Dear Remote Workers.

I’m taking my digital pen to write you this letter. There’s a lot to say, even more from a french perspective. But these past few weeks, I had some revelations and I wanted to share them with you.

Remote what ?

There are several definitions for us and it’s pretty fun to write “Remote Worker” in Google. (How many of you just did it right after ?). Remote.co says it right : "A remote worker is someone who works outside of a traditional office. An employee who might work from home, from a coffee shop, or from anywhere that is not a regular office." + Some useful infos and definition of what are a Distributed Team and a Digital Workplace.

But they are pro-remote working. So, this is, I think my favorite one amongst all random and most common definitions proposed on the Internet : “Remote working is a situation in which an employee works mainly from home and communicates with the company by email and telephone”. (I mean, really guys ? This is so much more than that)

No need to say that, we, Remote Workers, suffer from a lack of knowledges and a lot of (both justified and unjustified) fears from traditional companies (aka the majority). How am I supposed to manage a remote worker ? How can I control his/her everyday work ? Should I put an e-spy on his/her laptop to see if he/she’s on Netflix all day long instead of working for us ?

So many questions managers are still dealing with and unfortunately so many of them still don’t want to take the risk. And YES, it is a risk, a risk of success, productivity and happiness. There are proven records saying that the more an employee is happy at work, the more loyal to the company and the more efficient he/she will be. And I can’t agree more !

You are different, and it’s ok !

I remember the first time I told myself : Am I normal ? It was back in 2012. At that time, I had already worked for many french companies, big and small, as a trainee for few months and also for a first full-time job. Oh gosh, I hated it ! Not because of the experiences themselves, they were all more or less good experiences. But they all made me feel like I was not normal.

Let’s face it. I’m clearly not a morning person, all my friends and recent co-workers can tell you that. I don’t like offices and open spaces. I can’t work proactively when I’m stuck in an office with the official "9 to 5" hours to follow. And when I feel stuck it’s like I’m deprived of my freedom. And when I feel deprived of my freedom, all my system goes down and adios productivity and creativity.

I rather be “me” with my full personality at work instead of faking it and trying to be someone else who ticks all the boxes. I am a kick-ass creative and efficient worker at different times of the day, and it changes every days. But most of the time, I’m at my best after 11:45 AM and during the night.

I hate micromanagement and find it totally useless and unnecessarily stressful. I always work hard and with passion but only for brands/products/companies I believe in. I know my work values and expect companies I work with to have the sames (or similar). Competition doesn’t work on me, I prefer working WITH instead of AGAINST a team of co-workers. I like to take a full 1h of lunch break. Presenteeism concept really pisses me of (who the hell can question all your professional skills just because one day you arrived 5 min late or you left the office before everyone else but at the normal leaving time. #sorrynotsorry. Does that sound familiar to you ?). And, on top of that, I think that being happy is more important than everything else.

Yes I’m different. You are different. And you know what, that’s totally ok. Thinking out of the box is not a default you have to hide. You have to be proud of this. And what the hell is this box ? Who designed it ? In fact there’s no box ! There’s just you, designing the way you want to spend your life.

But let’s be honest, not everyone can work an office life and not everyone can be a remote worker. And we are part of the few really able to work remotely ! Cheers to us !

“Is it really your real job ?”

And here comes the moment you find your first remote job. And your first revelation !... Only for you. ‘Cause yes, let’s face it (again). People don’t really understand what we are doing on a daily basis. “Is it really your real job ?” was one of the most frequent question people asked me while I was working remotely for Yelp. And should I share all these times when friends called me to say (and just to be clear, I love my friends) :

- “Hey, I can be at your place in 10 min. ”

- “Sorry, it’s 4 PM, I’m working on a big project right now”

- “Okay, but you’re home right ?”

- “Huh, yes.”

At the beginning, this is so hard to put boundaries for others and, above all, for yourself. Your job has the definition of a Dream Job, whatever you are doing. For other workers stuck in a 9-5, you have no right to complain as “You can do whatever you want whenever you want/You are free/You work from home/You are free/You work for a pretty cool american company/You are free”. But my job is not so different from a traditional one, except that I’m not stuck in traffic jam every morning, I don’t have to commute every days, I can be in my office in 5 minutes (just time to wake up and grab a cup of tea) and I can work from every places with a decent wifi connection.

Another frequent question I heard from office workers was “Are you really able to get to work seriously ?” Nope, I’m eating Cheetos in front of New Girl episodes most of the time.

Despite the fact that I obviously love Cheetos (only the puffiest ones) and New Girl, the answer is YES ! And you know what, the most difficult part of the job is to stop working.

When your office is your home, you just can’t close the door and say “See you tomorrow Work”. Because work is everywhere ! And here comes the second revelation (direct quote from my mum in 2014 when I was more in a work/work balance than an healthy work/life balance). She told me that the job I was doing was the most difficult to disconnect with, as my office was not a physical place. My office was in my head, literally. And you quickly realize that it’s not so easy to close your head until the next workday.

So, dear Remote Workers, yes, you dealt and you will deal with your office everyday and you will also learn to tame it and educate it to find your routine. Routine is everything while working remotely and at this precise moment, you will fully enjoy your remote life.

Freedom VS Freedom

Be careful with the word freedom.

Yes we are free to work from wherever we want and we are also free to schedule our day/week/month. But what you can’t see is that we also have deadlines to respect, team calls to attend, results to reach and business/brand/strategies to develop.

Yes we can take a nap at 10:00 AM (Did I already tell you that I’m not a morning person ?), go to the hairdresser in the middle of the afternoon, extend the lunch break with a friend and finish earlier on some Fridays. But what you can’t see is the amount of work a remote worker is able to do by him/herself, all the extra-hours worked on weekdays (sometimes weekends), the creative insomnia who keeps you awake until 2:00 AM and team calls you attend at 9:00 PM to be sure to have every international markets onboard.

Yes, we are alone most of the time when we work from home, we can look like disconnected from who knows who call “real life” and our laptop is our BFF. But what you can’t see is all the incredible smart and kind persons we are proud to call “team”, the wealth of working with an international team and the kindness and respect that a team of remote workers bring to each other.

There’s no freedom. There’s productivity, creativity and worldwide workers who are free to be who they are in open-minded companies which are (really) ready for the future of work.

The “wanna-be” remote-friendly companies

I was lucky enough to work for Yelp more than 4 years before they decided to close their International markets. This was a violent time. Not because my dream job was over but because I realized the state of the remote job market in France. And worldwide in general.

So this past year, I decided to go freelance and to work mostly as a contractor for International companies with HQ in US, Ireland and even in France (Paris) but with a need of a local remote worker to help them launch their new product/service. This was the only way I have found to keep my “freedom” and to stay away from a 9-5. But to be totally transparent with you, freelance is not my thing. I don’t like working on a short period of time for a company, even for few months or for great challenges. I like to be 100% dedicated to a company development, to brainstorm with a team and to have a longer vision for strategies… as a remote worker. Yes, this is it ! I always come back to it.

But, Dear Remote Workers (worldwide but above all in France/Europe), let me warn you about something. Remote is the new trendy word. Be careful of that. When I started as a remote, no one really knew about this “strange concept of working”. But now, you can hear a lot of companies saying that they allowed their employees to work remote. They self-proclaim “remote friendly”, but come on, scratch the surface and you will see the truth. I’m sick to hear my friends telling me : “So happy that my company let me work remotely… 1 day a week”. I mean, really ? Oooh 2 days, way better. Of course, there’s always a place for improvements and It’s already a micro-step for change. I don’t speak here about companies which really try their best. I’m speaking of companies using trends to make the buzz (like start-ups’ quest of their unique unicorn #pleasestop)

This is not what I call a “remote friendly” company. Stop selling this word to your actual and future employees just to be IN the trend. Be really IN. Learn what remote working really is. Be honest with your employees. If their job doesn’t necessitate to be at the office, let them work from where they want. Train your managers to have remote workers in their teams (one of the main success keys). Know what are the most useful tools/apps/materials to stay connected with your remote workers. Stop being afraid of changes.

American business culture has taught me many things but if I can retain one amongst the others, it would be : “There are no mistakes. There are no fails. There are learnings. Improvements. And a better version of you”. There are no mistakes if you don’t try new things. So try !

And I can assure you that you won’t regret it !

Buffer, Close.io and the others

Some companies made the choice to go 100% remote. No HQ, no offices, worldwide teammates (aka distributed team) and transparency about their metrics/salaries/learnings. And I didn’t know about that... until 3 months ago.

I discovered an interesting article on Welcome To The Jungle. It was dedicated to Remote Working. And it was the first time I heard about Buffer. Since then, I made some researches and discovered many more 100% remote companies like Buffer. Close.io, Zapier, Automattic, InVision,...To name a few.

And if you didn’t already, have a look to Buffer Open Blog and especially this article (from Joel Gascoigne, Buffer CEO) and this one (about their philosophy and values). They made me feel even better with my vision of work and my values.

As more and more people are curious about Remote Work, one question became popular “Where to find these goddamn remote jobs and remote-friendly companies ?”. Not easy, I agree. Either you already know the name of the remote company you’re interested with, or you go to websites like Remotive.io, Remote.co, Remote.com and even AngelList has a section for remote jobs.

Dear Remote Workers, you are different and it’s ok. Your difference is you strength. Don’t waste your time faking to be someone else at work. There’s a place for you in a company with philosophy and values you are looking for. Have no doubt about it !

You are not alone. We are a large community of passionate workers. Should I say a family ? Yep, kind of. Except one detail, we don’t know every single person in the Community, but we know we can count on each others.

Remote workers are the most creative, efficient, brave, kind and professional co-workers I’ve ever worked with in the last 6 years.

So cheers to us ! And cheers to the future of work !

And now ? Now, I'm pretty curious about your own experience as a remote worker. And even if it's just to say hi, I'd be happy to e-meet other remote workers in Europe and worldwide.