BONUS | Heather Fletcher - Quick Tips for those New to Remote Work

Heather's article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-tips-new-remote-worker-heather-fletcher/

Heather's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/heavenhealing

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:05)

Hey everybody. Welcome back for another bonus episode of Count Me In. I'm your host Mitch Roshong. And today I'll be bringing you right up to another conversation on how to best manage working from home. This time Adam talked to Heather Fletcher, a freelancer and candidate manager who looks to offer some quick tips to help anyone who is new to working from home for another perspective that'll help you settle into today's new norm. Let's listen to the conversation now. 

Adam: (00:37)

So there's a lot of people who are finding themselves in an extended period of working from home. And, we wanted to reach out because, you know, you have a great article on LinkedIn and we just wanted to see, you know, do you have some tips on how people can be successful and kind of stay sane as they find themselves in this new world of probably having kids home from school and having to work full time and just trying to balance all those things. what's the advice that you can give them? 

Heather: (01:03)

Oh yeah, I mean, I feel like it definitely depends on what things are happening that are important for you. Like people with kids, obviously their type priority is figuring out how to juggle work and taking care of their kids at the same time. I've already seen people post articles on this as well. It seems like some of the best tips that are for almost everybody is to get yourself on a schedule. It's really easy to be like, well I can sleep in, I don't have to drive anywhere and deal with traffic and then all of a sudden you're just kind of lollygagging around the house until it's time to start working. So keeping to a regular schedule really is a big help on that one. I feel like that's probably one of the top tips I can give you, but it's also still really important to get a lot of sleep to take care of yourself. So you're keeping your immune system up, eating healthy instead of snacking all day cause you're at home. I really feel like planning your meals, if you already do that, keep doing that because you're going to find that as cool as it sounds to cook yourself a fresh breakfast, lunch or dinner, it takes time to set up, prep, cook, serve, and then eat those things. So if you've already got a few meals planned for you, it's going to help your day go by a little more smoothly without stressing about how long it's taking you to chop vegetables, that's for sure. 

Adam: (02:29)

And then if you're making food for other people as well as yourself, then it gets even more complicated. 

Heather: (02:33)

Exactly. Like, yeah, like people that with the kids, maybe your spouse is home at the same time too. Maybe your roommates are home. If that's the case, and you've got all those people home. Another tip I would like to share is to try and find a space that doesn't have all those people in it. Maybe a place that you can shut the door on those people for a short periods of time if you need to. Cause it's, it's really easy to be distracted if you're sitting in maybe the, maybe you're sitting in the dining room and your kids are watching TV in the living room and then maybe somebody else is in the kitchen doing stuff. So especially if you have to talk to other people, those distractions that are nearby, it really helped get you off course without even, you just don't even notice it until an hour has passed sometimes. 

Adam: (03:19)

Definitely. So it's talking about, speaking of talking with people and speaking with other people cause she coworkers or clients or whatever your, whatever your job is, what are some technologies or some tools that you've, you've learned to use over with your experience working from home? 

Heather: (03:35)

Oh yeah. Our company uses a specific one called Nextiva. That's going ti be a bigger program for a bigger company. Perhaps you might not be using that already, but Skype is super easy and it's free. So you can call anybody. That way. You can use video chat or not use video chat, whatever works best for you. you can still use your phones. You still need to keep in touch with people. Email is probably going to be one. People are going to just remember that communication gets a little more difficult when you're not face to face with somebody. So give a little leeway for the person that you're talking to. Give them the benefit of the doubt. If you maybe misunderstand what they have said cause it always makes sense to yourself when you're saying something. But sometimes from the other person's perspective it doesn't come out that way. So our first reaction can sometimes be defense or offense and give yourself just a little bit of leeway to call that person and clarify ahead of time before you react one way or the other. Because more often than not, it's just going to be a small misunderstanding that you can clear up with a quick phone call. 

Adam: (04:48)

Now as you give that example, I feel like there's a, I feel like there's a personal experience in that. You want to share a personal experience where the communication didn't go as well and you had to clear that up. 

Heather: (04:58)

I feel like, honest to goodness, it probably happens once a week for me. I have another coworker that I work with, she's got the same name as me and we talk a lot. We're really interfacing quite a bit, but every now and then I'll send her a message just thinking I'm sending her like a quick message and it will sound offensive on the other hand and I'll need to give her a call and apologize and let her know that's not what I meant. And then I've got her back 100%. Because when you start to let those like little seemingly trivial things slide, they build up a bit and the sooner you can clear up that misunderstanding, the sooner you're moving on with your day with a clear head and clear heart. 

Adam: (05:42)

Definitely, definitely. It's always good to get it out in the open right away and not let things fester because as human with friendships or with family, if you don't communicate clearly and then if the other person doesn't understand it quite well and you don't clear that up, you know that goes into 20 years of never talking to a sibling. 

Heather: (06:01)

Exactly. It's a big problem with text messages in general. I tell all my friends and family, the second your text messages bring up in emotion, stop and call because a text message is for like, yes, no thank you. I'll be there. Be there. This time when you start to get into these like quote unquote like deeper conversations that have meaning to them, you really need that tone to set the stage for what you're saying with somebody. 

Adam: (06:33)

Definitely. And it's even important to use something like a webcam because when you're saying something to somebody, you may not see their facial expressions and how they're looking. And so how has a webcam been important in your experience? 

Heather: (06:47)

A webcam has bee...