Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: This week we're going to be talking about remote work.
Speaker 1: Lots of people work remotely these days, at least occasionally,
Speaker 1: and for many people, working somewhere other than their office
Speaker 1: from time to time, whether that's from home or coffee
Speaker 1: shop or coworking space can boost productivity. Today's tip is
Speaker 1: about how to negotiate such a flexible working arrangement for yourself.
Speaker 1: I study the annual American Time You Survey when it's
Speaker 1: released each June, and each year, the survey reports that
Speaker 1: some high number of people do some of their work
Speaker 1: at a place other than their main workplace. Some headlines
Speaker 1: coming out of these surveys have touted huge numbers of
Speaker 1: people working from home, but this is often confusing issues.
Speaker 1: Many salaried employees who have laptops are smart owns send
Speaker 1: emails outside of work hours. If you email a team
Speaker 1: members something in the morning before you head to work,
Speaker 1: you are technically working from home, but it's not the
Speaker 1: way we often think of the definition, which is doing
Speaker 1: your job from a home office during regular work hours.
Speaker 1: As a long time work from home person. I have
Speaker 1: to say there are a lot of upsides to working
Speaker 1: this way, namely at home. My home office is set
Speaker 1: up exactly as I like it. The temperature doesn't make
Speaker 1: me freeze, I don't have to wear uncomfortable clothes, I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about people looking over my shoulder, and I
Speaker 1: keep my papers in desk exactly as I want them,
Speaker 1: without worrying about how it looks. No one stops by
Speaker 1: to ask me about some rant that's gone viral on
Speaker 1: Facebook when I am supposed to be working. Plus no commute,
Speaker 1: this saves an incredible amount of time. Since I use
Speaker 1: some of this time to work, I probably get more
Speaker 1: done than I wouldn't in office. Plenty of other people
Speaker 1: have discovered the same thing, but I know a lot
Speaker 1: of traditional types believe that the sort of work they
Speaker 1: do just can't be done remotely. Sometimes, even people who
Speaker 1: think of themselves as bucking the status quo frown on
Speaker 1: remote work because of some research that appears to find
Speaker 1: that people are more innovative working together face to face.
Speaker 1: That was at least the reasoning Yahoo gave for canceling
Speaker 1: work from home arrangements a few years ago. But I
Speaker 1: think a lot of this controversy about working from home
Speaker 1: miss is the point, but because it comes from either
Speaker 1: or thinking. Remote work doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Speaker 1: It's great to work with your colleagues face to face.
Speaker 1: People come up with all sorts of great ideas when
Speaker 1: they interact in person. I also think that in many
Speaker 1: knowledge based jobs, five days a week is probably overkill.
Speaker 1: People need time for quiet, focused work too. Plus, if
Speaker 1: you report to an office just to email and call
Speaker 1: people in other places, this is incredibly inefficient from a
Speaker 1: time perspective and an environmental perspective. For most people with
Speaker 1: knowledge type jobs, the best choice is probably somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle, maybe working from home or a coffee shop
Speaker 1: twice week and from the office three days a week.
Speaker 1: That way, you can do focused work at home and
Speaker 1: collaborative work at the office. This is the best of
Speaker 1: both worlds. The question is how to get there. How
Speaker 1: can you negotiate the ability to work from home when
Speaker 1: you need to or at least one to two days
Speaker 1: a week. As with most things, the easiest time to
Speaker 1: negotiate is when you've been offered a job but haven't
Speaker 1: accepted yet. In that situation, you might be best off
Speaker 1: acting like you assume flexibility is part of the package,
Speaker 1: but you just want to confirm it. In my last job,
Speaker 1: you might say, I found I worked best when I
Speaker 1: work from home twice a week. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: I admire this company is its flexibility, So I just
Speaker 1: want to confirm that you're good with me continuing to
Speaker 1: work how I work best. Then see what happens. It
Speaker 1: might be good to get it in writing, too, as
Speaker 1: managers can change. If it's written into your job description
Speaker 1: that this job can be done remotely half the time,
Speaker 1: you're in a much stronger position to push back on
Speaker 1: unpleasant surprises. If you're already in a job, this is trickier,
Speaker 1: but it can still be done. Look around and see
Speaker 1: if anyone else around you is working from home. If so,
Speaker 1: you've probably got good odds. Just ask your manager to
Speaker 1: clarify what her preferences are about this. You might learn
Speaker 1: that your manager really wants to restrict working from home
Speaker 1: to people who have been with the company for a
Speaker 1: year or two so she trusts them, or who've got
Speaker 1: top performance review ratings. If so, then you do what
Speaker 1: you need to to get yourself into the category of
Speaker 1: people who can work from home when they need to.
Speaker 1: If she's reluctant, or if you're a pioneer in your
Speaker 1: office in this regard, make sure your arguments stay focused
Speaker 1: on things that matter to your manager. While your boss
Speaker 1: probably likes you as a person, your unhappiness with your
Speaker 1: long commute, or your discomfort and business clothes, or your
Speaker 1: desire to make a five pm Thursday yoga class is
Speaker 1: not really her big concern. Your boss fundamentally needs you
Speaker 1: to make her numbers, So how will your flexibility help
Speaker 1: with this? One option, if you know budgets are tight,
Speaker 1: is to ask to work from home regularly in lieu
Speaker 1: of an expected race. The rays cost your boss money,
Speaker 1: while working from home does not, so that might seem
Speaker 1: like a win win. Or you might take on a
Speaker 1: task that she's been having trouble assigning. If you work
Speaker 1: from home twice a week and you have a long commute,
Speaker 1: you might be able to start work earlier on those
Speaker 1: two days since you're not commuting, and you could use
Speaker 1: that time to take on the task that she was
Speaker 1: thinking she'd have to assign to a contractor Again, win
Speaker 1: win for everyone. If she's still on the fence, ask
Speaker 1: for a trial period, say two months. You agree that
Speaker 1: you'll work remotely one day a week for the next
Speaker 1: eight weeks, and then check in to see how it's going.
Speaker 1: It goes without saying that you should then make sure
Speaker 1: the next few weeks are among the most productive of
Speaker 1: your life. Try turning in some really big stuff on
Speaker 1: the days you're working from home. You want to nip
Speaker 1: any concerns right in the bud. And if you are
Speaker 1: a manager and you're listening to this, I really hope
Speaker 1: you will consider rethinking what absolutely has to be done
Speaker 1: in the office and what does not. Yes, it can
Speaker 1: be slightly more challenging to manage remote workers than others,
Speaker 1: but if you're a good manager, this won't be a problem.
Speaker 1: Focus on results. When something goes awry when someone is
Speaker 1: working from home, it's generally not the working from home
Speaker 1: part that's the problem. It's the employee who's the problem,
Speaker 1: and that is a different matter that you, as a manager,
Speaker 1: need to deal with. If you need a numerical argument
Speaker 1: that flexible work can be good for your team, try this.
Speaker 1: One study found that people who had to work in
Speaker 1: an office at specific times could only work thirty eight
Speaker 1: hours per week before a significant chunk experienced work life conflict.
Speaker 1: When people could work from home on occasion and work flexibly,
Speaker 1: this number rose to fifty seven hours a week. That
Speaker 1: is a full More flexibility means you can get more
Speaker 1: work out of people, and yet you still look like
Speaker 1: a hero. You really don't have much to lose, so
Speaker 1: why not give it a shot. In the meantime. This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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