The remote work handbook

• 1: Guide to effectively work remotely
• 2: Hear from Dana
• 3: Hear from one of our students
• 4: Hear from Sander

1 - Guide to effectively work remotely

Since we are a young and dynamic team, we also still need to learn. But why not take the lessons from the established? Many of our remote policy is based on GitLab’s All Remote handbook. This is an iterative process where learn and make changes as necessary.

Important in an all-remote, asynchronous organisation is to have all information available online. Our single source of truth is our online handbook which holds information on how we work and decisions we make. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to make changes to the handbook.

Working from home

Working completely from home is not always easy. During the intake procedure, we always check with individuals if they are able to work from home comfortably. People get the flexibility to work at the times that fits their rhythm best in non-linear work days but we also encourage them to clearly separate work from life.

When you completely work at times that are out-of-sync with your colleagues, it will be a lot harder to collaborate and have meetings together. We strongly encourage people to stay connected with your team through regular meetings and synchronous collaboration via e.g. Slack. If timezones or other situations make it hard or impossible to sync work times within your team, then be very careful to log progress and outcomes for everyone to review.

Since working from home can be lonely sometimes we find it important to have regular check-ins to see and hear how somebody is doing. The goal is to have at least one weekly check-in with the direct manager or company representative and add more check-in meetings when necessary. People are encouraged to read this All remote starter guide.

Communication

Working remotely also brings with it that a lot of communication is asynchronously. We use Slack as the main channel for direct communication. People can at all times send a Slack message. We try to keep Slack and Slack channels as open as possible so everybody is aware of what is going on and everyone can respond to questions. We do ask people to check for and respond to Slack messages on every workday but we never expect people to respond outside working hours.

To keep your colleagues informed on your working schedule, we encourage you to complete your Slack profile. Especially your time zone and regular working hours would be great to see in Slack. You can also set regular working hours in Google Calendars so that when people book a meeting with you, they can see if the meeting is within working hours.

Meetings are a great way to synchronously discuss certain topics are make a decision. If the purpose of a meeting is not clear or a meeting is not really effective, everyone can always ask to clarify the purpose, provide an agenda or ask to cancel the meeting if ineffective. The outcome of a meeting should always be written down. This can be either in a Google Docs document to track meeting minutes or the transcription, or in an online source like the handbook or the documentation site.

Time off

Since there is no office where you can see if people are present, it is important to communicate about your whereabouts. When people take a day off or are away from their keyboard for a longer time (more than an hour), we ask them to set the correct status in Slack so everyone can see this.

Progress tracking

When you work from home, it is a lot harder to share or show what you are working on. Also is it more difficult to sit together and ask questions. We therefore expect people to work in openness and transparency. Work is tracked (mostly) in GitLab through tasks and merge requests. If people work on code, we expect them to commit frequently in order to trigger feedback loops and also to encourage collaboration.

Documents, memos and other office related content is always written directly in our Google Docs workspace, again for visibility, transparency and to encourage collaboration.

To keep it easy and transparent to book meetings and know what people are doing, we strongly ask people to also share there calendars with everyone in the organization. We understand the privacy implications and aren’t making this mandatory but ask you to work fully transparent nonetheless. You can ofcourse set meetings as private to prevent others from seeing the topic.

Well-being

To beat loneliness, we allow people to have informal meetings among each other.

Long hours are not encouraged, neither is working in the weekends. But people can plan their workweek is they see fit, as long as progress is being made.

Working remotely can be a challenge for people. The regular check-in meetings are to detect early signs of remote work burnout.

Although not mandatory, we do offer to schedule regular in-person co-working days, for deeper connection, different topics of conversation and spontaneous discussions. This can help overcome the feeling of loneliness and being excluded.

2 - Hear from Dana

My Remote Journey: Connecting Across Borders

1. Why did you decide to pick a remote assignment in the first place?

My remote journey actually started long before the rest of the world caught on. Way back in 2012, while working at HP, we were offered a hybrid schedule: two days at home, three in the office. I jumped at the chance. For me, it was a breath of fresh air. It gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my dog, cook healthy meals at home, and take actual, quiet breaks away from the constant buzz of office chatter. It was a huge, incredibly positive shift in my life.

2. What were your expectations upfront?

Honestly, transitioning to working from home wasn’t a strange concept for me. As due to my tech role, I was already used to working “on-call” shifts after hours and during weekends, so my home setup was already good to go. I knew what it felt like to log in from anywhere, so my expectations were simply that I’d get to scale up the lifestyle benefits I had already tasted during my hybrid days.

3. How did you experience working fully remote in the end?

The true shift came after COVID, which evolved into a lifestyle of total geographical freedom. Fully remote work became my passport. It gave me the incredible liberty to travel, move, and explore the world without putting my career on pause.

The most beautiful realization of this setup is my current collaboration with the Balean Foundation. Here I am, working away in Canada, collaborating seamlessly with a team based in the Netherlands. In a traditional 9-to-5 office world, this partnership literally wouldn’t be possible. It’s an amazing example to what remote work can achieve.

4. What did you like about working from home and why?

The biggest gift is the balance you can create in terms of quality of life and flexibility. Back in my hybrid days, my commute was only 15 minutes by bus, so I never hated going to the office…I actually enjoyed the in-person meetings and hanging out with coworkers. But nothing beats the autonomy of a remote day.

I love being with my dog all day!! eating better because I can cook in my own kitchen, and taking truly productive breaks. Instead of pacing an office hallway, I can step outside for a walk, soak up some sunlight, and completely reset. As long as you respect synchronous work, show up for meetings, and hit your deliverables, you can organize your time to build a truly healthy life.

5. What were your biggest challenges and why?

It hasn’t been without its hurdles. First, if you don’t have a quiet, organized space to focus, it can become incredibly stressful. Second, it is shockingly easy to lose track of time. When I’m in a physical office, I’m hyper-aware of the clock because I eventually want to pack up and go home. At home? I frequently find myself working more hours because the boundary isn’t there.

Lastly, you have to manage the people around you who don’t understand the “WFH” concept. I recall during my first year of wfh, my mom used to ask if she could come over and spend the afternoon hanging out with me since I was “at home.” I’d have to say, “Mom, I’m working!”…but it just didn’t seem to click for her at first! :)

6. What are some tips to give to other people when working from home?

• Establish Firm Boundaries: Set clear limits not just for yourself, but for the family and friends around you so they know when you are locked in.
• Curate Your Environment: Invest in a clean, quiet, and dedicated workspace. It changes your entire mental state. And of course an excellent Internet
  connection!
• Break the Monotony: Staying inside the same four walls all day can start to feel repetitive. Force yourself to get out. Go to a library, a local co-working space, or make a strict rule to go for a walk right after you close your laptop to signal the end of the day.

7. Any other thoughts you may want to share.

To me, the ability to choose a remote assignment is one of the greatest gifts of modern work. It allows you to connect with the rest of the world and build a career from literally anywhere on the planet. Embrace it, protect your boundaries, and enjoy the global community it opens up for you!

3 - Hear from one of our students

For the past 20 weeks, I worked remotely on a project for The Balean Foundation. One of the reasons I chose a remote assignment is because it gives you the opportunity to connect and collaborate with people from different places, which I think is really special. It also gives you a lot of freedom in how and where you work.

Especially in a creative project, I really liked that flexibility. Creativity does not always happen at one fixed time or place, so it helped me to be able to switch between working from home, libraries, cafés or school. A big plus was that I could easily plan interviews and feedback sessions with different people because location wasn’t a barrier.

Before the project started, we already had an online introduction meeting to discuss the assignment. That gave me a good first impression of how the communication would work. During the project, we had a weekly meeting to stay aligned, ask questions and discuss progress. For smaller updates, we used Slack, which worked well.

In the end, I experienced remote working as very positive. It gave me a lot of independence and freedom, but also taught me to take ownership of my own planning. That can be a challenge, because when working remote you really have to create your own structure and be proactive in your communication.

My tip for others who are going to work remotely would be to plan regular check-ins, communicate clearly and not be afraid to ask questions. It also helps to create a routine, but at the same time make use of the freedom to work from different places if that helps your focus or creativity.

4 - Hear from Sander

I am Sander Brienen, founder of Balean foundation. I live near Nijmegen with my wive, 2 children and a dog. In the passed I worked for GitLab where I experience remote work from the organization who kind of invented it.

During the COVID pandemic, I noticed that I enjoyed remote work a lot and was reluctant going back to the office every day. My remote working days were quite efficient with meetings happening online. Apart from that, I also had the time to go for a walk with the dog during lunch break rather than having to order dog services for that and I had the time to welcome my children from school every day.

I’ve talked a lot with other people on the advantages and disadvantaged of working from home fulltime before I accepted my role at GitLab. Before I started, I thought that I needed more time with colleagues / peers to share thoughts and ideas and a change of scenery. But as I started working for GitLab, I noticed I hardly ever missed going out to meet with peers. The social talk I had online with people was enough to cover for that. So my experience was much better than I initially expected.

I must admit that the working conditions for me are quite optimal: I have a big enough house to have a separate room to work from; I usually have enough people around me to distract me or to chat with when I need to let off some steam or want to share my enthusiasm; I live quite rural so it’s easy to go out and walk in nature.

But there is always some challenges: the transition time between work and private and vv is extremely short. So no time to wind down. This means that I am still busy with work inside my head when I ended my day. It is also too easy to keep going. No colleagues to remind you to take a break, go for lunch or go home. It is via my family that I take regular lunch breaks and stop working in time. Otherwise I would continue going.

So when you work from home, you need to be aware of the biggest challenges: you are the only one to bring routine and force yourself to take enough breaks. If you find yourself in a situation where the environment is not providing you with that, then create one: Meet with friends or other co-workers in a co-working space or elsewhere to force yourself to take regular breaks; schedule an appointment or sport activity at the end of your working day (not too late) to force yourself to stop in time; put lunch breaks and coffee breaks in your calendar with a reminder to remind you to take it; schedule coffee chats with other people, co-workers, etc to have a social talk between your other meetings or as a change to your regular working rhythm.

Working from home is really great, gives you a lot of flexibility, generates extra time that you otherwise waste with traveling and is very sustainable as well. But make sure you have the right working conditions or create them for you. Discuss with your employer about possibilities for claiming expenses. There is often many options available.