Before my first day, I only got the chance to chat in person with not even 10% of the team (as part of the recruitment process).
When I found out that I would start my new position as Head of Business at Landing in full-remote, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never done such a thing, so I rolled my sleeves and just thought to myself “well it is what it is and there is no alternative. Let’s go for it and make it happen”.
I’m not going to play the “remote is so nice and works perfectly” card. Because it can go either way. Sometimes it’s just despairing, other times it’s exactly what I need.
I’ve spoken with people about this remote/quarantine period during the past weeks, and it’s still inconclusive for me. Some clients and friends have been doing it for years, so this is almost a walk in the park for them, business as usual. Others are about to “shoot somebody” or making dark plans to disconnect their neighbour’s power due to their poor taste in music.
As for me, I’m still not ready to give a black or white kind of an answer to this.
A lot has been written recently on the “remote working” topic and, as part of my day-to-day work, I got many chances to collect great advice and hints. I don’t think I can add much more, so I’m just going to share my experience hoping it can be useful (or at least entertaining) for you.
It was relatively easy (due to the nature of our business — Landing.Jobs is tech company) for me to adjust. Landing.Jobs has already internal tools in place to manage the business flow remotely. Fortunately, Landing.Jobs has most of “overtime acquired knowledge” accessible for everyone on the team. It moved quite fast to create and implement guidelines for working from home (in fact, it was more of an adjustment of the company’s previous policy, as all Landers already could work remotely several days per month).
On my first week, some clear rules for communication:
Urgent stuff: Whatsapp
Informal async comms: Slack
Non-urgent sync comms: Zoom or Hangouts
Formal async comms: Email
Teamwork — Trello
General etiquette, like making use of your online status, write verbosely and double-check everything before hit send, and helpful hints like using krisp.ai to cancel background noise.
And yet, I can also share that sometimes I became hostage to slack communications but, at the end of the day, this was my fault. I could have started using more Trello from day one, but at some point, I couldn’t resist having my own classic old fashioned cork board that I stole from my daughters’ room.
I also want to mention the onboarding process. It’s impressive how many procedures are fully implemented and working in a fashion and modern way.
I must say I was impressed, particularly taking into consideration previous onboarding experiences in other companies (both startups and corporates). Even in the cases, I was in charge of onboarding new team members, I never came across (or created one) such an organised plan with rich content about… everything! From company information (organisation, governance, company history, competition, mission and values) to perks or HR tools. With clear goals and even adapted/suited to/for remote. Props to D. and the rest of the team!
Needless to say, I still don’t know how everything works (the coffee machine seems particularly tricky, according to the length of instruction on the internal wiki page) but it will come with the job. This would have happened, either way, I guess.
The amount of calls in the first couple of weeks is also worth mentioning — I needed to meet the team, particularly the ones reporting directly to me. This was time-consuming but pleasant. I must admit, got physically tired from all the video calls (6/7/8 in a row per day). It reminded me a few past trade shows I’ve attended in other contexts where one just meets a zillion people in a single day. It was rewarding, though, and the feeling was good. People were adjusting to the situation, and the morale was high. It still is, although we all face peaks and lows during our work.
All in all, the experience was an excellent proxy to a traditional onboarding. At least, the possible one. It happened. And worked. I do feel welcomed, and I’m starting to know how things work like I would if I was in the office.
I probably know more (or better said, different information) from my colleagues individually than if I had had an ordinary first month.
I know that F. has troubles with his Internet connection and a kind neighbour that allows him to use his wi-fi after a storm. A. will miss that garden once she moves out. I know that D. likes to match his red sweater with his big red chair and he’s always worried about background noise. PO. likes doing his calls in the kitchen, and his washing machine is a Samsung. JP.’ “birds in the background” nicely love to invade our calls. PM. has a beautiful open view, and his kids are demanding!
I also found how a desert airport looks like ’cause DC. had to take a call in one during these times. I’m waiting to see R. with his moustache that mysteriously disappeared during the outbreak. A. is usually standing up during calls ’cause his back is hurting. And PP. is in the risk of turning into a politician/commentator according to the amount of books he has on his shelf.
I also found lots of exciting stuff during our Landing.breaks (kudos R. for all organisation and boost). S. is still looking for the best fitness app, and A. doesn’t need one. M. works late hours and I kinda like her background décor for calls. And PC. is fighting with his family over internet usage on a daily basis. Still not sure who’s winning that one!
And yes, I guess that 95% of our necks are hurting. I just bought this laptop support piece from Ikea in hopes that it helps!
At the same time, while getting this precious knowledge, we were all able to work hard, think about new solutions, keep implementing our roadmap and come up with different projects to cope with the current situation. Our first-ever Remote Tech Week had more than 3000 attendees joining us!
I mean, if things would have been different I guess I wouldn’t know these things about the team and probably knew others.
Improve. Adapt. Overcome. (Quoting DC. here!). It’s absolutely incredible how human beings can adjust to new realities and take the best out of it.
Maybe when this is over (whatever over will mean!), we can work more from home and people who lose precious time commuting will take advantage of remote work more than we, as a company, were even considering.
Anyway, I can’t wait to meet the remaining 90% of the team in person and have a chance to chit-chat face to face! It’s gonna be funny, I’m positive on that.
Massive thank you to all of you for your support, great attitude and good mood!
To end with some inspiration and a bit (totally?) disconnected from my narrative, let me just share 2 quotes. Use them wisely. One from Winston. One “from” Chuck Norris.
“Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.”
“If you Google search ‘Chuck Norris getting his ass kicked’ you will generate zero results. It just doesn’t happen.”
Duarte Leite de Castro
Head of Business @ Landing.Jobs
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