Remote work can be a source of heightened camaraderie and productivity, if we prioritize empathy.

By Xische Editorial, March 24, 2020

Given the global spread of covid-19, it can be difficult to look at the bright side of the economy. Many of us are holed up in our homes, besieged by a flood of worrying headlines about the state of global health. We are also working from home, which for some people is a great thing and for others a rather dreary affair. Without underestimating the gravity of this moment, we have been releasing tips and insights on remote work throughout this week and next. 

As part of our remote work series, you will find interviews with Xische team members on the tools they love to make the digital commute more seamless. We also share our thoughts on the psychology of remote work, which is often absent from lists of which application is best for a specific task. Since launching the series, one question we have been hearing a lot on social media is how we are handling the transition from a physical to a digital office. We have also been fielding inquiries about our productivity levels since going remote more than a week ago. 

Remote work is nothing new for our team and approach to business. Xische has been experimenting with various remote work systems for years. We have partners and collaborators across time zones and continents that have helped us transform projects into a reality. Traditionally, we haven’t needed to depend on much more than the Slack messaging platform, Dropbox document sharing service, and Google’s suite of productivity software. With our entire core team working from home due to covid-19, the last weeks have been a test of our systems and approach. 

We have prioritized communal Slack channels, Slack bots that survey what each team member is doing, and video calls. We have also noticed that more and more team members have been using communal channels to share news, tips, and jokes about the situation we all face. Despite the fact we aren’t in a physical space together, we have recreated the warmth of the office online. We are coming together to meet this challenge. 

This didn’t happen overnight but was the result of careful planning and insights gained over years of refining our remote work systems. Remote work highlights our people-centric approach to business. By putting our clients and collaborators first, we are able to quickly respond to their challenges and needs. In a remote situation, that means being flexible with individual schedules and simply listening to needs. Everyone is different. The best we can do is create a warm environment bound by empathy to allow everyone in our orbit the ability to grow sustainably. 

As soon as we went fully remote to protect ourselves and our community from the covid-19 virus, we compiled the guide below to help focus our entire team on the challenges and opportunities of remote work. 

The guide highlights the benefits of remote work like the freedom to structure your day, the ability to focus, and the lack of commute. We also note challenges like loneliness, the loss of serendipity, and a shifting sense of belonging. This sets up a deeper reflection on self-discipline and the critical need to establish a routine. Organizations struggling to find the right pitch for remote work can benefit from similar guides that put all team members on the same page. 

Thanks to this guide and our attempts to infuse our digital office with empathy, we have seen a serious spike in productivity over the last week. Maybe it’s a bump because the transition is still fresh. Maybe we are rallying together and finding common cause. Either way, remote work is here to stay and even after this crisis is over we will continue to incorporate the lessons we have learned during this uncertain time. Together we can transform the nature of work to ensure that we are all happier and more productive.