{"id":16315,"date":"2021-07-20T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T20:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/?page_id=16315"},"modified":"2023-05-31T08:55:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T12:55:42","slug":"succeeding-in-a-flexible-working-environment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/lifebu\/flexible-work\/employee-toolkit\/succeeding-in-a-flexible-working-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Succeeding in a Flexible Work Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <em>How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace, <\/em>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set Expectations:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set Boundaries:<\/strong> <span>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\u00a0to ensure that we create clear boundaries between the two. <\/span>Unless you are dealing with an unexpected illness, school closure, or other personal emergencies, you shouldn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><span>With careful planning you can function optimally while managing professional and personal priorities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Manage Time and Priorities:<\/strong> To be successful <span>in a flexible work environment, you are <\/span>required to work independently and meet your outcomes with less supervision. Developing healthy time management skills can help you achieve this.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maintain a daily task list or project planner based on your role and responsibilities.<\/li>\n<li>Designate times for different types of work. Prioritize work based on time and importance and interdependence.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Communicate:<\/strong> Strong communication skills are a requirement for almost all roles today. <span>When working in a remote, hybrid, or modified work schedule, these skills become even more critical. <\/span> It requires a higher level of proactive giving and seeking information, transparency, and clarity of communication. It is your responsibility to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide timely and regular updates on progress and delays.<\/li>\n<li>Ask questions, ask for help, ask for clarity.<\/li>\n<li>Use communication tools selected by the team. Learn when to use each tool.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Connect with Your Team:<\/strong> While having the flexibility of working remotely periodically, it is important to assess what gives you energy for your work and what motivates you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Be Flexible: <\/strong><span>Being able to select your ideal work arrangement can be very advantageous and even improve productivity. <\/span>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Be Outcome-Driven: <\/strong>Success as a hybrid\/remote worker require these behaviors and attitudes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Meet goals and outcomes on time.<\/li>\n<li>Give feedback and be willing to receive feedback.<\/li>\n<li>Have a high level of discipline to stay focused on priorities.<\/li>\n<li>Get work done independently with minimum supervision.<\/li>\n<li>Anticipate needs and take the initiative to improve.<\/li>\n<li>Work to garner the trust of your manager and teammates by demonstrating high levels of professionalism, punctuality, and excellence in your work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1379,"featured_media":0,"parent":16272,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1379"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16315"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19870,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16315\/revisions\/19870"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}