Community Discussion: The TLDC State of Remote Work 2021

Luis Malbas  
Hello, everybody, welcome to the training, learning and development community. Happy Friday to all of you. Well, I've got a nice group of people already in this morning. Todd is here. Yay, Ray. Nice to see you. Greg Jones, Christiana Allen. Yay. Ray Jimenez is here. Melissa, Seattle's Julia. Kristin, Lisa Spirko.

Thanks for joining us today.

And here we're talking about remote work. Not sure if all of you that are in already took or participated in the survey that was out there, the survey is closed, I usually close it right before I go live. But hopefully, you were able to answer some of the questions on here.

And we're gonna we're going to talk about what we found out from some of the from sending this out to the community and having folks that that know about to TLDC, fill this one out. And I hope that you'll find some value in the results.

It's something that I think we're all challenged by right now, or at least have had to deal with this shift of moving over to remote work, I was actually surprised by the number of people that have worked have moved over to the to the remote working environment. For some reason, I thought that it was going to be not quite be as much. And so we're going to be going through some of that stuff. And I also have some questions, just a few questions in the Ask A Question area. And I'll go over those verbally. And hopefully, we can talk about those in chat.

And if any of you want to jump on screen, I wouldn't mind at all. You know, with these community discussions, I'm not, I don't mind having guests up on screen, I can, I can have three more windows available here. And, and the company is always nice. So feel free to let me know if you're if you want to jump in, I will invite you up on screen.

Let's see, before we get started couple reminders.

We got community day coming up. Thursday, September 2, it's right before Labor Day weekend, sort of that was intentional. It's coming together really, really nice. I like the port with the way the program is looking. Sponsorship is has been really cool, like getting a lot of vendor outreach on this one. So I think the exhibitor area will be nice. And some folks that I haven't talked to in a while that are in l&d, some vendors coming in, but it's nice to kind of reconnect with some of those folks. So keep an eye out for that. I could use a few more table hosts, if anyone is interested in coming in and doing a virtual table. I'm not probably going to do more than six, I think but yeah, so let me know if you guys are interested in all of that.

All right, let's go and get going on this state of remote work. Let's let me share my screen. Do Here we go. First question. And so this one was easy, of course. Are you currently working remotely? Um, let's see what we have here. A 4.62% said yes. 6% said no. And we had some seven folks said that they're working both remotely and in office. And if anybody has their story, if any of you are doing both, I would love to hear that story. Well, what what that situation is for you? I know, I have like a friend actually a neighbor who works for the city of Sebastopol who's doing both. And, you know, he honestly can't really understand why he has this. But they just do. And I know that there are other folks that are like that to sort of the logic behind some of it is a little what would the word be? draconian, no, I don't know. But it is. It's a little strange. It see Hey, consols. And he said, I've always been in that gray area of his remote, but not really. But the shift due to COVID helped to solidify me to work under percent now. Yeah. And for myself, one of the reasons why I really started building TL DC way back when was was because I wanted to work from home since I had at the time, like a

newborn child and I'm like, okay, I don't want to like go into the office. I want to hang out with him all the time and do it that way. So yeah, moving over to this has been, you know it for me, it's it's really been helpful just being able to have quality time with the family. Alright, so we've got, you know, 85% of the respondents were, were all working from home. So this is a nice sample size, where your organization's remote working policies clearly commuted communicated to you So only we had a quarter of the people say no. And, and, you know, three quarters said yes. And I thought that was I think I thought that was interesting, because I know that for myself, it was such a shift. And it was it happened so quickly, that I don't feel like the policies were really clearly communicated. But at the same time, I mean, I didn't see any models for how to really communicate that type of thing. Well, it just happened so fast. So, um, so yeah, it's, uh, it, it, it was a shock. And I understand why maybe the policies weren't that clear. But we adjusted, you know, and everybody was sort of reeling from it. And so you know, just I'm not, you know, I'm sure everybody knows, but I work for an organization that actually does live conferences used to do like 14 Global live conferences every year, from, you know, from London, to China to, you know, here in the US, San Francisco and, and New York. And basically, when all of this happened, that entire division got shut down, and everybody had to work from home. And so we went through a lot of stuff, so I can understand why the policies probably weren't communicated that clearly, if there is anybody that did get policies that were communicated clearly to them, I would love to hear what your comments were for that. Okay, so Lisa, saying our company and department already had many remote employees, so policies were already in place, and the shift wasn't painful for us at all. That's great. Were you just handed Lisa, were you just sent? Like, is was there a document or something or, like, here's what you need to know, here's your, you know, your laptop and your, you know, your work environment and all of that stuff, like where it was, was that all like, you know, information about all that stuff and how to handle it was that was that sent to, you know, to you immediately, and, and you just knew, like, this is how it's going to work. I know for us, it kind of you know, it rolled through what was nice was, we found out that they were going to give us a monthly stipend for for paying for our own internet and having our own work environment. And then also they gave us a really good amount. I don't I don't want to say the dollar amount, but it was surprisingly large to to fill out our office to buy a chair to buy other stuff as well as giving us you know, the really nice Mac books and, and all that stuff. So that was that was helpful. All right, Justin is saying our company's fully virtual. So all policies were already in place for us as well. As Greg was saying, all the former naysayers were then automatically made disciples for it. For they had no choice. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Nice. Okay. Oh, Kim saying we often work from home when the need arose. So we didn't have any policies or changed, but we're consulting company. Yeah. Yeah. tidy, saying our policies are written but very work. Oh, work from home before COVID. What I found is someone who's worked remotely for years is that I finally I was finally included in all meetings, and not an afterthought. That is a big deal. That is huge part. I think that cultural shift to, which I'm really, really curious about, and I would love to have conversations about until TLD cast, which is how remote work has changed the culture of an organization because I've had some conversations with some folks about that. And and in so curious about it. So if you're interested in talking about that, let me know. And we'll get into that. All right, let's get into the next question. Is it easy to reach your teammates and team leaders when you need them? I know for me personally, Slack, I'm just In fact, I

probably talked to my team more than I did when I was in the office. Hopefully, I'm not like saying anything. To me, I'm communicating too much about my work culture. But I sat in an office, I was an open office situation. And it was quiet, like a library. Very, very, very academic, very scholarly, where I work. And so when I would literally, like, be messaging somebody in slack to, you know, to somebody that was like three feet away from me, because we just didn't talk. It was so quiet in there. And I hated that. But he gets I just slack all the time. We jump on slack on video calls all the time, doesn't even have to be about work. We're just, you know, we'll just shoot the you know, whenever and so I actually really kind of appreciate this environment more, let's say kiss cuts all saying for us, they reclassified people in three groups in office work style, hybrid and 100% remote. And it was based on their job function importance to engage with clients, etc. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And there's Christiana, we are open office two, so lots of headphones, so I often don't want to bug Yeah, and that's what I did, too. I mean, my podcast consumption back then, was like, basically, all the time running, listening between I would rotate between podcasts and music all the time. Not so much anymore. Now, it's like, maybe I listened to one or two episodes of something here in there. But now that I'm working from home, it's, it's it's different. I just listened to music mostly, or I just like to keep my windows open and listen to, to the noise from from outside from the neighborhood. Yes. Okay. So let's move on to the next one. Hopefully, I'm not missing anything. And it's like, it's going pretty. It's moving really, really well. So I do appreciate that. I love these discussions. Do you feel supported and trusted by your organization? Let's see. I personally do I really do. And I think that the peers, my, my team, we're all sort of we know where we're at with things. But it's, it still feels new to me. Like, to be remote and to. to offer, you know, to feel that trust. Like, it's just a different feeling. You know? I don't know, I don't know how to describe it. Let's see here. Todd is saying, I feel more trusted now. now than before. COVID. Yeah, that's great. You know, and I guess that part of it is, um, we all have challenges. You know, I live in Northern California. And so it's not, it hasn't just been COVID. But it also has been like in the fall the fire season. Even right now it is, it's been smoky, like frustratingly smoky. And I think that everyone that lives in this area can you know, sad some form of PTSD, like when it comes to, to this whole new thing that we have to deal with every year? And we give each other some space for that. And, you know, we keep an eye on each other? Because it is it can be it's, it's taxing. And, and I think that that the this organization that I work for O'Reilly Media has been incredible about, about supporting us and and helping us understand that they trust us and the decisions we're making about how we're doing our work. But in this particular, in this particular survey, this question, we do have, like 11.8% that said, No, most everybody, you know, 85 and a half percent said yes, other, which I should have put a textfield or something so people could fill that out, but neglected to do that. Next survey. Let me see what we've got in. Oh, Ray piping in here. Trust is a must to ask my team members. What can I do for you always? Yes, Ray. Thank you. And yes, that's a great mindset. Ray, Christina saying I find our team leaders take on the same attitude and it's so helpful. Kim Sang for me trust, it's the same. It's it feels calmer, since all since all I know about is my own projects. Alan is saying when I was undergoing chemo treatment, and my last dog, I wasn't allowed to work from home because of the lack of trust. Ah, frustrating to hear that. I'm so glad you've recovered Alan. Yes, yes. Okay. All right, let me go ahead and move on to the next one. Question five is working remotely been more difficult or easier for you? easier? 77%? more difficult. 7.9 other 14.5%?

Um, I wish I had here's one where I would love to hear what the other responses is. Would have been but yeah, yeah, has working remotely been more difficult or easier for you? It has been easier for me. For me personally, I would love to hear some some more of the more difficult response if anybody out here wants to pipe in about that. It's definitely been more easy for me just because I'm also the type of person that you know, especially over the last, you know, five years I have just kind of been working I don't want to say all the time but pretty much all the time I just got it but I fill it in in there. You know, I like to be able to take a walk with my son and um, and you know, not say I'm gonna you know, I only have a half an hour for lunch. So I got to grab a burrito then rush back, but take, you know, take the time to like, shoot hoops with them in the in the side yard or whatever. And and, you know, but then in the evenings after he goes to bed, I might come back and just finish up a project or two and work on the TL DC stuff. So, you know, it definitely has made my life easier. I'm working remotely. Let's see. Let's see Tati saying it took time for me to learn block time and compartmentalize. It See, Kim saying other probably means easier in some ways harder and others might have to do with work life balance, offsetting more productivity. And I do have another question that is, is that so that has to do with that. And then Lisa saying, I like to use my calendar, and sometimes they even follow it. Tell me about it. I actually bought a calendar web app that I was really, really good about using for a while, but then I've sort of slacked off and I don't use it as much. But yeah, that is that that helps with with making, I'm integrating it more into your life on a regular basis. I'm racing clients in manufacturing or hacking around how to remotely train hybrid hands on equipment and remote training. That should be interesting. love to see like how that would work. And, you know, I, I immediately comes to mind is like AR all let's see, Julia's got a big post here, unpleasant patru. My previous workplace had a tough time permitting me time to recover from a mastectomy and then skin cancer surgery, referred to six months at home during the pandemic as a vacation, and absolutely couldn't trust people working from home expectation that they could call anytime and get immediate answer. Okay, now I'm merely venting and I cannot afford to send you all the copy for therapy. Current workplaces adapting on the fly very fluid. Julia. Yes. Oh, sorry to hear that. And it's true, that whole trust issue, right. It's, it's terrible. And, you know, and I think that for me, I probably wouldn't have taken on any type of an entrepreneurial sort of spin on things had I not felt like I needed to find a situation where there was more trust. And and, yeah, you know, it's hearing stories like that, and hearing stories like from Alan, same thing. Tristan, saying I chose other because while I find that it's gotten easier, for the most part, I'm very sorry, I'm a very social person. So I found that lack of personal connection is difficult. I also have to pay closer attention to time to make sure I take breaks. Same here. Yeah, the whole break thing. I think I have a question about that. On the survey as well. So next question, do you have all the equipment and remote tools you need to complete your work? To your usual ability? Almost 90% says yes. And 10% says, No, let's hear from the 10% who do we have out there that doesn't have what you need, maybe we can get it for you. But I feel like I do personally. And of course a Riley has been absolutely incredible about making sure that we're that we're taken care of, but we are kind of more of a tech company. So the tools that we need, they know like how important that is just to get that get that in there and and and you know, and we can do our work. So let's see here. Um, while moving quickly on the in the chat area. Julie's saying I'm having a hard time developing training for hands on operator training for technicians in Abu Dhabi, using remote desktop via MS and Ms. teams, because those are the tools we can afford. Wish me luck. Yeah. Um, let's see. Oh, Christian. Oh, to say you were saying something about about Should we get him to talk about it here. Um, hit me up later. I would love to hear whatever that references back at chat is just move so quickly out of the way.

Tony says I did have to go to the Facebook marketplace for another monitor they sold out so quickly. Yes, I'm lucky I actually did have my as well or am would have given? No, actually, this is their monitor because they had a really it was a nice monitor. So my middle monitor, oh, by the way, I have this this new Slack channel in our in our in our slack group called workspaces. Just search for it and join it if you want. I posted a picture of my workspace in there. If you guys are interested in posting pictures of your workspace, feel free to drop that in there. A lot of that is related to this survey because I've been doing research on remote work and I came across this thing called workspaces calm. I think that's what it was, and some really great design workspaces from designers. It's really interesting. I'd love to see all of your so just throwing that out there. I'd see Lisa saying I had a computer on orders. My laptop was capping out got it in February right before the shutdown, but when my webcam went, it was months. Yes. Yes. All right. Let's go next question. Do you feel you have a good work life balance? Let's hear it. I wish I could give that 100% I'm not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet. I think part of it is also because I basically feel like I've got you know like two full time jobs but I'm Trying to get there. And hopefully we'll get there at some point soon. But what do we what what are we looking for? We're looking at, let's see. Yeah, Lisa says, We up when I'm done for the day, I'm done. Um, let's see, jack is saying work life balance is more difficult. Yes. So, yeah, I, I struggle with this one. Um, you know, my, my wife is also kind of a bit of a workaholic too. So, we both have challenges. So, you know, but I do feel like with remote work, it's gotten better. I mean, I have to say, when I did work in the office, once I left there, I was done. Now, it's, you know, I still sneak stuff in here and there early in the morning, late at night for for what I do at at O'Reilly. And then that new to DC just gets mixed mixed in everywhere. Racing, what balance? I work from the beach. Is that it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You should do some of those videos that you have from the beach. I would love to see that. And then those are the ones that I see posted on Twitter. That see Jessica saying it's getting better when I started. I had high knee high needs baby to deal with on top of extra work. Now. The work is not as urgent and my toddler can do independent play. Love it. Love it.

Unknown Speaker  
Yes.

Luis Malbas  
All right. Let me move on to the next one. Question a Do you have a separate and comfortable space in your home for work? There you go. Speaking of workspaces, I'd love to hear about that. We've got 80% says yes. 16% says no. What do you guys say? Do you have a separate space? I do. I'm lucky but I kind of had a little bit of a music studio going anyway, it was sort of my my computer, my geek area Plus, you know, guitar place. And so I've been lucky my wife. This used to be my wife's crafts room and she gave it up to me So thank you, Julianne for for letting me have this space. But I myself do let's see what you guys have. Melissa saying in my dreams. Yeah. Lisa. Separate space makes a huge difference. It definitely does. Ray says Your Pocket PC. Oh, Ray. Is that what they call that? A pocket PCs? I'm liberated on the beach. I'm Kim saying it's a guest bedroom. But hey, at least have a guest bedroom. Kim that's great. Lisa, I do it took me years to take the extra room but now things are much better having a door to to shout at the end of the day. Bhakti I do have one in the form of a dining table. I know lots of folks that do that. That's my wife's office now is the dining table and and also the kitchen counter. So she kind of goes back and forth. Tristan moving in a few months. And then finally you'll have a dedicated office and Christiana Of course van life and both life no dedicated space here on the boat. Yeah. And Lisa, thanks to DC made me buy from my office. Yeah, it seems like we could have a whole separate conversation about that. Now this is interesting. I just saw Alan posted something about a basement mullet quarters. My office quarter is my game area. The rest is baby basement stuff. I recently upgraded the lighting situation in my office. Well then. Cool. And we should do a broadcast from there. I'd love to see you again on on TLD cast. All right, so Oh, Melissa is also moving soon. Currently smooshed in size desk next to the bed. Yeah, I am. I'm really, really I'm grateful that I have this space. I'm you know, it's small. It's not huge, but I am definitely grateful. I have this space. And just curious, do you guys have children at home? No. 66%. But 30% said yes. You know, I do my son like he's probably on his way to school now or actually he is at school. Now. Now that school is started. We'll see how long that lasts. But I would say that pretty much after lunchtime, I get a regular sort of appearance of him in my office. probably at least once every half an hour. We just marches in and checks everything out sits next to me for a second and ask some questions and then heads out. And that's how it works with who here on this end. Let's see. Lisa saying I can't imagine how hard it must be to have kids at home while you're working from home. You know, it's uh, it is it is tough a little bit but for the most part, like he knows that if I tell him that, you know, you know, he's I've got to work on this. And sometimes he just he just quietly just wants to watch and and that's fine too. But lately, like, he's seven years old now. And he's really he's really getting into reading and that's, that is it's kind of, you know, now it's just getting quiet. And I also have like, you know, I've got hundreds of comic books, and I just started going through comics that I thought were safe for him. And so now now it's getting even quieter because I just find him like, sitting on his bed or on one of our reading chairs, just like reading through a comic. So that's, that's helpful. I'm Alan saying, I got two kids and one dog. Oh, my six year old still likes to zoom bomb once in a while she can be seen bombing into our PowerPoint playlist. My 75 pound dog things zoom time is petting lap dog time. Yeah, that's the other thing is, is pets, like, you know, and how helpful is that? I had? I had a cat that would come in every once in a while. Unfortunately, my cat is she she was 18 I think and, and passed on a few months ago. So no more Katie. But, you know, we'll see what happens in the future. Said I know Totti, you've got Yeah, you've got five dogs now. Oh, my gosh. Okay, on a scale of one of zero to five, how productive Have you been since working remotely, we had this one was pretty interesting. And I like seeing kind of the the,

the rating this way, we had 54% that said, five stars 4%. That said, I mean 40% that said four stars. Hey, that kind of matches up nicely. And then 3%. That said around for, I mean, 4%, it said three stars. And then, you know, some folks, just the leftover 2.7 that's the only two stars I would give myself a four star rating. And it's because I think that one of the things that that is a little problematic for me is my ability to work kind of in the two environments that I work in, they can actually be distractions from each other. Sometimes sometimes having not having that separation can is I found is kind of a problem. And so I'm kind of allocating time for each I'm like, don't let myself work on this when, you know, during these hours. And so initially, that was kind of an that was a problem for me. Let's see, what are we seeing here? Okay, we're still on pep talk. Which is okay, but how have you guys felt? I mean, your rating as for as far as being productive? Would you give me all your would you give yourself fivestars? Like, it's just been, boom, all of a sudden, you're doing that much better. And that was the big thing. With moving to remote work, everyone, you know, they were all these leaders that thought, Ah, man, that's it, we're not, you know, we're not going to get anything out of the out of out of our out of our talents anymore, because they're just going to be at home, you know, watching Netflix instead of doing their work, when in fact, people are more productive than ever. We're actually doing more. We're actually, you know, putting out more quality work. And I really believe that's the case. And that's a huge part of the whole trust issue. Tati said she read that productivity is increased and I did to the research that I did, it's the same thing. And, you know, I can think of like, the bosses that I've had in the past that were like, no way, you've got to be here. And it was it's kind of their own sort of insecurities about having a team that is driving them to not trust whether or not people are doing the job that they're supposed to be doing. And that's disappointing. You know, I think that we're kind of it sort of opening our eyes up to like, the reality of how we relate to work. And and that, you know, people truly do want to be productive when it comes down to it. They that trust just needs to be there. And and in, you know, we just need to have that level of communication where we can where that trust is available. So let's see ray is getting shouted out here. I can work based on energy level rather than presence at office space nine to five. Yes, yes. Yeah, and Tati saying I think we're doing more because we have better balance in most cases. I agree. Alright, so let's go next question. If you are currently working remotely full time and are asked to return the office, will that be easy for you to comply with? I wouldn't be for me, that'd be difficult. And in fact, I like many others that I found in other remote work surveys and, and some of the research that I did would probably look for something else. Just because just given all the circumstances now even with, you know, just with with with COVID, and, and just sort of the environment, with how I'm sort of living in the fall now, with with the smoking stuff, you're kind of on edge all the time. And I just don't want to be at a remote you like working in an office and not, you know, not being here to you know, in case something happens. I've been since over the last four years where I've lived, we've been evacuated twice, which is, which is pretty intense. And, and so I would want to be in a situation where if, if that were happening happen again, I wouldn't want to have to rush home from the office and figure everything out. And you know, and have that emergency plan going. That is different than the one that we already have now. Um, let's see Lisa saying it wouldn't be easy for me. And thankfully my hubby and I moved to another state so we're working permanently remote. Oh, Lisa saying no, not ever full time hybrid, of course is needed. Kim is saying, oh, Greg, nope, nope. Not going back. if I can help it. Kim saying, Well,

here's one where I'm in the minority. It would be easy for me. I guess I'm adaptable that way. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think if you're adaptable, it would it would totally work. I know that for myself. Like, I've just got, you know, just too much that I have to keep an eye on at this point. Jessica says I prefer fully remote, but a clear expectation of flexibility would be important. I hope my next job to be fully remote. Nice. Okay. Next question. Do you feel as productive at home as you are at the office? I guess this is kind of a repeat of one of the other questions. 86% said yes. 13.7 said no. Definitely. Yeah. depth for myself, for myself, be interested into seeing the No, no. I mean, I can understand it. I know that when I was at the office, you know, what would happen? You know, basically, when I would get stuff in. If it wasn't a full day, I would just have to break everything out. So that would last me whatever the nine hours I was going to be there. That was kind of part of the job. Oh, but I would get it all done. But I am definitely like here, I get stuff done quick. And then I, you know, just fill in as needed throughout the day. So yeah, let's see what we got here. Jessica, saying productivity ebbs and flows, I've learned to let go of the guilt of not being productive. Every moment of remote. Yes. Oh, and then racing. He's been he's productive until his wife invites for a drink. Okay, there we go. We're moving in all different direction now. Yeah. Yeah, Jessica, I agree about all the hall conversations at the office. And it's interesting, you know, I, I tried out a service for a little while where it's sort of emulated having Hall conversations just with strangers. And it was kind of cool at first, but then it actually stopped being that interesting. And, and I found that I just didn't need that, even though I was kind of looking for that, because that's what I used to have at work. And I was trying to replicate that. And now, it's just kind of you figure out your own, it's just what you're just sort of different needs nowadays. Right? And do you take regular breaks at 2.2% says, yes, no. 17 8.8% I do take regular breaks, but I don't take them enough. I take my lunch for sure. But when my son wasn't in school, I wasn't I, you know, my break time would be like going to go pick him or drop them off at school and pick them up, which it was a nice little walk he his school is about not that far away. It's only like, maybe a quarter mile away. So that was sort of one of my breaks. And then and but now now that he's back in school, we can have that but during the summer I really wasn't I would go out and we would do something like we would you know, I was teaching him how to ride a skateboard or we would shoot a basketball or we do things and just take little breaks here and there. But I need to identify Definitely personally need to be better taking regular breaks. Um, let's see. I'm trying. Kim saying whenever we're back in the office, I'm going to install a hammock there so I can take my naps. naps are important. Um, naps are important. Let's see. Yeah, I love reading all of this chat. Yeah. tady same. Definitely need to take more breaks. I agree. take breaks, guys. Is it easy to turn off work mode at the end of the day? 67% says yes. 32 or 33% really says no. I would agree with with the nose I it's hard for me to turn off work mode it but then I'm, I think I'm more unique in that way. Just because I'm always doing stuff. I'm not sure. I think I've Oh, I'm sort of wired to like, work a lot. But um, hopefully that'll change at some point. But it is hard for me to turn off work at the end of the day. It's definitely I can definitely turn off O'Reilly Media. But here's the problem. I'm not sure if any of you share this, but how do you have your work stuff on your phone? Because then that's the other people that aren't turning stuff off at the end of the day are messing jitsu and things if you've got your phone with you. So

yeah, Todd is saying that's the worst part of remote work. It's hard to turn off work mode. Yes. Thank you cancel, remove exchange on your phone for Lent. Yeah, for me, it would be slack. I need to take off my slack group. And also my Gmail for work.

Unknown Speaker  
Lisa says it takes

Luis Malbas  
me a while to actually walk away at the end of the day. But once I do I turn off easily. I don't find myself back online later. Love it. Love this chat. Okay, how many more questions we got here? Oh, yeah. One more? And then we've got some responses. Do you feel you've been able to learn and grow in the last few months? 89? Almost 90% said yes. 11% says no. Let's hear. How do you guys? Do you feel like you've actually been able to learn and grow in the last few months? I actually feel like I have as strange as it is it is it seems like it should be. With everything else going on, you would think that it would be difficult to like actually, to learn and grow, you know, because there's just been so much change, but I guess that's a part of it. Right? And you've been able, and what have you learned? How have you grown? I guess that's the that's probably even more important thing. And I would have to sit down. Think about that for a second before I forget. I could answer that. But I do know there are a lot of skills that I've that I've kind of picked up especially with with with just even doing this on a regular basis. I know that when I first started doing the live stream is terrible. I mean, it's still it's still really intense for me to get up in front of a camera and talk like this. But um, you know, I've gotten kind of used to it, I guess. But this has been a big part of my growth. Let's see Ray saying always got another thing I learned by scanning all the chatter from the web and social media instead of sitting in conferences. Yes, yes. Yes. And Todd is saying I've learned to schedule and compartmentalize way better I am going to download this chat and this is the stuff that I need to collect and and post for everybody. So I will try to do that. Christiana, saying if nothing else, we have minors in public health and safety. Elisa saying yes, I've been taking on some new tasks and roles this year. This is great. jack is saying he engages with everyone easier. That's good to hear jack. It's good to hear and that's that's an important thing. Being able to to understand how to engage with people and and do it the right way. Okay, had some bonus questions. This Bonus questions here. Can you share some of the most useful tools you found for working remotely? I wanted to collect all these a lot of them were like zoom. People were talking about zoom outlook. Ms teams. You can see in here, multiple using multiple Google calendars. Let me I'm going to share all this stuff in the slack group. So take a look at that. Tati also included Where was it? Not Oh, it's not going to show it in the report but tidy actually sent in a great little video response to this one. So tiny what was the what was the the service I think that you had shared? That was really really that was interesting. Well said voices. That's it. So I'm tied to him. And put that in the response. So I will share that in the slack group. So some of you can see some of these tips that that folks had had Skype and teams really interesting. I loved. I loved reading through these. I do want to get to some of these questions, though. I know this one has this community discussion. I'm trying to keep them to like 30 minutes or so. But we're way over time. But let me let me go into some of these these these QA questions here. What has been your biggest challenge moving to remote work? Let's hear some from some of your some of your responses to that one, what has been some of your biggest challenges moving to remote work? Specifically, this wasn't in the in the survey, we kind of just talk more general, but specifically, what has been some of your biggest challenges for myself, it really is, is just kind of navigating through distractions, and also kind of overcoming feeling like I had to be busy all the time. That That was a tough one for me. And I'm not sure whether or not any of you feel that way. But, you know, I had actually worked remotely in a couple instances in the past. But, you know, for some reason, this time out, it really felt like I have to be busy, I have to be busy. I have to always like be working on something and all that. And for some reason, it's just really strange. This anxiety kind of overtook me. Let's see Lisa saying biggest challenge staying engaged with others beyond just collaborating on projects. I love it feels like I don't know my peers anymore. Mm hmm. Yeah. Let's see, Kim is saying 100 plus 100. Overcoming distractions? Yes. All right.

Okay, so next question, what is your favorite remote work productivity hack, I was kind of hoping that Nick fluoro was going to be in for this one. But favorite word productivity hack. You know, for my, for my productivity, I would say that one of the biggest things that I've done, that have helped helped me with my productivity was really kind of integrating a notetaking app, into into, into my daily, which is because I would have, I guess, there's so many different things that are kind of moving around. Now, like I'm just constantly working on stuff and having a way to properly take notes and store them has been really, really helpful for me, I'm using something that synchronizes in the in the Mac ecosystem, it's called drafts. And that has really helped me kind of keep a track of things. And I it's been helpful for me, I didn't need that as much before I kind of carried around my own my notebooks over there, a paper notebook, and that's what I would use as my note taking. But having it amongst, within my my, my ecosystem has been really, really helpful because I just you know, if between distractions and other things, I can just jot that stuff down. Yeah, tidy, so. Oh, yeah. It's called drafts. It's and it's it's it's Mac only so and I know you're on Windows. But I would look for something out there. I mean, you could even use Google Docs notion was something that I tried out for a while. I love notion I wish I could integrate notion into my workflows, but for some reason it's just never stuck. Justin is saying that his productivity hack is this is this website promo focus that I Oh, I'm not I can't click on it right now. But I have a feeling that might be one of the ones that just kind of the background sound stuff. gets all pants are optional. saves time. Yes. Yes. Pants optional. Lisa productivity, turning off notifications, notifications for blocks of time during the day, using OneNote to organize meeting those project notes, etc. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Let's see. And then Ray's got a list of different things here. Trello, Slack, Evernote mirum, big on note taking. Have to find the time to read the notes. Yeah, I for some reason, I'm really mine works really, really well for me just for so I don't know why. But I go back regularly and I organize that and it just helps tremendously. Let's see, I think I'm missing some stuff here. I'm just in talking about you. Oh, I see the Pomodoro Technique. Thank you Tristan. Okay, okay. All right. And how do you overcome distractions when you're working from home. Lisa had put in, in the in the queue area that how she overcomes distractions. I'm working from home, she reminds herself the deadline won't move, take a walk, put on some music and keep going. I'm totally agree. Yeah, and for me, when when I do have distractions, I mean, just like in the in when I was working at the office, I always just put on headphones, and I would just zone out. And usually my, you know, My son, even my wife knows when I've got headphones on, that I'm really, really focused on something. Yeah, and that's the so that's how I distract myself. Alright, and oh, okay, so we've got this is a big question that bakti asked, and then Melissa's got one. Alright, so I'm gonna, um, I know there's been long but let's let me see if we can get through this real quick. boxes, he's asking how often do you have a deep future oriented discussion with your remote manager? Now, just real quick, for me, we I do have a date a weekly one on one with, with who I report to, that is helpful. But I wouldn't say that they were deep and future oriented. discussions. They are mostly about personal things. Just what's going on, with my, with with, you know, my personal life and just how I feel like my productivity is, I'm not sure if that's intentional, we always just end up talking about that stuff. You know, we talk about work projects to just that usually takes up about maybe 10 or 20% of the conversation. But mostly, it's about personal stuff. I don't think that I ever have deep future oriented discussions with with my manager ever I know with my old boss, we would go out for a

beer and maybe do that every once in a while. I'd love to hear from anybody else. Lisa saying future oriented discussion we meet every two weeks and more often is necessary. And our company has this to do deep check ins at least three times a year, but we chat about it more often than that. That's great to hear. Bhakti Um, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to follow up on that one because this is the first time that I've ever really seen this question. So Cindy saying we have weekly one on ones now. Sometimes project focus sometimes career focus, very nice. kristiana saying she she has standing one on ones with his directs up and down. For us a deep future is sometimes sometimes we're just too tired from world. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Racing deep conversations in remote. What I love it needs special skill is true. It's true. Interesting. Kim has at least a weekly with a met with manager coach, and talk all things personal work. Okay. Yeah, that might actually be an interesting one to kind of explore more in conversation. And then we're gonna wrap it up here. But last question from Melissa Google has decided to pay remote workers according to their location, and said that remote workers and lower cost of living areas will get pay cuts. anyone else's company do this? What do you think about it?

Wow, that's a big one. Yeah. Christiana, saying not yet. And I hope not I did hear about this. And I'm my first response is that I'm just not happy about that. But then, I also was listening to a podcast recently that was talking about sort of the geography of remote work, and how that is going to be changing how it's just going to be changing patterns, migrating patterns for folks, you know, people are not going to be moving to the city anymore. Because if with remote work that just doesn't need that doesn't that need is no longer there, and how that is going to change things. But then there are these other areas that are perfect for remote work that are going to start to get, you know, really industrialized, and how that is going to affect things. Let's see. Oh, it's Jessica saying as someone who lives in the Midwest, I feel location should not affect the skills that I bring. I agree. This is a big one. I would love to have this conversation with everybody. Cindy saying I think that it's pretty common practice in HR recruiting. The issue at Google is people moved out of areas near Google. Yeah. Yeah, and it's all you probably have kind of more of an insight into this. I'm not sure but because you were a bay area worker now. Now you're in the Phoenix area. So it's, um, yeah. Why pay burial rates. Melissa saying I'm definitely in an area that is seeing skyrocketing home rent because remote workers are coming here with their big paychecks. Where's that, Melissa? Just curious. And Kim saying I just saw an article where I Oh, is really inexpensive to live salaries here are lower, but cost of living is low to Las Vegas. Thanks. Thanks for sharing Lissa. Yes, I'm very interesting. That's what I'm thinking about. And I know that our company is not doing any pay cuts. But, you know, O'Reilly Media has been based in Sebastopol since the start. So I don't think that that's, that's going to change. But we do have an office in Boston as well. So it's a little different. Alright, everyone, this has been a great conversation. Thanks so much, it really ran along. super interesting. To do this, if anyone is interested in running one of these surveys, and then helping host a community discussion to follow up on it. Please hit me up, I would love to have you participate this way. I think these are really, really interesting and a great way to maintain like, engagement within a community and we can keep conversation talking about this stuff. And don't forget, I have this feedback tool feedback that the TL DC comm if you guys want to add some of your ideas about community discussions, or surveys or topics that we can cover here and have you know, and topics that we can create surveys for and have these conversations, these community discussions, just add that over to the feedback tool and just see, you know, like this project, show and tell if you're looking at the tool now, the lnd hackathon that Allen, I think came up with just those types of things I'm working on, and I'm going to try to build those out and taking all of this stuff seriously, that's in the feed feedback tool, so that we can just continue to find, you know, create useful things for everybody here. Alright, so thanks for joining us today. Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll see you next week. I think I have Anna Smith. Next week as in a community discussion. Got a couple more I know Danny Ortega on is coming in. And then don't forget, community days on Thursday, September 2, it's looking really, really good. I'm looking forward to seeing you again. Alright. Bye everybody. Have a great week.

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