"Beware of the office!", Or How to make finally his work, when everything and everyone around against the
Productivity / / December 23, 2019
Article idea came to me after that, I decided to count his experience the mercenary work in offices and contrast it with the same remote working, Of which I am a supporter and I try in every way to promote it. Office work - is a twilight workflow, through which we make our way today, though, Anton Gorodetsky in the "Watch". And the more experience, "the office of the Samurai", the higher it is given, the more it moves freely in the muddy water, and the happier looks the part.
The old office model
See the series "Mad Men," which tells the story of an advertising agency in the heyday of the advertising market in the US in the 60s. People working there in huge inspirational offices. Everyone was pretty decent-secretary, who replaced a smartphone and a computer with the calendar, task manager, word processing, spreadsheets, the Internet and in general all that you do today itself. Yet they had rooms, the availability of alcohol in a couple of steps in any part of the office, and more of what lost its meaning today.
transformed office. You do not need more people to bear in mind it is important not to forget about the meetings and just do your job. Drink was indecent during the working day. Cabinets few have. But the office itself remained. The constant "work - this office" is so ingrained that it is very difficult to knock it out of the heads. These patients not only a life-long top-managers of corporations and "red directors", but also young start-ups, which are the first "seed" money for some reason, immediately spend on office, rather than a product or sale.
What to do. If you are forced to work in the office and carry all the burden of responsibilities "of the office of the Samurai", the tips below will be useful.
Head "on an elastic"
In general, any manager is constantly experiencing that the job is done, and the presence in the office of his employees very cool soothing. He, as a hen gathers her "chickens" and deceived by the fact that processes are taking place because it is close. This is not true. Employees are equally powerful laykayut Facebook and watching YouTube that house with the tablet, that out of the closet with a smartphone that from the workplace.
What to do. Change chief difficult, but change the communication with them is possible: to be more open in reporting and just talk without a kick that you do. All this will reduce stress and make it less "elastic" boss. Initiate morning flying detachment for 5 minutes, which tells you what you are doing today and what it will end the evening. Remind your weekly plan of tasks. Ask for advice. Give him a sense of control, and he, if he had an adequate person, slowly begins with you "get off."
Then things just need to translate in the morning Skype-calls and possibly convince the manager that you prefer to perform tasks at home. I have repeatedly turned to implement.
Corporate culture and working hours in the office
Many attribute the desire to drag the staff in the office by the presence of some "corporate culture." Here is the classic definition of corporate culture "by the book".
Corporate culture - a combination of the dominant company in the values, norms and patterns behavior, defining the meaning and pattern of activity of employees, regardless of their official status and function duties.
Not a word about the office, about the position of the table, about "from 9 to 6"About meeting with anyone day long. Corporate culture is, in fact, this is how you understand your mission and purpose of what you're doing, how you speak with a customer, it is ethical and behaves like an impression of your company from the outside coincides with what is happening inside. Nothing to do in the meantime, why you are driving to the office, and that is actually a corporate culture does not. No road in traffic jams and angry from a trip on the subway at rush hour does not help build this very culture of the company. Seat from 9 am to 6 does not have a corporate culture. Stuck with colleagues to night in Counter Strike is building a corporate culture. It does not build its beer and pizza. It's just human relations, not culture. And certainly not the corporate culture.
What to do. If you want to permanently or periodically to work remotely, do not take it for the cause of failure of the phrase: "That we have such a corporate culture." When I say this, I hear something like, "I just do not trust you and want to look after you. But do not worry, not only you, but also all here. So I'm waiting at 9:00 am, and that without delay! "You can try to build confidence in its success and constant timely communication, in which you are the initiator of, or immediately leave the place where you are so do not trust.
Noise and colleagues talk
The more open and good-natured your colleagues, the more they share with you their experiences. A smaller proportion of them are talking about work. I admit, I really interferes with work. Someone is incredibly annoying. I asked.
What to do. Transfer casual discussion in the group chat type Telegram, Skype or Slack. Turn off notifications for all messages and then turn them on only for cases where mention your name (it allows to do all of these messengers by me). Teach you to interact with deposits and carry all discussions on a joint lunch or after work in the evening (if you do not have lessons more interesting). It's not just ordering of relationships, but also another step towards the remote work in the future.
Dinner or a business lunch
Despite the fact that the dinner are advised not alone, I prefer to do it that way. The reason is not that I do not care what they say colleagues, and that I really need to think about the first half of the day and decide what I will do in the second. This hour I always leave myself. Sometimes I make exceptions when there is a desire to discuss the new film or something else. But the main problem with office business lunches that you eat is likely that someone in the restaurant not eat yesterday, and today you is rendered in the form of cutlets or halophytes. Do not believe me? Ask restaurateur friend or someone who worked in catering. :) And yet the office lunch are rarely placed in his allotted hour, and the road back and forth, waiting for food, pay and just collective gathering it too time-consuming.
What to do. If you're still standing in office, then developed their habits and follow them. And yet you know that dinner at the house always takes usually less than an hour, even if you cook the meal themselves. Cook spaghetti - it's about 15-20 minutes, vegetable soup - 20 minutes, Sandwich with chicken - 10 minutes. And all this fresh food today, and in 2-3 times cheaper and tastier.
Uncomfortable furniture, appliances and so on
Only serious companies can afford to buy an ergonomic chair, a comfortable desk, a good technique for you. On most of my work it was broken-down chairs, which receives every beginner (always best to your parish take themselves old-timers), computers that have infuriated its ugliness and the availability to them of OS Windows ...
What to do. Buy a comfortable chair in the office for your money. Why do you suffer from the terrible years of the furniture, if your back and your body? How do you explain them the torment? Offer your handy notebook as an office computer: VPN, encryption HDD / SSD, and much more make it safe for us, and you can take it home. This will prove your loyalty, as well as provide you with a ready tool for the job at home - one more step to the remote operation. And do not skimp on your home office and to buy the best of everything. I always do.
Visitors and time spent on their reception
If you are working with a big company as a contractor and attended the monstrous office buildings, you know how long it takes. Usually everything happens like this:
- You get in BC in traffic jams.
- Looking for more parking for 15-20 minutes.
- Waiting in the lobby, business center, while you write out a pass or dial up to the person who invited you.
- Then you wait until he / she is up to you later. Sometimes it can take 10-20 minutes or more.
- You put in peregovorku offer coffee / tea / whiskey, and at this time collect all involved. And they are not always in place. It so happens that the meeting time has come, and someone at another meeting or at lunch, all waiting for him.
- The meeting itself.
- Rassharkivaniya.
- Points 1 and 2 in reverse order.
These meetings can last half a day really!
What to do. Negotiate with customers about the schedule of meetings in advance. Try to make the client part of the process and do not leave it nervously wait for the deadline. He twitched, and you, and he izvedotsya. Invite him into your system of Observers projects. For example, it allows "Bitriks24ยป, Basecamp or simply disable shared and regularly updated document Google Docs, where you can enable e-mail alerts. Let him be thrown out a stream of letters, which shows that everyone is busy with his project the maximum concentration. Put it into Dropbox, let him live with you virtually. And remember, if you and your team can set up a job with a nervous remote client properly, and within the company to do this - a trifling matter.
Meetings and brain-shtormingi
People like us - they have a lot of breakthrough ideas, but for some reason they all lie in the closet. But also people and companies are obsessed with the creation of more and more new ideas, rather than to implement those that have long invented. To do this, managers constantly organize meetings and discussions, constantly want to you about something, and speak in different configurations to discuss something. I have not seen a more stupid and inefficient phenomena than a collection of the whole company or the whole department for "inventing something new" or "exchange of experience". It's really a disaster. Mess, slime and nonsense.
What to do. Exchange of ideas has nothing to do with such gatherings. Very expensive, by the way, if you count the hours spent by all present. For example, in advertising agencies is such a thing as "creative steam." This is when 2-3 people (usually configuration is "tedious manager and creatives" or "boring manager and a couple creatives") sit down to create ideas. This finely tuned process that does not tolerate the extra people or, God forbid, an entire company or department. Ideas can be created and Skype-call, and assemble the pairs are not necessarily in the office. In general, keep accounting invented and implemented ideas. Raises the question of the implementation of these same ideas and hold the their implementation. This independent work, for which need complete focus, and the worst place on earth to do - to his office going.
Working with other continents
If you are working with European partners, it's a little easier - the time difference is not significant and does not introduce any adjustments to your work. If you are working with the United States, Australia and Asian countries, the difference may be in a few hours, and "we have a day, they have the night." This will require you to communicate with people in the early morning or late evening.
What to do. Again, I do not understand why you have to race at 7:00 am in the office or away from it at 23:00 or later. I spent such calls from home in the morning and continued their business in the same place - on the way to spend time during the day I did not want. If you phoned the evening, plan to make it out of the house and when it ends, you'll be at home and not have to get him the night before. If the argument is your boss - "! Telephone in the office," then tell him about the SIP-telephony or find another satisfactory solution. Most communication systems today have a Web gateways, open protocols and can be accessed on a computer or smartphone. Western colleagues willingly jumped into Skype, Google Hangout or WebEx, when I asked them about it. Security Policy - it's cool, but smart phones are at all. :) And if they want you to sell something or solve a problem, they will be where you ask them to be.
personal affairs system GTD
No chaos does not create order. If you want to terminate the case and put things in order, there is nothing better than the GTD system. Let the storm raging around, but on your front will complete the procedure and an empty head in the evenings, as well as the confidence that you have everything under control.
What to do. Set yourself Todoist or Omni Focus, if your book of problems at work does not meet the requirements of GTD. Get familiar with the system and make sure that it works for you. Thoughts and conversations about remote work must begin with trust between you and your supervisor. If you do not prikopalis, if you always and everything is under control, then you do not need supervision. So, you can work anywhere.
in total
I hope I can convince you that it is worth trying to work remotely - even if not all of 5 days per week, but only 1-2 days. If you head shepherd, begin to respect the employees who are asked to work from home. Make them a road map of the transition. If you are a subordinate, then be patient and start the personal transformation.
Accept the fact that it is a long way, which you have to go.
Working remotely should be able to. No one knows how to do just that. How to read, swim or drive a car - it is necessary to learn!
If the topic you work remotely close or it's your dream, if you are full of doubts, I want to share the experience and lots of practical advice in his new book. And if the topic of office and remote work you care about or want to spread the topic further, the share of this publication in Twitter or Facebook.