The corona virus is spreading globally and we all need to do our best to get control over the situation. Remote work will be the new way to work for many people.
The only way to prevent the exponential spread is social distancing. If you wonder why we recommend you to read this article on Medium that got a few millions views the last days.
Social distancing means working remotely, most tech companies have sent their employees home and CNN calls this the world’s biggest work-from-home experiment. For freelancers long term this might be a positive effect on openness from companies to work with an on demand remote workforce. Forbes have interviewed many of the global freelancer platforms in this article.
On the other hand, we know that there’s also a lot of challenges to tackle. Such as no or low payments for sick days if you’re in quarantine, unstable financial situations and customers holding on their business.
For freelancers, remote work is not something new, it’s a part of giglife. For the Gigway team we have embraced a remote culture from start with teammates working from Stockholm, Helsinki, Bali, Tbilisi, Barcelona, Kiev and Kharkiv.
Some tips on remote work:
- ”Go to work” – get dressed for work, don’t work from bed and create a office space at home.
- Stick to your schedule – do as usual – set a schedule, start work and finish work, start online meetings when they are supposed to start and be clear with colleagues when you work and when you don’t work (don’t be “always available”).
- Go out, take breaks and exercise – it’s still important to take care of yourself.
- Over-communicate – when you’re a distributed team it is even more important to communicate and be very clear with each other. Say good morning and good evening, cheer each other and use emojis. 👊👏
- Use the same tools – to collaborate, communicate and track – find a toolbox working for your team.
Links with more recommendations:
https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/04/08/the-remote-manifesto/
https://info.trello.com/hubfs/How_To_Embrace_Remote_Work_Trello_Ultimate_Guide.pdf
https://www.mentimeter.com/campaigns/tools-for-remote-working
Stay safe friends!