Epic Fails from a Career Remote Worker

Britney Cole
13 March 2020

Britney Cole, Vice President, Solution Architecture and Innovation Strategy at The Ken Blanchard Companies never planned to work from home her entire professional career. But it happened that way...and while working remotely/telecommuting/working virtually has become so much more mainstream over the past several years (and now a 'new normal' for many), it's still not always smooth or easy. Cole has her own fair share of "remote working fails" and figured she'd share those (rather than preachy best practices). Working remotely is a beautiful thing, some of the time. But it's also smoke and mirrors and faking out your co-workers to think you have it all together (when in reality, it's quite the opposite).

Epic Fail #1 - Not Having a Perfect, Dedicated Space

Cole writing of this article was actually inspired while designing a short, interactive webinar on making the transition to working remotely. She felt like a hypocrite listing all the best practices, such as having a dedicated space with an optimal setup for virtual work. If you saw her on camera using her fancy webcam, navigating dual monitors, and showing off her children's artwork on the wall, you might think she has it all together...

But the reality is, her "dedicated space" is really just a corner as the rest of the space is...

A guest room (where one of her children prefers to sleep) / craft space / bills organising space / holding area for all the stuff her family wants to get rid of because it no longer brings them joy. What her peers see on camera is what she wants them to see. The rest is a mess.

Epic Fail #2 - Lack of Clear Boundaries

Another "best practice" is to set clear expectations around working hours. While it's critical to be clear on when your "work day" begins and ends, it's challenging to be consistent. For Cole, work is always "here." It's easy to pop-in the office for a couple hours and finish a project, answer emails and take "one more call." She likes to be known as responsive, so being responsive can mean responding at all hours of the day.

Cole tries to set boundaries. Her Outlook calendar has schedule as "out" after 3 p.m. because that's when her children come home from school. But, the work day isn't done at 3 p.m., so she usually finds herself trying to manage calls and work at the same time as trying to manage snack time, dentist appointments, activities, and everything else at home. Most of the time, she can deftly go on Mute while answering the doorbell for the Instacart shopper, work on emails while at gymnastics practice, and keep her children busy with homework while she takes that afternoon phone call. But not always.

Shortly after she started her fabulous job at The Ken Blanchard Companies, one of the sales leaders asked her to join her virtual team meeting to introduce herself to her sales representatives. While she was nervous because it was after the 3 p.m. "witching hour" of when her children came home off the bus, she tantalised them with ice cream, devices, and television. She figured she could do a quick introduction and go on Mute the rest of the meeting.

Shortly after the call started, in which the whole group were all on video, her seven-year-old came in because the tablet didn't have the game he wanted. No big deal, this makes me authentic and human, she thought to myself. She introduced him, he waved, She used her thumbprint to purchase his game, and he's on his way. Not only competent in her role, but can manage it all!

But then, Taco Man.

As she continued to introduce herself, looking at the camera so to demonstrate "focus" on her audience, her son sneaks back into the office without her knowledge. He starts to dance Taco Man behind her back and it's not until she hears the laughing on the phone line and see the chat messages that she realised she had a similar experience as the reporter from the BBC. She was mortified. While even more human and authentic in her colleagues' eyes, she was still embarrassed as she violated all the rules of having clear boundaries.

But she's been working remotely for more than 15 years, and this still happens, and will likely continue to. Unless she puts her children in daycare at 3 p.m., She'll still be multi-tasking for those final hours of the work day. And since she hasn't yet put them in daycare, she's choosing to blur the lines between family life and work life and be accountable for all the Taco Man situations that will continue to occur.

Epic Fail #3 - "Self Care" Isn't Real

On an ideal day, she wakes up at 5:00 a.m., hit a class on the Peloton bike, has a cup of coffee with her husband, showers, puts on "business casual" clothes, does make-up and hair, sends the children on their way to school at 7:30 a.m. and is online at 7:45 a.m., ready to tackle the day. She takes ample breaks, takes the dog on a walk, has a healthy lunch, listens to relaxing music, and feels like she's crushed it.

She thought she had an ideal day in January...of 2019.

Mostly, she woke up at 6:40 a.m., made a pot of coffee while rushing the children to get ready for school, high-fived the husband while he too gets ready for work, and still online at 7:45 a.m., yet without make-up, wearing a sweater over her pajamas, donning a messy bun and glasses (to pretend at hiding the fact she didn't shower), and then sat without moving until 3:00 p.m., except to open the door to let her dog outside (while listening to a call), eat a box of cookies at her desk for lunch, and sipped on cold coffee throughout the day.

Owning the Fails

She works remotely ALL THE TIME...and still doesn't do the things she should do to maximise her work environment. But, she offers grace to herself (and to you). Why? Because even with a messy work space, lack of boundaries, and not taking the time for "herself", she would choose working from home over the office any day of the week.

For her, she found how to have "success" while working virtually. She has been able to tune out the distractions, focus, and get her work done (even if at random hours of the day or night). She has earned the right to flexibility and autonomy because she's worked really hard to build strong connections through video conferencing, texting, and over-communicating.

Working at home is like an extreme sport. There's a high degree of risk, but if you can optimise and manage your environment (the best you can) and still produce, you can make it work for you.