The beautifully creative remote-working station of Jumpstart Foundry’s own Managing Director, Eller Mallchok. Ironing boards can make great stand-up desks!
With the number of people working remotely rising each day with the spread of COVID-19, we decided to go to our social followers to see how they are handling the new work environment.
Here are some of the responses we gathered:
Some love it…
“It actually changes daily, even hourly. I move to different places throughout my home with the most natural light. I work in my at-home office, living room and kitchen throughout the day. Moving around every couple hours or so helps keep my mind fresh. There’s also almost always a Golden Retriever and GoldenDoodle nestled under my chair,”
– Juliyana Straley, Marketing Coordinator at MATTER Health
“Technology allows me to be in regular, and even constant, communication with my clients. We had transitioned to non-paper versions of contracts and documents years ago, so no hindrance there. If anything, it has created more productive time that used to be devoted to commutes, travel and logistical needs. I hope this does not go on forever, but it is demonstrating the value and ability of dispersed workforces to carry on. I expect one of the things that persist after this crisis is abated, is that more dispersed and remote work will be done, as a norm,”
– Paul E. Risner, Mentor & Advisor at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center
Danielle Dedrick’s (C Spire) remote-working setup
“I love the creativity! I’ve smooshed a little table and a bookshelf together. I like my windows though!”
– Danielle Dedrick, Major Account Manager at C Spire
Some aren’t having the best time…
“My 13 year old son is a musician and he has to practice on a daily basis. When he’s playing the piano, although I can hear it clearly, I have found the people having meetings with me are not hearing that in the background which is good. However, when he has to practice percussion, he does that in the basement which requires me to relocate. My wife is highly organized and is used to having a daily routine. COVID-19 has eliminated most of this routine which has been a tough adjustment. She also has needed to start home-schooling our son which presents a whole new set of challenges,”
– Peter Strandquist, Senior Director of Operations at MATTER Health
“Definitely missing in-person business development meetings. Really hard to do these over video chat to get body language read and nuance (also talking over one another, laggy video, etc.)—But for internal work, it’s been great. Flexible on when I get things done, no commute, but I was already working out of coffee shops and on the move so I was somewhat used to it,”
– John Lanahan, Director of Financial Strategy at Compass East
“I’ve been working from home most of the past 14 years. In terms of work itself, the biggest problem is lack of on-premise tech/software support. However, the fact that I can no longer rely on risk-free personal meetings and conferences away from home makes for a much flatter existence. With my significant other and me BOTH home each day now, we’ve followed the advice we heard: Create an imaginary 3rd member of your work at home group — and give that avatar a name — and vent frustrations around him/her contributions to messes as they arise,”
– Milt Capps, Principal at Precision Content Group
Some hardly felt the change at all…
“We have been a remote decentralized team for many years. We use Slack, Asana, Github and Google Hangouts. The key is to have short meetings. If a standup meeting goes longer than 15 mins then we start to lose people,”
– James Ruffer, Co-Founder of Web3devs
“My company has been 100% virtual for the last two years. We use the typical collaboration tools such as Slack, Asana, Zoom, SharePoint, etc., but we also have routine scheduled calls. The calls bring us together much more effectively than text-based communications alone. Also, we encourage everyone to jump on a call if text-based methods are becoming too tedious,”
– Rodney Hamilton, President & Chief Executive Officer of GreenLight
Some shared tips…
“Our solution is quite simple. It is easy for misunderstandings to occur via written communication (email and text). We simply pick up the telephone and have a conversation when that occurs. Very simple. Very effective,”
– Kevin Lasser, CEO of JEMS Technology
“Getting out in nature to release and reconnect. Lots of creativity, connection and creatures to be found there… good reminder of the beauty, brilliance and balance of this human experience,”
– Kristy Johnson, Principal at EQ Economy
Some made us laugh…
“I’ve gained weight.”
– …Unknown…
“It’s great: can’t smoke cigars at the office, but I sure can at home. Not spending $20 a day for lunch or $127 a month on the subway is pretty great. Only thing that’s irritating, if understandable, is the sheer volume of panicked texts I get from friends and family outside of NYC who think the city is under siege,”
– K.S. Anthony, Marketing Strategist of SumZero Inc
In Conclusion…
Given that we are in an industry fueled by innovation, we weren’t too surprised to see that many people were already familiar with working remotely prior to COVID-19, so there wasn’t a huge shift in many of our followers’ day-to-day. However, we did find a common theme—whether people loved working from home or not—that communication was the key to staying connected with your team while working remotely.
