Communication is another configurable remote option
An office worker usually does not have to choose whether to communicate with colleagues in the afternoon. There are lots of rallies and meetings, and at the same time in almost every office there is a smoking room and a kitchen. Communicating or not with someone after work is a matter of personal taste. With udalenkoy story is different. The format of communication with colleagues from their corner only in chat and only on working topics allows you to completely disable personal contacts. And if from your open space it seems to you that this is good, you are mistaken. This changes your personality and reduces the effectiveness of teamwork. On the other hand, communication with households on a remote site is much more, which is also not always good.
Let's try to find a balance and give some advice based on the experience of our remote employees for those who are just about to leave the office.
A person needs communication. There are two factors in favor of this statement for the IT employee. Firstly, evolution has ordered it, and this is already from the field of psychology. Secondly, communication with other people is an important working skill, since very few projects in this world are developed alone. But if you do not practice, communication skills are reduced - it is more difficult for a person to formulate his own thoughts and find an approach to other people. Empathy, the ability to dispute and other useful options are gradually turned off, which means that the effectiveness of collegial decision-making decreases. More precisely, the weight of your opinion falls in a discussion with people who are okay with these skills.
On the other hand, most IT professionals are introverts, i.e. initially aimed at limiting communication. There are few developer departments whose tea parties would be told the same thing as about snacks somewhere in accounting. It just so happens that people who are more self-absorbed are more likely to show interest in engineering and technology (although, of course, you should not look for generalizations here - I do not want to offend anyone). And if a person has more communication in life than he personally needs, he begins to become brutal and hate all life. Here, too, there is no question of any productive work.
Thus, in order to maintain a good level of teamwork, it is important to understand your needs and be able to manage the amount of communication in life.
I think that not less than half of the specialists who switched to the remote format of work started the âexit from the officeâ with the idea of ââreducing the share of idle chatter during working hours. Someone was unlucky with colleagues, others did not like open space, and here it is - the long-awaited freedom of the home office. We know many such stories. No wonder âMaxilektâ is entirely composed of remote employees.
However, not everyone at home has the opportunity to set aside a separate office and force their families (if any) to walk on tiptoe. Family people very often experience pressure from relatives. Like, since you still sit at home, look at the child for 5 minutes or go down and quickly take out the trash.
It seems that these requests are quite innocent. But in practice, in order to work effectively from home, you need to once and for all explain to your apartment neighbors, whoever they are to you, that this is the same job as in the office. It will not be easy to combine pleasing him and an eight-hour working day. And as soon as the projects begin to suffer, there will be depression and anger at the household, which may well grow into more serious conflicts. As with any issue, itâs much easier to agree on the start, and if it doesnât work out, consider another location for work - a removable desk in the office, coworking, etc. This will help reduce interaction with family during work hours, while preserving nerves and labor efficiency.
If there are no household members or they themselves leave the house for a whole day, one can go to the other extreme - lack of communication. Itâs quite simple to notice it: if you are working conversations without noticing it yourself, you transfer to a non-working plane and try to continue ad infinitum, you obviously need to interact more with people.
The best way to compensate for the lack of communication during working hours is to choose a hobby that involves socialization and leaving home in a suitable company. But not everyone in adulthood makes new friends easily. Therefore, try at least taking breaks a couple of times a day for 20 minutes to go to a nearby store or for some other business, and at the same time stretch yourself. Looking up from the monitor is useful in itself, but if you managed to exchange a few words with someone during this break, you wonât lose your communication skills.
If this does not help, change the location - look for coworking nearby, go to quiet cafes where there are sockets and Wi-Fi, try to work from the libraries of your city. Some manage to work outdoors in the company of friends. It is easier to find curious acquaintances for a working trip to nature than interlocutors for afternoon tea. True, this is available only where the Internet allows.
Even if you have conversations with other people besides work, try to communicate with colleagues with the video. The modern quality of communication already helps in general terms to understand the mood of the interlocutor. This is an extra practice for the very communicative skills that are still useful in solving complex issues. And besides, social needs are better closed, both for you and your colleague, especially when it comes to a remote team.
Another opportunity that the work gives is attending specialized conferences (possible with colleagues). This is new knowledge, and understanding of the industry, and all the same communication. Unless the conference should be chosen wisely, and not for the sake of a tick.
Nevertheless, focus on communication after work. Often its absence is explained by a huge number of projects, lack of time. And this touches on another problem - processing on a remote site, which we wrote about earlier . There may be several reasons for this: deadlines, interesting tasks, or even fear that you will be considered a loafer on a remote site. But the "creep" of the working day for the entire waking time should be stopped in the bud. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:
And to force yourself to leave the house regularly, you can get a dog with whom you have to walk, or sign up for some courses outside the house - the same English. By the way, the family is usually the very factor that helps to get distracted in the evening (if during the day it does not force one to go to the other extreme).
Thus, communication is another parameter of remote work that you need to configure with your own hands, dosing interactions with people in accordance with their temperament. And this is another risk that a beginner will have to face. Unfortunately, you can only find out about whether you can maintain operational efficiency over long periods of time no matter what, just by trying.
PS We publish our articles on several sites of the Runet. Subscribe to our pages in VK , FB or Telegram-channel to learn about all our publications and other Maxilect news.
Let's try to find a balance and give some advice based on the experience of our remote employees for those who are just about to leave the office.
A person needs communication. There are two factors in favor of this statement for the IT employee. Firstly, evolution has ordered it, and this is already from the field of psychology. Secondly, communication with other people is an important working skill, since very few projects in this world are developed alone. But if you do not practice, communication skills are reduced - it is more difficult for a person to formulate his own thoughts and find an approach to other people. Empathy, the ability to dispute and other useful options are gradually turned off, which means that the effectiveness of collegial decision-making decreases. More precisely, the weight of your opinion falls in a discussion with people who are okay with these skills.
On the other hand, most IT professionals are introverts, i.e. initially aimed at limiting communication. There are few developer departments whose tea parties would be told the same thing as about snacks somewhere in accounting. It just so happens that people who are more self-absorbed are more likely to show interest in engineering and technology (although, of course, you should not look for generalizations here - I do not want to offend anyone). And if a person has more communication in life than he personally needs, he begins to become brutal and hate all life. Here, too, there is no question of any productive work.
Thus, in order to maintain a good level of teamwork, it is important to understand your needs and be able to manage the amount of communication in life.
When communication is too much
I think that not less than half of the specialists who switched to the remote format of work started the âexit from the officeâ with the idea of ââreducing the share of idle chatter during working hours. Someone was unlucky with colleagues, others did not like open space, and here it is - the long-awaited freedom of the home office. We know many such stories. No wonder âMaxilektâ is entirely composed of remote employees.
However, not everyone at home has the opportunity to set aside a separate office and force their families (if any) to walk on tiptoe. Family people very often experience pressure from relatives. Like, since you still sit at home, look at the child for 5 minutes or go down and quickly take out the trash.
It seems that these requests are quite innocent. But in practice, in order to work effectively from home, you need to once and for all explain to your apartment neighbors, whoever they are to you, that this is the same job as in the office. It will not be easy to combine pleasing him and an eight-hour working day. And as soon as the projects begin to suffer, there will be depression and anger at the household, which may well grow into more serious conflicts. As with any issue, itâs much easier to agree on the start, and if it doesnât work out, consider another location for work - a removable desk in the office, coworking, etc. This will help reduce interaction with family during work hours, while preserving nerves and labor efficiency.
When communication is too little
If there are no household members or they themselves leave the house for a whole day, one can go to the other extreme - lack of communication. Itâs quite simple to notice it: if you are working conversations without noticing it yourself, you transfer to a non-working plane and try to continue ad infinitum, you obviously need to interact more with people.
The best way to compensate for the lack of communication during working hours is to choose a hobby that involves socialization and leaving home in a suitable company. But not everyone in adulthood makes new friends easily. Therefore, try at least taking breaks a couple of times a day for 20 minutes to go to a nearby store or for some other business, and at the same time stretch yourself. Looking up from the monitor is useful in itself, but if you managed to exchange a few words with someone during this break, you wonât lose your communication skills.
If this does not help, change the location - look for coworking nearby, go to quiet cafes where there are sockets and Wi-Fi, try to work from the libraries of your city. Some manage to work outdoors in the company of friends. It is easier to find curious acquaintances for a working trip to nature than interlocutors for afternoon tea. True, this is available only where the Internet allows.
Even if you have conversations with other people besides work, try to communicate with colleagues with the video. The modern quality of communication already helps in general terms to understand the mood of the interlocutor. This is an extra practice for the very communicative skills that are still useful in solving complex issues. And besides, social needs are better closed, both for you and your colleague, especially when it comes to a remote team.
Another opportunity that the work gives is attending specialized conferences (possible with colleagues). This is new knowledge, and understanding of the industry, and all the same communication. Unless the conference should be chosen wisely, and not for the sake of a tick.
Nevertheless, focus on communication after work. Often its absence is explained by a huge number of projects, lack of time. And this touches on another problem - processing on a remote site, which we wrote about earlier . There may be several reasons for this: deadlines, interesting tasks, or even fear that you will be considered a loafer on a remote site. But the "creep" of the working day for the entire waking time should be stopped in the bud. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:
- establish a clear beginning and end of the working day;
- come up with a morning ritual that helps you get started, for example a cup of coffee that will set up for work (a quick start will help you do more during working hours and not put things off for the evening);
- come up with a similar evening ritual to finish work, for example, dressing in home clothes and turning off instant messengers. Evening is a time when you need to fully relax, and minor work problems that can wait until tomorrow should not interfere with a full recovery of forces.
And to force yourself to leave the house regularly, you can get a dog with whom you have to walk, or sign up for some courses outside the house - the same English. By the way, the family is usually the very factor that helps to get distracted in the evening (if during the day it does not force one to go to the other extreme).
Thus, communication is another parameter of remote work that you need to configure with your own hands, dosing interactions with people in accordance with their temperament. And this is another risk that a beginner will have to face. Unfortunately, you can only find out about whether you can maintain operational efficiency over long periods of time no matter what, just by trying.
PS We publish our articles on several sites of the Runet. Subscribe to our pages in VK , FB or Telegram-channel to learn about all our publications and other Maxilect news.
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