much communication in person.

Set your priorities right.

I’ve worked for a variety of company types throughout my career: family-style agency, corporate, hyper-corporate, a start-up, and, finally, a remote-friendly company. Being able to compare my experiences helped me to arrive at a clear understanding of what’s better for me. I don’t know if I would be able to work remotely if I lived alone. Wait, I know. I wouldn’t be.

It just happened that I have a family of my own and friends I made prior to working remotely. Now I can tell it’s a big deal. Finding soulmates is not easy.

Don’t start your career with a remote job, start it with a job in the office.

Whenever you change your lifestyle, there is always a trade-off to be made: control versus freedom; money versus serenity; security versus opportunity; friends and family versus traveling; nine-to-five versus twenty-four-seven. But after a month in the job, I thought

There is no way I’m going back to work in the office.

and this is what I think now too.

Stay tuned

Initially, I have included in this story a section about the Design Team at Litmus as well, but at some point, I realized it was overkill for a single article alone and the team deserves a separate post, so I’ll write about it in the next one (making a new-remote-year resolution here).

Also, I am planning to relocate from Canada to Belarus this summer, and the move will definitely add more variables to the equation: a broader range of time zones, cultural intricacies, and longer flights. I’ll do my best to capture the changes and cover them too.