The IT Nerd

To help contain the spread of COVID-19, remote work has been advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and companies worldwide across all industries and sizes have implemented working from home as a temporary workplace policy. As the definitive resource on remote work, Remote.co offers insight and advice on critical topics and challenges that businesses transitioning some or all of its workforce to a remote environment may face.

Remote.co’s Q&A section features direct feedback from 140+ remote-forward teams and companies on key topics impacting virtual work environments.  Each section below is elaborated on using extensive interviews from fully virtual companies/or teams.

• What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
• What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
• What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
• What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
• What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
• How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
• What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
• How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
• Do you have remote communication protocols for your remote workers?
• How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
• How does your team address different time zone challenges?

FlexJobs, Remote.co’s sister site, has also created an Emergency Preparedness Section to supplement these resources and is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, March 24 at 12pm ET: How Employers Can Prepare for Remote Work. This will be recorded.

Remote.co’s section featuring insights from remote workers themselves may also be useful to employees who are new to working from home.

According to a Remote.co survey of 200 full-time remote workers, unplugging after work hours (40%) is the biggest pain point remote workers encounter working in their virtual environment. The survey, conducted in September and October of 2019, found that other challenges for remote workers include dealing with non-work distractions (32%), developing strong relationships with co-workers (25%), loneliness (23%), troubleshooting technology problems (21%), and working across different time zones (19%).

Remote work is on the rise, having increased 91% in the last 10 years.  Additional findings from the 2019 Remote.co Remote Worker Survey are detailed below.

About full-time remote workers:

• The remote work lifestyle is extremely important to remote workers:
  • 83% say they couldn’t imagine returning to an on-site office.
  • 16% say that the remote work lifestyle is somewhat important to them.
  • Only 1% say it would not be a big deal to give it up.
• Only 5% worry a lot that working remotely will negatively impact their career progression.
• While 43% report that they feel a lot of people work remotely, 51% say they think very few do it.

On the job as full-time remote workers:

• 94% of remote workers work primarily from their home offices (vs co-working spaces, libraries, or coffee shops).
• 46% never have to travel for work-related events, 32% travel 1-2 times a year, 13% travel 3-4 times a year, and 9% travel 5 times or more each year.
• 59% say working from home is very or somewhat conducive to developing meaningful relationships with co-workers.
• 13% of full-time remote workers plan to take more than four weeks of vacation this year.

Remote.co has also outlined seven strategies help remote workers unplug after working hours:

1. Set expectations regarding your availability.
   2. Schedule regular blocks of time away in your calendar.
   3. Have an accountability partner.
   4. Embrace your hobbies.
   5. Tackle your biggest or most urgent to-dos sans tech.
   6. Have a contingency plan in place.
   7. Focus on being present for those around you.

For more information, please visit https://remote.co/remote-workers-unplugging-after-work/

According to FlexJobs’ recent Work-Life-Relationship Survey, 100% remote work remains the most popular choice for flexible work for the fourth year in a row. To demonstrate the variety of fully remote jobs available, Remote.co, the definitive remote work resource, has highlighted 10 surprising jobs that can be done 100% remotely. A fully remote job is defined as a professional-level job that can be done exclusively outside of the employer’s office.

The Work-Life-Relationship Survey also found that flexible work arrangements have a positive effect on personal health and well-being, as well as interpersonal relationships. Respondents overwhelmingly said that they would be better friends, parents, spouses and partners, and even pet owners if they had flexible work options. What’s more, 88% believed work flexibility would decrease their levels of stress.

The jobs listed below were all actively hiring as of March 12, 2019. These professional-level positions range from entry-level to executive-level and span across a wide range of industries, such as finance, education, law, health care, design, editing, IT and engineering.

1. 3D Animator at HTX Labs

A skilled animator is needed to create game-ready animations through key-frame animation and motion capture technology for virtual reality training experiences.

2. Adjunct Faculty – BS in Marketing at Colorado State University – CSU

For CSU’s Global Campus, this faculty member in the Bachelor of Science in Marketing program will manage online classrooms, conduct live classroom sessions, provide feedback on assignments, and respond to student emails and requests. A Ph.D. is required.

3. Chief Financial Officer at Tortuga

Tortuga is seeking a virtual CFO to support its growth from seven to eight figures in revenue. The company does not currently have any accounting or finance staff, so the right candidate for this position will work with the founders, operations manager, and accounting firm to create healthy growth and financial security for the company.

4. Curator, Design at Medium Corporation

The popular content site, Medium, is looking for a curator who knows quality writing when they see it and has specialized knowledge of design (product, graphic, etc.) and UX to curate those topics.

5, Director of Engineering at 7 Cups

7 Cups is seeking a director of engineering to help build, guide, and grow its software team. The director will report directly to 7 Cups’ CEO, Glen Moriarty.

6. Executive Director, Oncology Development at SynteractHCR

The executive director, oncology development is responsible for driving the operational goals for their assigned department as well as the strategic oncology market approach. Up to 40% travel may be required.

7. Legal Executive Assistant, Equivity

Equivity is hiring a virtual legal executive assistant who has three or more years of experience working as an administrative assistant or legal secretary in a law firm and is comfortable remotely managing the administrative needs of a law office.

8. Nursing Tutor at Pearson

In this position, online nursing/allied health tutors work with students at all academic levels—from students seeking associate’s degrees through colleagues in doctoral programs. Requirements include advanced coursework or a graduate degree in a nursing or an allied health discipline and college-level teaching or tutoring experience in nursing and allied health courses.

9. Prescription Entry Technician at Symbria

In this role, the primary purpose of the remote prescription entry technician is the computer data entry of prescription orders and other patient information in an efficient, productive, and accurate manner.

10. Tax Accountant at Gineris & Associates

This role is a part-time position most of the year that turns into a full-time position during tax season. The tax accountant will be responsible for completing individual and/or entity tax returns, as well as performing tax reviews, tax projections, and tax planning for small businesses and their owners/stakeholders.

For over 3 years, Remote.co has served as a resource for companies and professionals interested in remote work. The site features Q&As from more than 130 remote companies and dozens of remote workers, plus a free section of remote job listings, too. Job seekers can browse a full list of remote job openings, here.

For more information, please visit https://remote.co/surprising-jobs-you-can-do-remotely-100-percent-of-the-time/

Remote.co is excited to launch a new section that features insight from experienced remote workers.

So far, dozens of successful remote workers and digital nomads from companies such as Dell, Anthem, GitHub and Automattic have shared their experiences of becoming a remote worker, how they work remotely, their remote career and their remote life. The remote worker section complements the 108 remote companies on Remote.co that have shared best practices for using remote work as a sustainable business practice.  

Telecommuting continues to be the most popular form of flexible work for job seekers, and experienced telecommuters are increasing the amount of time they spend working from home. Of those who telecommuted in 2015, 22 percent telecommuted more this year than last year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, thirty-seven percent of U.S. workers say they have telecommuted, four times greater than 9 percent in 1995.

Remote workers featured on Remote.co span career fields such as computer/IT, marketing, education and travel. Positions vary as well, with job titles such as CEO, head of content, programmer, marketer and writer. Professional-level remote jobs are available across a wide variety of industries, thanks largely to cloud-based technologies, new collaboration tools, and changing priorities and expectations from the workforce itself.

These experienced remote workers provide in-depth answers to a variety of questions, such as:

• How did you convince your company to let you work remotely?
• How do you cope with feeling lonely while working remotely?
• How has working remotely impacted your career plans?
• Do you use coworking spaces? What are the best ones?
• What apps or websites can’t you work remotely without?
• How do you stay connected to your professional community virtually?
• What are your favorite cities in which to work remotely?

Remote.co’s featured workers identify as either home-based remote workers or digital nomads. The digital nomads share additional information about how remote work supports their nomadic lifestyle, including the time spent traveling and the cities and countries they’ve visited.

Since launching in July 2015, Remote.co has grown into four main sections.

1. Remote Company Q&As: leaders from 108 remote companies, representing over 8,600 distributed team members, have answered questions about issues relevant in a virtual environment. The most popular question on Remote.co so far has been “What traits do you look for in candidates for a remote job?”
2. Remote Worker Q&As: Remote workers and digital nomads share insight on how they successfully work remotely.
3. Remote Jobs: Remote.co curates remote job listings in the most in-demand categories, such as software, marketing, HR and writing.
4. Remote Work Blog: 210+ articles, including 25+ from expert guest authors such as Dell and PGi, have been published in three main categories–the benefits of going remote; how to build remote teams; and how to manage remotely.

Remote.co is the definitive remote work resource. Designed specifically for professionals and companies interested in or already embracing remote work, Remote.co is the leading space for innovative conversations around remote work.