Prof.Dr.

Aung Tun Thet

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MANAGING REMOTE WORKERS

• Challenging
• During COVID 19 pandemic amplified

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REMOTE WORKERS

• Juggling work and caring for children while schools

closed
• Cut off from key relationships and sources of support
• Coping with unprecedented uncertainty and
disruption
• Everyone anxious — about health, money, and future
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MANAGING REMOTE WORKERS

• One critical aspect

• Loss of everyday signals about time
• What people doing with time facilitate effective
coordination and collaboration
• When everyone working in different places signals
less visible and more difficult to decode
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TYPICAL OFFICE ENVIRONMENT

• See employees working

• Know what they’re doing when

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REMOTE WORK

• Subtle but useful time signals disappear

• Managers can’t delegate and coordinate work
smoothly
• Fail to notice issues that hinder efficiency and
collaboration

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REMOTE WORK

• Employees feel anxious working without time signals

• Look for ways to demonstrate they’re engaged and
available
• Make themselves more reachable and responsive
• Working longer hours and replying more quickly to
emails
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REMOTE WORK

• Managers address employees’ assumptions about

time signals
• People focus and get work done
• Employees spend more time online proving they are
“there” and less time working productively
• Coping with individual needs and circumstances
harder
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EMPLOYEES

• Don’t make independent choices about what they do

with their time
• Choices influenced by people they work with —
managers

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EMPLOYEES

• If manager stay late in office

• Work longer hours
• If manager regularly takes break for lunch
• Do the same

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MANAGERS

• Recognize they play key role in setting expectations

about time
• Time signals have significant impact on employees’
work hours, flexibility, and well-being
• Eight specific tips for navigating to remote work

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1. PAY ATTENTION TO OUTPUT NOT TIME

• Judge what people do

• Not how quickly they respond to email

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1. PAY ATTENTION TO OUTPUT NOT TIME

• Focus on what they are producing

• Is it high quality?
• Does it meet standards set?

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1. PAY ATTENTION TO OUTPUT NOT TIME

• Tell employees you trust them to get work done within

reasonable time frame
• Be clear about which tasks essential and which can
fall by wayside for now
• Set well-defined goals and deadlines

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1. PAY ATTENTION TO OUTPUT NOT TIME

• Specify times to check in and discuss progress

• Allow employees to get work done flexibly
• Some employees need to shift and/or compress work
hours due to increased personal responsibilities

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2. EXPLICITLY DISCUSS TIME

• Regular practice of informal one-on-one check-ins

with employees
• Get sense of individual time needs, burdens, and
pressures
• Be empathetic about personal situations and help
brainstorm solutions
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2. EXPLICITLY DISCUSS TIME

• Explain expectations about time and responsiveness

• Share own constraints and adjustments
• Assure employees they can tell their struggles with
time

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3. SUPPORT EMPLOYEES’ BOUNDARIES AND SIGNAL YOUR OWN

• Knowing when to start and put aside work difficult

for remote employees
• Model boundaries by noting when you are “in the
office” and ready for business
• Tell people when you are “going home for the day”

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3. SUPPORT EMPLOYEES’ BOUNDARIES AND SIGNAL YOUR OWN

• Reassure employees you don’t expect them to start

working 24-7
• Stay attuned to individual circumstances
• Signal own boundaries
• Others need to — and can — set boundaries
differently
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4. DON’T SEND COMMUNICATION OUTSIDE WORK HOURS

• If you send late-night email

• Make it clear if you need immediate response
• If not state people should wait until morning to reply
• Anything non-urgent sent only during normal work
hours

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5. RETHINK LANGUAGE ABOUT RAPIDITY

• If you say “thanks for getting back to me so quickly” in

your email response
• Consider praising rapid responsiveness makes sense
• Everything you say to employees sends signals about
how you are evaluating them

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6. BE SENSITIVE WHEN SCHEDULING MEETINGS

• Recognize employees intertwining work and nonwork

activities in new and unpredictable ways
• Don’t assume people have more time because they
no longer commuting or have fewer social plans

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6. BE SENSITIVE WHEN SCHEDULING MEETINGS

• Keep meetings focused and productive

• Provide opportunities for informal conversations
• Gauge better how people feeling about time pressure
and work deadlines

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7. MINIMIZE NONURGENT INTERRUPTIONS

• Cut down on number of interruptions

• Asynchronous communication channels such as email
allow employees to handle interruptions flexibly on
own schedules
• Better choice than synchronous video or phone calls,
which pressure employees to answer immediately
• Unexpected calls intrusive
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8. CREATE INFORMAL “COLLABORATION HOURS”

• For employees working together

• Zoom or Google Hangouts
• Virtual opportunities for togetherness
• Keep employees aware of what coworkers are up to
• Allow for immediate coordination
• Maintain relationships while people physically
separated
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ADJUSTING TO REMOTE WORK

• Not easy
• Especially during extreme uncertainty and upheaval

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MANAGERS

• Open with employees

• Change course if necessary
• Mindful about time cues
• Make virtual work easier for employees and
themselves!

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