In situations where more and more people may be working remotely, consider extra steps you may need to take to maintain good communication and respectful interactions between colleagues.
- Talk to your manager: Make sure your manager and colleagues know what you are working on. If you’re not having regular in-person interactions, it’s easy to duplicate efforts.
- Agree on common tools and a virtual space: Follow a standard practice within your team to maintain communication. Your manager will provide guidance so everyone knows how the team plans to stay connected and updated.
- Be predictable: Work your regular hours. Let your manager and team know about variances; this allows key contacts to know when you are available versus when you are out sick or taking vacation time.
- Use Out of Office Auto-Response: Consider an automated response on your email such as: “Thank you for your patience if my response is delayed. I am working remotely to promote a healthy work environment and will respond as soon as possible."
- Be respectful: Technology makes it easy to reach out to cell phones via a call or text at any time of day. In some cases, there may be legitimate reasons to communicate quickly. However, be sure to respect boundaries; not every message or issue is urgent.
- It’s challenging for people working in non-traditional settings, be patient if you do not get a response to messages right away.
- If you have something that doesn’t need a response quickly let the other person know that, too!
- Learning to work outside the office is challenging, so avoid breaking coworkers’ concentration unless it is necessary.
Forward your phone: Make it easier for coworkers to reach you by forwarding your college phone to another local number, or configure SoftPhone on your laptop.
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