Podcast#2: Telecommuting

The theme of this second edition is teleworking. All the members of our team are, as you may know, relocated and work mainly from home. So we wanted to share our experiences, tips and tricks to live the telework in the most efficient way possible.

How did the team move to telecommuting?

Fabien: "It's a way of life that is changing, and the confinement is undoubtedly an opportunity to discover another facet of the way of working. It's not necessarily obvious at first: you have to get into your rhythm, get your bearings... You don't always see your colleagues. There is a part "mental" at the beginning very particular, but one quickly gets used to it, because there are so many advantages... "

Marion D.: "It's funny, I had no trouble getting into telecommuting! I don't need time to adapt: I'm much more concentrated, more efficient. I find that there are far fewer disruptive elements at home!"

Marion M.: "I've been teleworking for 5 years now. It's been pretty easy for me to adapt: going from an open space to telecommuting is quite a change, and it feels good... Even if it was a bit difficult for the first few weeks, I quickly adapted. On the other hand, after 2 years, I felt the need to meet people, to go out, to go more often to coworking spaces, and to see people or colleagues who were in my region... "

How do we experience telework on a daily basis?

Fabien: "Life really does change. The biggest advantage is undoubtedly the fact that you no longer have to endure the daily commute on public transport or the traffic jams! That feeling of time wasted taking 1.5 hours to get to the office... Today, all you have to do is climb a flight of stairs. " 

Thomas: "It's true! And it's a good thing that there are day-to-day collaboration solutions like Teams or Skype to keep talking, calling and seeing each other, and to maintain a team spirit. In my opinion, teambuildings can also be envisaged so as not to cut off physical meetings for good: it's something that's undoubtedly still essential. And the good understanding within the whole team also makes people want to meet up more often...".

Marion D.: "For my part, I don't necessarily need "physical contact to get to know each other, to share, and to develop friendships with colleagues on the team. I feel like we've known each other for a long time and also share intimate elements of our lives..."

Gregory: "The main advantage of telecommuting, in my opinion, is that I work by objective and not by time: I set objectives for myself to achieve during the day, and optional objectives. This allows me to have the feeling of "better work" and also to organize the days and schedules differently. We also avoid doing "face-to-face : we can be a little more "cowardly" on time slots, while trying to be present as much as possible on everyone's work time..."

Marion M.: "Attention, for the part "Production"Okay! But for project management, it is still essential to be present during the clients' working hours. Working early in the morning, or late at night: it is not necessarily at these times that our phone will ring... "

Marion D.: "Yes, it's true, except in exceptional cases at the moment when the children are at home, and so I adapt my working hours a little. I believe that it is also essential to have total trust in the people with whom you telework."

Fabien: "For my part, Production provides security in terms of time spent and justification for the time spent working: it is easier to visualize the day producing email integrations, when a salesperson may have more difficulty in "justify" his work time."

Thomas: "Not wrong! There is a difficulty here: you don't necessarily know what your colleague is doing with his time. But you also have to apply these rules to yourself: don't get distracted, stay focused and play the game! Au-to-di-sci-pline: You have to trust, but others have to trust you... "

Gregory: "It's probably a learning curve! But telecommuting may not work for all profiles: some may be more productive in coworking or in an agency..."

Fabien: "The big pleasure also with telecommuting is to discover the people close to us, close to home, to know our neighbors, to be able to enjoy our family or our children much more. And then you feel like an adult, you can organize yourself as you wish! We gain even more confidence in ourselves!"

Marion D.: "Yeah! We are much more in control of our time, we don't feel like we're "prisoner" and that's really nice... "

What do we see as the main challenges of telecommuting?

Fabien: "Telecommuting may not be for everyone. It's a particular state of mind, however, where you have to accept not seeing your colleagues on a daily basis. And you also have to manage to reconcile telecommuting and family life.

Thomas: "Indeed, the first weeks or months are not necessarily easy: being a teleworker implies cutting off a relationship " de visu " on a daily basis. But eventually you get used to it. You don't have to cut off all social life for good, you have to force yourself to get out and meet other people, not just settle for a home-work-sleep solution."

Marion M.: "I think you have to try to have a dedicated room in the house to be able to separate business and personal: some people go back and forth between the office, the dining room, etc. I have my office at home, and in the evening I close the door and don't go back, except in exceptional cases. I have my office at home, and in the evening I close the door and don't go back there, except in exceptional cases. This also forces me not to disperse myself on home tasks and to stay focused."

Gregory: "Absolutely! When the kids come home from school, or the partner comes home from work, it's hard to stay focused. Having a dedicated room completely changes the approach and greatly improves that."

Fabien: "Also, I find that the most difficult image to assume for telecommuting lies in the fact that you stay in front of a screen at home all day. It's not always a good image with family and friends.

Marion D.: "Personally, I think telecommuting is still possible in a small team..."

Gregory: "It's perhaps a preconceived idea, because it's difficult to get feedback on how telecommuting works in large structures or companies, as the number of examples is still very low, or not very well known in France!"

Marion M.: "It's true that, as far as I know, teleworking in large companies is often just 1 or 2 times a week! Employees are not given the opportunity to"learn" I also think that you have to force yourself to take breaks, and to get some fresh air to stay productive! Just as we can be distracted at work, we can also be absorbed by work, and not take the time to "breathe". "

Thomas: "That's also the problem with telecommuting in the end, it's the disconnection: it's not because you work from home that you always have to be reachable, at any time of the day or night."

The essential tools

Marion D.: "Honestly, tools like Teams are great and necessary to share quickly, to call each other: only communicating by email when telecommuting would probably be impossible."

Fabien: "Yes, and maybe it helps to break the isolation! Our 09:31 meetings every Monday and Thursday morning also allow us to all get together for at least 30 minutes!"

Thomas: "Absolutely! And Teams also allows you to unblock situations, defuse misunderstandings... Written exchanges, which are numerous in telecommuting, are much more susceptible to misinterpretation. (three small points, exclamation mark) than calls."

Gregory: "Teams also allows you to ignore a "disruption" in concentration, or not to answer a request. Thus, it is easier to stay focused, when at the office or in an open space, it would probably have been more complex to say "No."... "