Succeeding in a Flexible Work Environment

In How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace, Robert Glazer and Mick Sloan outline the key characteristics of employees who optimize both professional success and personal well-being in a flexible work environment.

Set Expectations: Set your schedule in partnership with your manager and communicate this to your team, collaborators, and constituents. Include your start and end time and time for lunch/break if relevant. It is essential to be available and accessible during the times when people expect you to be working. Nothing erodes trust faster in a remote/hybrid work environment than when someone is unavailable when they have designated, they will be working.

Set Boundaries: If you opt for a flexible, remote, or hybrid work arrangement, it is important to set clear boundaries between professional and personal obligations. While flexible work schedules allows us to create a work-life harmony, it comes with immense responsibility to ensure that we create clear boundaries between the two. Unless you are dealing with an unexpected illness, school closure, or other personal emergencies, you shouldn’t attempt to juggle work and nonwork responsibilities simultaneously. There is a significant difference between choosing remote work because of the flexibility it gives you (i.e., schedule, hours, community, pickup/drop-off, etc.) and trying to do both simultaneously.

With careful planning you can function optimally while managing professional and personal priorities.

Manage Time and Priorities: To be successful in a flexible work environment, you are required to work independently and meet your outcomes with less supervision. Developing healthy time management skills can help you achieve this.

• Maintain a daily task list or project planner based on your role and responsibilities.
• Designate times for different types of work. Prioritize work based on time and importance and interdependence.
• Build in breaks. Make this an intentional practice. In an office, you take breaks naturally when you stop to get a cup of coffee or have an impromptu conversation with a colleague in a hallway. Remote work can be isolating. Being intentional about self-care is critical for optimizing your professional and personal success.
• Periodically assess if your time management systems work well for you and align with what your manager and teams need from you. Be open to adapting.

Communicate: Strong communication skills are a requirement for almost all roles today. When working in a remote, hybrid, or modified work schedule, these skills become even more critical. It requires a higher level of proactive giving and seeking information, transparency, and clarity of communication. It is your responsibility to:

• Provide timely and regular updates on progress and delays.
• Ask questions, ask for help, ask for clarity.
• Use communication tools selected by the team. Learn when to use each tool.

Connect with Your Team: While having the flexibility of working remotely periodically, it is important to assess what gives you energy for your work and what motivates you.

• Proactively seek opportunities to engage and stay motivated. Use the in-person time strategically to feed your energy and motivation; if you collaborate with team members who are on the off-schedule than your own, schedule time for virtual coffee chats to stay connected with them.
• Seek out and participate in opportunities for team activities virtually and in person. For instance, if there is an event on a day that you work remotely, you might want to consider coming in that day to take advantage of the in-person time with colleagues.
• Be mindful of what your team members need. Perhaps a new team member might need more in-person opportunities to get accustomed to their work and environment. Make the time to be available as required for these employees. Being able to ask you a question in the moment might be what they need to feel successful in the first few months on the job. It is also an excellent opportunity for you to build a connection with them and mentor a colleague.

Be Flexible: Being able to select your ideal work arrangement can be very advantageous and even improve productivity. Depending on the nature of your role and responsibilities, if a situation arises that requires you to come in on a day you were not scheduled to be in the office, be open and accommodating to this request.

Be Outcome-Driven: Success as a hybrid/remote worker require these behaviors and attitudes:

• Meet goals and outcomes on time.
• Give feedback and be willing to receive feedback.
• Have a high level of discipline to stay focused on priorities.
• Get work done independently with minimum supervision.
• Anticipate needs and take the initiative to improve.
• Work to garner the trust of your manager and teammates by demonstrating high levels of professionalism, punctuality, and excellence in your work.