Miya Le

I manage an organization of 25 people, all working remotely. Some of them have been with me for years.
 
 And I have never asked:
 "What specific task are you working on right now, I don't see you connected?"
 or "How many hours did you log into our workspace today?"
 or "How many times did you disconnect today?"
 
 Nor do I intrude on the personal sphere with questions like:
 "Did you log out early from the system to take care of children or housework?"
 or "Can someone else take your child to the doctor today?"
 
 My approach is different. I understand that the essence of remote work is trust, measuring results and not seat hours, and of course flexibility. So, I prefer to say things like:
 "I trust you to handle personal and professional matters; that's why we have flexibility."
 or "No problem, take care of your issues. A work-life balance is important to prevent burnout."
 
 If I have a problem with someone's work, I tell them directly:
 "I have an issue with the international PR project we're working on for this startup."
 or "I don't think we're going to meet the deadline with the Israeli PR campaign for that tech venture."
 or "I expect more transparency around managing LinkedIn for this corporate client", let's figure out how to resolve this. I respect personal boundaries.
 
 Does that sound clear? It should be, but remote work culture isn't quite there yet...
 
 It's not an attempt to beautify reality, like believing that deep embedding of remote work culture happens in a day. I'm a big believer in treating people as adults, as responsible agents in a remote work environment. They take pride in their work, achieve excellent results while managing their time, and ultimately - they stay with you for a much longer time.