Mobile Work Series: Week I

What to do when you absolutely positively have to get your mobile work arrangement right.

Welcome to the hustle.

-Robin Arzon

So suddenly you're a mobile philanthropy professional. Welcome to the club! For some of you this might be a finite journey, a month or two of rocking the virtual workplace. For others, as I've experienced over the past 15 years, mobile work could become the most exhilarating and fulfilling chapter of your life and career. Either way, week one can feel a bit like walking into a waterpark wearing jeans and a sweater. You're nervous and a little excited, but you're not exactly able to get the most out of the experience. Plus you may feel weird being at a waterpark in the first place, “out of sight” of your boss and colleagues. But don't pack up your gear and bolt just yet, it's just that you need to lock down the basics.

Let me explain.

First things first: Time for a quick tech assessment. It's nearly impossible to be effective in a mobile environment without reliable, accessible, and most importantly, dedicated technology. If your power cords are crappy, get a new one. Not enough bandwidth? Call your cable company and upgrade your WiFi package. Printer needs ink? Hit Staples now. Phone coverage issues? Assess your carrier or invest in a signal repeater at your home. Do you need to print/scan/fax anything (is faxing still a thing?)? Research and buy the best printer/copier/fax machine you can afford - it will be that important. What about an extended monitor, or docking station? Is that something you're used to having? If so, get yourself a monitor (you can get a 27" monitor and cable for under $120) and rock the extended desktop. What about ZOOM/WebEx/Blue Jeans/Skype/Google Hangout...are you kidding me there are a billion of these platforms! But they can be intimidating. So if you're new to those platforms, or your employer doesn't have an official platform yet, poke around, find a user interface that works for you, try it out with people you know. I have used WebEx and ZOOM extensively and find them both easy to use on desktop or mobile devices. My kids use Blue Jeans for schoolwork and that seems to work fine, too. Skype is great and free, and FaceTime can work as well. Again, a billion options. In terms of tech there are countless on-line resources (including this recent piece I found helpful on ZDNet) that point you in the right direction. But it's critical that you have the right tech set up to be effective, and its entirely situation dependent. But be brutally honest about your needs! This set up will be your reality and if you cut corners on the little things it will add up to massive frustration. And sadly, you will have to spend some money. I know it's tempting skimp on upgrading your gear - but relative to the gas/parking/meals (and for me, my nemesis: vending machines!) you'll save every day: The investment tends to be a wash pretty quickly.

And building on the waterpark analogy, a complete tech assessment and upgrade is like getting into your bathing suit. It's suboptimal to hit the waterslides in jeans and a sweater. Sure you can do it, but its not nearly as fun and eventually you chafe.

Second, when working from home, your basic life routine becomes really important. Resist the temptation to roll around your home like the Telecommuting Big Lebowski. Set a morning routine from the time you wake. Go through the same routine as you were heading to catch the bus/subway, or driving to an office. Same start time, lunch time, workout time, and most importantly, same end time. Honor those times religiously if possible. Think of this as your sunscreen. Forget to apply appropriately and liberally, you burn.

Third, set a communications cadence with your boss, colleagues and anybody you supervise. Then communicate your communications cadence. What I mean is, define who you are going to connect with and at what intervals. Define these people up front. Not doing this will cause you to leave somebody out, a relationship that you might need down the road.

Once you've set this cadence, ask your colleagues about their expectations, then adjust and iterate. Get the cadence lined up properly. Think of your communications strategy as trips to the waterpark nacho stand. You're already at the waterpark, in your bathing suit all sunscreen up, but sometimes you need to get some sustenance. And let's face it: waterparks are seriously more fun when eating a plate of nachos. Plus, I find that knowing when you're going to get nachos can be a great motivator. (editor's note: This waterpark-related analogy turned out to be something of a challenge. But since I like nachos and for some reason, I associate going to the waterpark with nacho consumption, I ran with it. That said, other suggestions welcome (lazy river? floating in the wave pool?)

Fourth and finally, a comment on the current COVID-19 situation: If your spouse/partner/roommate/significant other is in your same situation, and for now they probably are, working in the same home as another remote employee is no a trip to the waterpark, it's more like a bad afternoon at Chuck-e-Cheese. So acknowledging that you're not the only one living in this situation - heck, kids and family members might be working/learning upstairs or down the hall or even in the same room - your transitions back into family/home life are not easy. So I strongly urge you to find a transition routine that works for you - and stick to it. Moreover once you start your end-of-day transition, finish it. You're done with work for the day. Be with your family. Have dinner together. Watch a movie, or play games. This replenishes your soul. Besides, work will be there tomorrow, it's not like you can ride waterpark slides 24-7. So if you start your end of day transition, finish it. Your work is done for the day. As for how to make the transition easy, I recommend some permutation of the following:

1) Shut down or restart your computer/workstation
2) Sit still for 5 minutes taking deep breaths. Maybe close your eyes.
3) Visualize your re-entry. The sights and sounds of your home or apartment. The smell of your yard, or the sound for your impossibly noisy children (how is it possible that they are that freaking noisy!).
4) And if that doesn't help: just imagine walking through the turnstiles at the waterpark, cutting off your wristband, packing the car, and driving away.

Three quick bullets for you this week:

1. Don’t judge yourself if you're feeling out of sorts. You're wearing jeans at a water park, remember.
2. Find out what works for you in terms of location. Kitchen, bedroom, home office, dining room. Experiment. But make it work for you.
3. Connect with your support network. That can be colleagues, but most likely it's friends, family members, old roommates. Know who will be there for you, and who you would be there for. Reach out, tell people you love them.

In the end, after the waterpark closes, they're all we got.

More to come, thank you for reading, and check back for more posts in the coming days. We're in this together!