Over the last few days, a growing number of organizations have shut down their offices and told employees to work from home in order to prevent the spread ofCOVID-19.Here at Creative Commons (CC), we’ve also taken necessary precautions such as postponing all work-related travel andcancelingthe in-person component of the annual CC Global Summit in May.
Fortunately, however, our daily operations haven’t been disrupted to the same extent as other organizations because CC has been a global, fully remote nonprofit since 2015. Our staff is spread across Europe, North America, and South America; and although this working environment presents incredible benefits, like flexibility and rich cultural exchanges, it also presents unique challenges. For example, staff on the west coast of North America are often just waking up as staff in Europe are signing off!
本着开放获取和促进健康的精神，我们想为组织和个人分享一些关于远程工作的建议。
For organizations
- Create clear policies and guidelinesthat are accessible to all staff. Make sure to anticipate questions and/or concerns that your staff may have, and include answers in a FAQ.
- Craft an internal communications strategythat maintains clear, reliable, and regular communication across the organization and within teams. In fact, don’t be afraid of “overcommunication.”
- Schedule video conferencing—e鼓励领导和/或管理安排非正式的视频会议与他们的团队成员，以保持团队士气和凝聚力。
- Don’t assume all staff has access to the latest technology—i特别是，不要认为所有的员工都能接入高速互联网。如果他们没有，与他们一起找出替代方案或设定期望。
- Ensure contact information is up-to-date—for emergency purposes, ensure that all staff’s contact information is correct.
- Assess and adjust expectations and deadlineson projects that may be impacted by the lack of in-person engagement or by a disruption in schedules due to schools closing, individuals becoming ill, etc.
- Provide mental health resources—it’s important to provide staff with appropriate resources in case they begin to feel isolated and/or depressed while working remotely.
- Showcase flexibility, patience, and empathy—leadership and/or management should showcase these qualities in order to reduce employee anxiety and stress under challenging circumstances.
- Give regular updates, either via email or through video check-ins, on the status of COVID-19.
- Don’t micromanage your staff’s activities—instead, set realistic goals and trust they’ll get their work done.
For individuals
- Keep your normal workday morning routine—this includes brushing your teeth, changing your clothes, eating breakfast, etc.
- Do work in another room, not in your bedroom—if you live in a small apartment, try to create a space that you can designate as your “office.”
- Take breaks throughout the day-煮点咖啡，散散步，读本书，或者做做伸展运动。
- Keep in touch with coworkers outside of formal meetings—this can help prevent social isolation, anxiety, or depression.CC staff, for example, schedule “lunches” over video or take “walks” together while talking over the phone.
- Create boundaries between your life and your work—stick to your regular work hours and set expectations about email response times. This is often one of the biggest challenges of working from home!
- Find other remote workers in your town-和他们一起安排共同工作的时间，或者一起吃午饭(如果安全的话)!
- Don’t buy (only) unhealthy snacks—you will eat them! Make sure you buy healthy snacks that will keep you energized throughout the day.
- Be wary of your tone—especially when communicating through messaging applications (e.g. Slack) because these forms of communication can feel impersonal and cold.
- Log off distracting websites—social media sites are especially distracting, so either log off of them or use abrowser pluginto help you stay focused.
- Be proud of working from home—just because you don’t go to an office doesn’t mean your work is less important or you’re less productive.
Here’s the gist:在个人层面上，试着建立一个让你感到高效、包容和有动力的日常生活。在组织层面，积极倾听员工的意见，并与员工沟通，以确保每个人都感到支持和参与。Most importantly, as the World Health Organization (WHO)says”,是安全的。是聪明的。是这样。”
For more insights on remote working that our staff has found helpful, check outthis articlefrom Deekit,this guidefrom Trello,this guidefrom GitLab, andthis podcastfrom Remoter.Also, this post is licensedCC BY, so please remix and reshare it!
