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What veteran teleworkers have to say about working from home this past year, and why it matters now

6/15/2021

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“When I had children, we didn’t have all this stuff. It’s become all too complicated.” My early days as a mother are a blurr, and yet I remember this moment vividly. My mom, who’d raised four children and at that point had already been a grandmother for decades, revealed to me that she had no idea about motherhood today. How do you correctly install a carseat? How do you manage screentime? How do you use a bottle warmer? The job had evolved. We’d made it more complicated. Some of the innovations were for child safety or health, and some for convenience. Others for marketing. Babies are big business, after all.

I thought of that comment of my mom’s as I chatted with some veteran teleworkers about the past year.

​Work for us hasn’t changed all that much. We’ve been working from home for years. We’d pushed through the initial honeymoon period or shock—both reactions are possible when initially transitioning to telework—and we’d settled into a good, solid work-from-home routine years ago. In the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many others made an abrupt shift to working from home, without much planning or preparation. Compounded with the stresses of the pandemic, it’s been rough.
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I asked some veteran telecommuters about the past year, and here is what I heard...

But it’s been rough for us veteran telecommuters, too. We explored why. We came up with a hypothesis. Maybe with the rush to connect and simulate the in-person interactions, we have made it all too complicated. 
 
Working from home was not nearly as exhausting before—you guessed it—Zoom. To be fair, it’s Zoom, Teams, whatever. Meeting on the phone (audio only) is way easier than videoconferencing. Here’s what I heard:
 
I've been telecommuting for 18 years. I used to walk all the time while on my calls. I cannot do that when required to take notes and also be on camera. 
 
I am fidgety, and I need to move around when I am working. I used to be able to do that.
 
On video calls, I feel like I am chained to my desk. When on conference calls, I can fold laundry or walk around and Swiff the floors. In a way it helps me concentrate. 

The theme: Movement! But that's not the whole story.

We have all done some personal reflection on this topic, and it’s been analyzed extensively. We’ve read about Zoom fatigue, the particular challenges of uncertainty, etc. Movement is indeed one of the issues. But there are others, including needing to manage your face. Yes, Zoom (and our politeness expectations) forces you to fake a smile. Vignesh Ramachandran's article from Stanford explains it well. There’s lots of brain science to explain our exhaustion. 

So what's next, as we head back to the office?

So what do we do with this knowledge? And why do I feel the need to pile onto the heap of articles and blogs, when the topic has been discussed already? Well, it’s time to head back into the office. It’s time to start new habits. Let’s remember what my mom said and not make this too complicated. 
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Best regards, Sonia

3/5/2013

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"Best regards, Sonia" might be a typical way to close an email. but if it's done in purple font, and in script, what might this say about the sender?

My workplace is corporate and very conservative. (You don't see men wearing crazy ties much less women in sassy earrings.) 

Yet, every once in a while, I will get an email with a "fun" signature. I have to admit: I usually pause and pass judgment on the person.  

I wonder if I am the only stick in the mud who thinks this sort of "flourish" is risky when it comes to keeping up a professional persona, i.e., your own "brand" at work? To me, it's the email equivalent of wearing dangly, light-up earrings on a day when you have a client meeting. In sum, it's not a good idea if you want to be taken seriously.

Deborah Tannen talks about how women can't simply dress for work, but instead, women always convey a certain "look," e.g., sophisticated, conservative, sexy, etc. In getting dressed, women have many choices to make, from shoes to accessories to hair style. There are several variables at play here, and each conveys a ton of meaning. She calls this "marked."

(For more on the notion of "marked"/"unmarked," read this article: The New York Times Magazine, June 20, 1993. "Wears Jump Suit. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband's Last Name." Originally titled "Marked Women, Unmarked Men" by Deborah Tannen)

Back to the email signature. A purple signature is "marked" in much the same way. The default ("unmarked") is to keep your signature in black/white and an "unmarked" font, e.g., Arial, or whatever the body of the email is in. At best, it's a "fun" flourish, at worst, it could take away from your image as a professional.

(As an aside, I am learning about the field of information visualization. It encompasses graphic design, brain science, and communication. I wonder if there's some research in this field that could explain my prejudice against the purple, scripty signature?)

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What is the big deal about virtual teams?

12/6/2010

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As my workplace moves to a dispersed model, that is, where it's likely you won't be co-located with your manager or teammates, I have been thinking a lot about why this change will take adjustment. There's a lot of angst about this change, and what I hear is that my colleagues are very concerned they won't be able to maintain and build relationships at work -- if we don't sit together and see each other regularly. There's fear that we will become disconnected.

As someone who spends a lot of my work day in front of the computer and on the phone (vs. in in-person meetings), I have been thinking about "what's the difference?" I have a conclusion: it's about the quantity of signals we're used to getting from one another...and about how we'll be receiving them.

In mostly in-person meetings and interactions in the hallways, elevators, and kitchens, we're accustomed to taking in signals from all of our senses. We get to hear if someone has a cold (can't tell this in email), we get to smell their perfume (doesn't it say a lot about a person?), we see the expressions on their face and all the non verbals. We also see what they are wearing, and that data helps us make assessments that they are "artsy," or "conservative," or maybe connected to someone who buys them lots of quirky ties?

In any case, this is data. This is the kind of data on which we build conversations...or at least "small talk." This same data doesn't come through email. It doesn't come through instant messenger, and it might not transmit a conference call.

In a surround-sound and blue ray world, we are worried that our human interactions are going from high def to...could it be...analog?

I can see why this is causing stress. But, the answers lie in the virtual world...We used to receive signals that provided insights into a colleague's personality or interests simply by sharing the same physical space. We can still access this information, but it requires research. We'll need to spend more time leveraging technology, such as IM and webcams. We'll also need to mine the internet. See who is on Yammer, who is blogging, what your colleagues say on LinkedIN. What they post on Facebook. It's all out there...we just need to adjust how we receive the signals.

Conversion Strategies For Moving To A Dispersed Work Environment

Past: Pictures on your desk to show your team that you love to ski, have a dog and two kids, and went to VA Tech
Future: Facebook posts and photos for work and personal friends

Past: Snazzy ties and crisply-ironed shirts with monogrammed cuff links; we know you are a snazzy dresser
Future: Don't worry. The webcam will pick up your sense of style

Past: The cup of tea you'd prepare in the kitchen at 4 PM got you over the afternoon slump and allowed for some quick networking with colleagues
Future: You can still have tea and coffee breaks with colleagues. Find them on IM and ask if they have a minute for a quick call. They will likely welcome the break
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If advice is so annoying to receive, why do we dish it out?

12/6/2010

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I have been thinking a lot about advice lately.

I coordinate workshops, and after each event, I review the participant evaluations. After one event this year, the evaluations were mixed; some participants loved the speakers, while others were notably put off by them. Adjectives like "condescending" appeared on the narrative comments in the evaluations. A colleague of mine participated in the event and was surprised to see the mixed reviews. She asked me why I thought they'd received such feedback, and I think it all came down to one thing: the speakers gave a lot of advice. In doing so, they positioned themselves as people who knew more and who had the answers.   (That's a dangerous position to put yourself in, even if you are leading a workshop on a subject you have done a lot of work in.) In doing so, they positioned the audience as people who needed to receive the advice.

I find that people only want advice in rare occasions. Most of the time, people are looking for a listening ear, for inspiration, or for a nice diversion.  And when they do want advice -- you'll know it. You'll be ASKED to share it.

I can see how advice slips out so much in our conversations at home and work .  In personal relationships, it's hard not to jump in with a solution when you see your friend, partner, or sister taking the wrong path. At work, there's so much pressure to speak like a leader and be assertive. With this said, I think advice is generally pretty useless. Unless you own your own solutions, goals, and time lines, you are not going to make any change.

As for me, I am going on an advice holiday. Want to come?
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