When it comes to remote work teams, meetings are an essential activity for getting aligned on expectations and working efficiently together. They are also a great tool to connect with your colleagues. However, to avoid wasting time, it’s important to make meeting more effective.

As one of the project managers at WebDevStudios, I have some useful tips.

5 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Effective

1. Reassess the purpose.

Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this meeting?” Routine meetings are often scheduled at a point in the project when they are necessary.

While these meetings were effective at one point in time, it’s important to reassess these calls to determine if they are still relevant. If you find yourself saying, “This could have been an email,” after a recurring call, it’s likely time to cancel it.

2. Include the right people in your meetings.

Ask yourself, “Who needs to be on this call?” Depending on the purpose of your call, make sure you know who from your team actually needs to be included.

Will you need a specific team member’s input or expertise on an issue? Or, do you need to brainstorm a blocker with the full team?

Do you need some additional support on a client call, and who is best to provide that? To ensure you aren’t wasting your team’s time or resources, make sure to only include those who need to be in attendance.

3. Prepare an agenda.

To really make your meetings more effective, set clear expectations for the call up front using an agenda. It should be a brief outline of what needs to be discussed.

Feel free to send the meeting agenda out to all participants prior to the call to set the meeting up for success. For example, if the point of your call is to discuss a specific feature or request, use your agenda to outline the key points that need to be clarified or addressed.

4. Control the meeting, but not the conversation.

If the people in your meeting are the essential parties needed to participate in the discussion, they will all have an important role to play for your call. While you are in charge of leading the meeting, make sure that you are facilitating in a way that everyone is able to chime in.

Call facilitators should start a meeting by defining the agenda and setting the tone for what should be accomplished. After that, it’s time to back off and let the discussion begin.

Toward the end of the call, it’s time for the facilitator to jump back in to guide the call conclusion and define next steps. This leads me to my next point.

5. End on time and define the action items.

If you are facilitating a call, you should always aim to end on time. Hopefully, you have guided your team to stay on track throughout the call to support this.

However, in the event that you need to end a meeting, it is okay to let all participants know that it is time to wrap up. An easy way to communicate this is simply by stating, “I have a hard stop at [X] time.”

If you find yourself needing to end a call due to time limitations, wrap it up with a summary of the action items that need to be completed following the meeting. Identify who is responsible for completing them. Once next steps have been communicated and agreed upon, everyone should be aligned on what is happening next.

Conclusion

Ultimately, you’ll need to customize your approach to making meetings more effective in a way that fits your company. However, if you are overwhelmed with meetings, I hope these tips help.

The post 5 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Effective appeared first on WebDevStudios.

If your business is challenged with maintaining a distributed workforce that is engaged and connected, while also enjoying their occupation, continue reading. We have a myriad of examples from which you can choose to implement to keep remote work culture fun at your company.

Rewards

At WDS, we use a third-party Slack application called Hey Taco! as a team-executed reward system. It works like this: every WDS team member gets five tacos per day to reward coworkers for anything they desire. Each taco equals one point. Points accrue and are used to purchase things such as an Amazon gift card or a day off from work.

While Hey Taco! works for us, any reward system you administer will be appreciated and keep remote work fun for your employees. Find a process that works for your organization.

Contribution

It’s always exciting when people come together for a common goal, but it also creates an opportunity for bonding. That’s priceless.

Group contribution is an excellent way to bring the individuals on your staff together and forge new links. Here are three ways we do it at WebDevStudios:

1. Five for the Future – Five for the Future is a WordPress initiative that encourages companies and individuals to donate 5% of resources to give back to WordPress. The last Friday of every month is when our team takes a break from client work and gives back, which allows for contribution and collaboration. Our staff really enjoys this time, and they voice their support for this activity often.
2. Charity – Each holiday season, our WordPress agency hosts a charity fundraiser. Sometimes, we even make it competitive by dividing into teams to see who can raise the most money for their chosen charity. By joining forces in an act of selflessness, we create impactful memories and solidify our working relationships.
3. Spotify – It might sound silly, but one of the ways we keep remote work fun is by having a Spotify profile for the company and inviting everyone on our team to contribute playlists. An effort such as this one helps people feel included. Plus, who doesn’t love music? (You can follow our Spotify profile to see all of our cool playlists.)

Swag

Company-branded swag is an impressive way to welcome new hires and keep remote work fun. It also adds that feeling of inclusion, letting teammates know they belong and are a part of a team of people who appreciates their presence. In a distributed environment, it’s pretty difficult to achieve those emotions, but having company-branded swag sure can help get you there.

Events

Having a celebration is a wonderful opportunity to unify a group, even when working remotely. From Halloween costume contests to ugly holiday sweater competitions, WebDevStudios is always setting up virtual events based around holidays to keep our company culture lively and amusing.

Additionally, WDS also holds an annual company retreat that we call WDS Camp. Due to the pandemic, we had to go virtual last year. While it wasn’t the same as seeing each other in person, our Virtual WDS Camp still gave us time to connect, strengthen our relationships, and simply have fun.

Random Good Times

We like to keep thing popping! Sometimes WebDevStudios will host a random trivia event (we recommend Geeks Who Drink), and daily, we keep our conversations going after hours on GroupMe, a group text messaging app.

We also have dedicated Slack channels where teammates can talk about specified topics. For example, we have a “spooky-scary” Slack channel where we conduct creepy convos and another channel dedicated to coffee talk. From DIY, to shopping, to TV and movies, we have several different Slack channels for good times and great conversations.

You can keep remote work culture fun.

By now, you should be able to see that it is completely possible to keep remote work culture fun. Be creative and remain open to suggestions and ideas from your team. A remote workforce that’s having a good time is one that will be productive, dedicated, and stick around. And if you ever need more advice, you are welcome to contact us.

WDS is hiring!

We’re on the hunt for savvy technologists to join our team. We invite you to visit our Careers page now.

The post Keeping Remote Work Culture Fun appeared first on WebDevStudios.

There is an increasing number of people, who have never worked remotely, taking on remote work jobs. I am one of them.

I never worked remotely until I joined WDS a couple of months ago. For me, there was quite the learning curve. Once I learned how to better configure and organize my web browser, I began to find my efficiency skyrocket!

Look, we have all been there—whether you are new to remote work or not. You get on a call, share your screen, and someone mentions that you have a lot of tabs open in your browser. But, you need all of those tabs open to reference and use throughout your day for your job.

There are several different ways to help you organize your browser. A few that I will help you with are pinning tabs, grouping tabs, and using your bookmarks bar. These three ways will help you stay organized so that you can have a more productive day.

Organizing browsers is one way to help you stay focused and be able to easily find the things you need throughout the day. Although this article will focus on MacOS, most web browsers work exactly the same across most operating systems. Windows and Linux users shouldn’t have any trouble putting these same tips into practice.

Why Organizing Your Browser Is Important

The one thing that I have noticed is that, oftentimes, you are used to what you use on your home computer and when you began working from home you continue to use those exact same processes. You get in the groove of working and, before you know it, you have exhausted your computer and things begin to run slow or the fan is almost constantly running.

There are a few things that I am going to talk about that will help you fix those problems. I will address:

• Pinning browser tabs
• Creating bookmarks on your bookmark bar
• Using the multiple desktop features that you have on your computer

There are a few other features that I will add in here as well, such as using command + tab feature and the command + space bar. Those two will also help you to not have to click around all of the time on your computer.

Bookmarks Bar

Let’s take a look at placing items in your bookmarks bar. It may seem that if you use the bookmarks bar that you will not be able to see what you have bookmarked. Don’t worry, you will be able to see each and every item.

Here is what you do: open the site you are wanting to put into the bookmarks bar. Once it is open, click on the lock symbol in the address bar, drag below the address bar to the bookmarks bar, and drop it right there. Now you have the option to right click on the item you just dropped and change the name of it, delete the name, or leave it as it.

Pinning and Grouping Tabs

The next thing that you can do to help you get your browser organized is to pin and group pinned tabs. When I learned about grouping tabs, I think it changed my life! It does help me to organize my browser so much more.

Pinning

So, the first thing that you want to do to pin tabs is right click the tab and select ‘pin tab.’ Once you have done that, the tab will move to the left of the browser and remain there until you unpin the tab. This is also helpful to have when, if for some reason, your computer restarts or shuts down. The browser will restore these pinned tabs upon the restart of your browser.

Grouping

If you find that you have too many tabs pinned to the top of your browser, you could use the feature to group the pinned tabs together. To do this, you will need to make sure that the tabs you want to group are next to each other in order to group them together. Once you have the tabs next to each other you will click into the first tab, hold the shift key down and click on the furthest tab that you want in this group.

When you have clicked the last tab, you will right click to group the tabs. After doing that, right click on the tabs, and you can name that tab. You can also change the color of these grouped tabs by right clicking and selecting the color you wish to use. I have found this to be so satisfying for me. Having things color coded and easy to find is something I love. Currently, I am up to four grouped and color coded tabs.

Benefits

Each one of these tips will help you out to become more productive with remote work. You can also use these steps to make your personal browser more organized, as well. Not only that, but these efforts will help your computer in the long run, too.

If you have noticed that your computer runs a little slow or the fan kicks on and runs a lot, one culprit could be that you have so many tabs open in your browser. I have noticed that if I have several tabs open, my computer’s fan will kick on and run. Once I have closed tabs, the fan will stop running so high.

Virtual Desktops

There are a few other things that you will be able to use that will help you organize your workspace on your MacBook. Did you know that there is a feature where you can use different desktops on your computer?

If you look at the top of your keyboard, find the F3 button and press it. The screen will move, and there will be a plus sign at the top right hand of your screen that you can click on and add another desktop.

I have one for personal use and the other for work use. I also have two browsers so I can keep my personal and my work stuff separate. This is a useful tip that can keep you productive while you are at work with your personal desktop not giving you distractions.

Taking Screenshots and Keyboard Shortcuts

Another helpful tool is using SHIFT + CMD + 4 (Mac). You can use this to screenshot items from your computer to share with anyone you are working with on projects.

There are a couple of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to help you stay on track with work. If you use the CMD + TAB feature, you can bring up all the currently open apps you are using. As long as you are holding the CMD key down, you can TAB over to the app that you are looking to switch. This feature is super helpful, if you have a small screen and can only have one item taking up the entire screen.

The other feature that I use is CMD + SPACE. This pulls up a search bar that will allow you to type in the name of an app or program that you are wanting to open. This feature and the one above are super helpful when you are needing to get to something quickly.

Wrap Up

I’ll close by saying that I am by no means an expert, but I think these tips coming from a new remote worker to another will help out tremendously. I hope you found this information helpful. Organizing your browser and desktop helps you streamline your organization and gives you room to navigate this new stage of your career. Working from home can be challenging sometimes, but it does not have to be disorganized. Now go out and rule your workspace!

Work Remotely at WebDevStudios

Looking for a job with a team that knows remote work, provides a supportive environment, and offers the tools you need to be a productive member of the team? WebDevStudios is hiring! Just check out our current job openings and submit your online application today. We have great benefits, paid time off, and give out tacos as rewards. Take a look at our Careers page now.

The post Tips for Organizing Your Browser and Desktop appeared first on WebDevStudios.

I don’t fully understand the latter thought process. WebDevStudios has been remote-first since its inception 13 years ago and our remote workers are incredibly engaged. All I have to do is glance at our Slack chats to see that. In fact, I personally am more engaged working here with people I’ve never met in real life than at any other job I’ve had where I went into an office every single day for eight hours a day.

It’s all about how interaction takes place.

Being on a remote team, you need to be more thoughtful about your communication. Here are two questions I ask every time I interview a potential new hire:

• What is your communication style?
• How do you overcome communication challenges being on a remote team?

When you don’t have the luxury of walking over to someone’s desk, you need to be clear and concise with your questions or responses. Granted, you can always jump on a Zoom to work it out, if text isn’t doing the trick, but you still learn to include as much detail in the first go-around of communications to provide all the information upfront. Working remotely strengthens communication skills.

It’s also easier to go into do-not-disturb mode. There were so many times at my office job when I needed heads-down time for things, but sitting there in plain sight left it wide open for people to walk up and interrupt me. Nowadays, I can change my Slack status and post a message in our main General channel that communicates I am working with delayed response or DND mode, so I can complete a task (like writing this blog post!).

When bosses from other companies say, “Remote workers are not engaged because they just watch TV and do their laundry all day,” but then they see functioning remote teams at their competitors’ companies, they eat their words. Yes, there are times when I switch loads of laundry when I walk downstairs to grab more coffee, but that is not distracting from my work. People spend more time chatting with someone in the break room than it takes for me to do that.

And I am just as accountable, if not more so, for my work while remote. In a remote work environment, there is nobody looking over your shoulder and micromanage you. You learn to not be afraid to ask for help because nobody will physically see you struggling. Remote workers have to be able and comfortable to work independently, as well as on a team. This goes back to having great communication and being organized. Having the skills to organize your day, tasks, and deadlines is important and strengthens people’s abilities to problem solve and work within a team.

What about company culture?

Culture is a big deal at most companies and even more so for remote-first companies. We work extra hard to engage employees through group chats (the only rule is you can’t talk about anything work-related), social Slack channels, holiday events, even volunteering to give back to WordPress through Five for the Future.

We have a monthly employee newsletter to celebrate client and team wins, spotlight someone who has been going above and beyond, share recipes and health tips, and more. I will say it again: I feel more connected to the people I work remotely with than the people I saw everyday in an office.

Remote work allows for more time to live life.

Balancing work and life can be strenuous, especially if you have kids. Companies that understand the demands that everyday life has on people offer benefits to help them, like flex time or adjusted hours. Remote work also has more potential to offer a supportive environment where teammates can openly talk about mental health or request a mental health day, which helps to reduce stress. Work doesn’t need to be in a 9-to-5 box because life isn’t. Things come up, and being a remote worker allows you to deal with those things easier, such as scheduling an electrician or a delivery.

In the end, each company has to make the decision that is right for them. But working remotely does not mean employees are less productive or invested. Remote workers are engaged. It is up to the employer to put in the effort to keep it that way. One way to do that is to make sure there are spaces for employees to interact with each other and not feel isolated.

Remote work isn’t for everyone, either. Some people need the structure of going into a different location. But if you are one of those people that loves the flexibility remote work offers, check out our Careers page because we are hiring!

The post Are Remote Workers Engaged? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Plan a Variety of Remote Work Activities

I know we, at WebDevStudios (WDS) have it a little bit easier than most, since we were already a remote-first company, but I’m hoping that our normal can be your fortune. Planning a variety of activities should definitely be among your remote work resolutions.

We have always had to plan remote activities to keep employees engaged (except our once-a-year company retreat, WDS Camp, which we hope to conclude in 2021). There are a plethora of holidays you can use to plan events around and even create fun to-dos with non-traditional holidays.

Check out Holiday Insights Calendar for random, funny holidays. I like to look for days that spark interest in the team. For example, one month I talked about World Emoji Day and gave a history about it. I also like to note holidays that highlight something someone loves, like celebrating Houseplant Appreciation Day for our Director of Business Development, Jodie Riccelli, who has something like 250 plants! We actually made a fun contest to guess who many plants she did have one day.

Make your remote work activities personal and plan small events around them. If you have people that are in different countries, make sure you call out holidays there also, and not just paid holidays. We have people in Canada, the Philippines, and Pakistan, as well as the US, so I try to include at least one national holiday from each country every month in our company newsletter.

During Halloween and throughout December, we plan all sorts of entertaining activities : costume contests, pumpkin carving, ugly sweater contest, virtual holiday scavenger hunt, etc. Our Marketing Strategist, Laura Coronado, even collects pics from team members to create GIFs to share on social media for other holidays like National Dress Your Pet Up Day.

But don’t limit remote work activities to holidays, either. We do a weekly football pool called Pigskin Pick’em every year and plan on doing a March Madness bracket this year. Since our first healthy challenge month was so successful, I plan on doing that again maybe in the late spring. 

Start an Internal Company Newsletter

I mentioned our internal company newsletter before. This is something I kicked off when I joined WDS. Starting an internal company newsletter as a part of your remote work resolutions is a great way to get company info, fun news, and celebrations right to staff’s inboxes.

I keep the same basic layout for our newsletter, using EmailOctopus, with sections like:

• Client Success – Highlight a recently launched client project
• Team Success – Showcase what cool things our team accomplishes (once, I did a feature of two team members’ personal artwork)
• Employee Spotlight – Focus on a specific team member
• Health Corner – Feature workout tips, healthy lifestyle ideas, recipes sourced from the team
• Company News – I create a “The More You Know” section to add helpful tips. This is also where I add holidays and dates to remember, info about our monthly Lunch and Learn events, top five Hey Taco! receivers, birthdays, new arrivals, and anniversaries.

I get help from people throughout the month while planning the next edition. And when the newsletter gets delivered, people actually read it! 

Make Team Engagement Official

Another remote work resolution you could make is to make team engagement official by scheduling it. For example, we conduct monthly group chats within the first two weeks of the month, usually.

I use a random generator to create small groupings from our team. I then schedule 30-minute calls per group and drop some icebreaker questions into the Google Calendar invitation. Monthly group chats are water cooler conversation opportunities for virtual teams.

At WDS, we have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our group chats. The main requirement is that participants do not talk about work. It’s a time for everyone to get to know a little bit more about each other and bond. I’ve even had people ask if they can schedule one-on-ones with other people to engage on a more personal level, which we allow, too, but I let those two coworkers schedule their own.

Don’t miss another birthday celebration! Use a virtual card like Kudoboard to send birthday cards to team members. They have a free digital card that allows for up to 10 people to leave personalized birthday greetings. I rotate around the people who sign the cards. You can add images, GIFs, and even videos to your message. You can send it around in advance and schedule the delivery to the birthday party on the day of. It’s incredibly easy and a nice gesture.

Lastly, we love to create social channels on Slack where people with the same interests can join and discuss the designated topic. We have a channel dedicated to photography, and wow! What some of my co-workers can do with a camera. There’s a shopping channel where we share deals and recent purchases and a pets channel, because why would you not?

Level Up Your Remote Work Leadership Skills

There are so many resources out there for HR professional who need assistance with creating an inclusive and engaging virtual workspace. LinkedIn Learning has classes, while Wellright.com offers great tips for helping employees. There are also a ton of free webinars from HR groups that speak to virtual offices that could be great for all employees, not just those in the HR space. Add researching these opportunities to level up to your list of remote work resolutions.

I often joke that even though I’ve never met any of my coworkers in real life that I feel more connected to this group than at other jobs where I have worked in-person inside an office. That’s because of the remote work activities we create and people making an effort. 

I hope some of these ideas help you engage your remote team during this unprecedented time. I have been amazed at how many companies have fully embraced the virtual office and decided even after it’s safe to go back to an office, to either move to a remote-first or hybrid setting. They see the benefits when people do not have to commute, can spend more time with family, and are able to do things around the house during their breaks. Some companies never wanted to go remote because they thought employees wouldn’t be as productive, but in fact, they have seen just the opposite happening. The company culture won’t be the same as if you were in an office, but that does not mean it can’t be just as good, if not better. You just have to think outside the box a little, which is never a bad thing! 

The post Remote Work Resolutions for 2021 appeared first on WebDevStudios.

I was slightly nervous planning virtual office celebrations for the first time, even though I had WDS’ history to look back on from previous years and a mentor, my manager April Williams. We have an internal site for company info so I started there, researching past activities and searching for some new additions (there are some great ideas on the world wide web). Here’s what I’ve learned.

Virtual Office Celebrations Should Align with Company Culture

You need to have a good pulse on the company culture and the people that work at your company before starting to plan virtual office celebrations. What will draw the most interest? How can you encourage but not require people to participate?

We are a pretty lively bunch here and have an overwhelming amount of people join in for company activities. During Halloween, we do a costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, and watch a scary movie over Zoom.

In December, we have an ugly sweater contest, Secret Santa gift exchange, a Festivus tree decoration contest, and charity challenge. This year, we have formed two teams to compete to see who raises the most funds, and we are using MightyCause.com as our donation platform. You can create team pages, share the links on social media to get people to donate to your team, and Might Cause will handle all the remittance to the charities. Remember to tell your team members it is not required for them to donate themselves. You don’t want to make anyone feel bad if they can’t or don’t want to participate.

Try Something New and Have a Plan

This year for the winter holidays, I wanted to add a new idea to the mix. We will keep the classics that we always do. They are fun, easy, and guaranteed for a good turn out. But you don’t want festivities to get stale. It can lead to lower participation and variety is the spice of life! We try to have an event every week to spread them out with a schedule sent out in the beginning of the month on our internal company board.

We already started with a happy hour on our regular scheduled Friday scrum for the first week. We have also set up the Secret Santa gift exchange, too, giving everyone that wants to participate enough time to add stuff to their wish list. (We use Elfster, which makes it super easy for the Secret Santa and their gift recipient.) Since we do have some international teammates, we like to get the presents out about two weeks before we do the big lunchtime reveal to make sure everyone has something to open live. It really is a joy to see people open presents—makes us all feel like kids again. Just make sure you let everyone know they have to wait till you are all on Zoom together to open them!

The new activity for the WDS virtual celebrations this year will be a holiday scavenger hunt. It’s interactive and fun. This activity gets people out and about while being safe during the pandemic. My plan is to set up a Slack channel for participants to post their findings and even those who don’t play can peek at the funny pics on the list!

Include Everyone

Make sure whatever you plan that you keep it inclusive. Not everyone celebrates a specific holiday, so label things to reflect that and add elements of everyone’s background into your activities. This way, everyone feels included and invited to participated.

Although it isn’t required, having prizes for the events really ups the ante. They don’t have to all be huge. We use Hey Taco! on a regular basis here for recognition (if you don’t know what this is, check it out). We give a bulk amount of tacos for some of the contests, as well as gift cards. Of course, bragging rights go a long way here, too!

Even though this year may be vastly different from your past holiday events, virtual celebrations can still promote unity, bonding, and laughs. It also gives you a chance to think outside the box a little. Yes, some things take more planning or thought because you aren’t physically in the same space, but in no way does that make them less fun. I can honestly say that I laughed so hard during our last ugly sweater contest that I cried. Let’s just say, we had some very creative entries.

The post Tips for Virtual Office Celebrations appeared first on WebDevStudios.

WDS Virtual Camp Backstory

WebDevStudios (WDS) entered the virtual company retreat world due to COVID-19, as many other companies have done this year. Since we are a remote-first company, we are used to doing all things virtual but normally look forward to the real-life connections we make together for a full week during our annual retreat known as WDS Camp.

This would have been my first WDS Camp and the first time meeting any of my coworkers in real life. It was a huge disappointment that we weren’t able to have our company retreat in person, since we had already booked the location and it was amazing. Hearing all the wonderful stories of retreats past, I knew it would be difficult to convey the same experience virtually. Luckily, I had a planning master, my manager April Williams, to help.

In July, we sent out a Google Form to gauge the team’s interest around the idea of holding a virtual camp. Out of all the respondents, 92.6% said they liked the idea. We asked a few open-ended questions like, “What do you hope to get out of the experience,” and, “What would you like to learn more about?” Since the interest was there, we dove into the planning process.

Company Retreat Planning

We knew we couldn’t offer the same company retreat schedule as if we were in person. The first challenges were logistical—how many days, when do we do it, how do we break down the tracks, what Zoom links do we use?

The leadership team agreed that a two-day company retreat would be best. We planned on closing our virtual offices for those days so our focus could be fully on learning. We settled on the first weekend of October (out of 43 people in the company only two missed WDS Camp). Once we had the days locked down, the planning could begin!

I got to work on all the fun stuff—swag and group activities. We wanted the swag to be easy, so we decided to go with SwagUp. They produce, pack, and mail the boxes directly to employees. They were incredible. April, Jodie Riccelli, Director of Business Development, and I picked the items: a hoodie, face mask, hand sanitizer, notebook, and socks. (Pro-tip: people LOVE branded socks. I do not know why but they are so cool.)

Virtual trivia was the activity of choice. We went with Geeks Who Drink. I’ve been to trivia hosted by them before, so I knew it would be great. It was. If you are in the market for an engaging, entertaining company experience, call them!

Format and Topics

The next item we needed to tackle was the schedule for our virtual company retreat. The days started at 8:30 a.m. EDT and went till about 4:30-5:00 p.m. EDT with lots of breaks sprinkled in. People had the choice of starting the day with yoga led by our very own certified teacher, April, or joining WDS-Growth, an internal group we have for promoting growth culture.

The leadership team asked people within their departments to present different material that would be beneficial. There were two different types of sessions: presentation and interactive/brainstorming across four different tracks. We really wanted to make this an inclusive event where team members were contributing to the sessions, not just attending.

All the presentation sessions were recorded, so those who weren’t able to view them live could still watch. Topics spanned from positive customer experience to scrum methodologies, to Gutenberg-first initiative, to making the most of your performance review, and many more. There were ask-me-anything sessions with the department directors, human resources, and the owners (Brad Williams and Lisa Sabin-Wilson). Brad and Lisa also held a “State of WDS” presentation to give us the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past year (our “goods” far outweighed the others).

Takeaways

We came back from WDS Camp reinvigorated, full of fresh ideas, and ready to tackle new initiatives. Even though it wasn’t the fun-filled company retreat week of getting to know each other on a different level (no OJ chugging competitions this year), the team really felt like they gained a lot. From learning about new technologies being used on projects to future company plans to creative marketing ideas, we covered most of the topics people expressed interest in on that Google Form from July.

Despite being on Zoom calls most of the day, it didn’t feel like a drain. All in all, I would rate our first (but hopefully last) WDS Virtual Camp a success!

The post Post Event Report: WDS Virtual Camp Company Retreat appeared first on WebDevStudios.

What Zoom Should You Use?

Like most online software, Zoom offers various levels for using their platform. Depending on your needs, you may be fine with a free Basic plan, but if you’re looking for a few more features, you may be interested in their Pro, Business, or even Enterprise plans. You can check out the full comparison amongst the plans at Zoom’s website, but here’s a high-level overview.

• The Basic plan offers great features (and it’s free), but there is a 40-minute meeting limit.
  
• The Pro plan increases meeting length to 24 hours. It also gives you the added options of admin support, custom user IDs, and cloud recording.
  
• The Business or Enterprise plans allow for added customization with company branding, custom emails, an admin dashboard, and more.

Now That You Have Zoom, How Should You Use It?

Just because Zoom is known as a video conferencing platform, doesn’t mean every call will be on video. Some instances, having just audio is more than sufficient. Whether you’re utilizing the platform for video or audio, it’s important to keep a few key etiquette tips in mind to help keep things as efficient and comfortable as possible.

Tips for Using Zoom Video

Dress Appropriately

We know it’s tempting to sit around in comfy clothes when you don’t intend to leave the house. However, just because a meeting has moved to be on Zoom, as opposed to in person, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t present yourself any differently. You may not need to put on a full suit, but you should be mindful to make sure you’re presenting yourself professionally. Remember, you’re still interacting with the same coworkers that you would normally dress appropriately for in a brick-and-mortar office.

Be Mindful of Your Surroundings

Zoom calls can offer a glimpse inside coworkers lives, based on what is in their background on a video call. When joining a call, make sure your background is something that is work appropriate and that you’re comfortable sharing with others. It’s fine to have personality in your environment, but just consider anything in your background space is a reflection of you as a person. You may consider setting up a space that will be used specifically for video calls. This could be a neutral wall, a book case, or just a space you can easily keep organized. Maybe you want to have a little fun (or just not share your own space on camera). Explore the virtual backgrounds that Zoom offers. Place yourself on a beach, in outer space, or any of your favorite places. At WebDevStudios, virtual backgrounds have become some great conversation starters in team meetings!

Be Aware of Your Camera

This next tip for using Zoom may sound like common knowledge, but it’s important to be aware of your camera being on at all times. If you need to remove yourself from a meeting for any reason, make sure you turn your camera off to avoid any unnecessary embarrassing mishaps (take Jennifer here as an example). When first setting up your camera, also be mindful of camera placement and good lighting. Typically you want your camera to be at eye-level and have a light source in front of you or your computer.

Tips for Using Zoom Audio

Act Like You’re on Video

Even if no one can see you, body language can easily be carried through your voice. Be sure to set up the same way as if your video was on. This will make you feel more prepared and productive, as well as allow you to still fully focus on the conversation at hand.

Utilize Headphones

If solely relying on audio for a conversation, be sure to remove any outside distractions by utilizing headphones. This helps to keep your attention on the conversation with minimal distractions and can also help reduce excess feedback on the call.

Ensure Your Audio Levels Are Good

Without visual cues as to when someone may be talking, it’s important to attain accurate audio levels. You want to ensure your voice is not too soft (or loud) so that everyone can understand you clearly.

Tips for Using Zoom Whether Video or Audio

Don’t Be Afraid to Use the Chat Feature

Zoom has a great chat feature that allows you to either message an entire group or specific individuals. This feature is helpful in reducing interruptions in a conversation, sharing links, or documenting questions to revisit at the end of a conversation. 

Use the Mute Button

This next tip for using Zoom is a whopper. Pay close attention. Use the mute button. It can help keep distractions at a minimum and keep the focus on the main speaker. It’s important to be mindful of all participants, especially since talking over one another in a Zoom conversation never turns out well. When it’s your turn to talk, or if you have something to share, simply wait until the speaker is finished, un-mute yourself, and share your thoughts.

How Should You Prepare for a Zoom Meeting?

As with any meeting, you want to ensure you’re using everyone’s time as efficiently as possible. If it takes five minutes in the beginning of a meeting to get everyone logged in and set up, then that is valuable time you’re taking away from everyone involved. Before sending out a meeting for a Zoom call, make sure you ask yourself if your meeting invitation includes the following:

• Video link and/or call-in number
• Password, if required
• Whether or not you’ll be utilizing a waiting room
• Whether or not your Zoom meeting will be a video call or audio only

Also, if you’ll be recording the meeting, make sure participants are aware. You can share this in the meeting invite as well as at the start of the meeting. Zoom even offers a feature to enable a recording disclaimer users must accept before joining.

How Do You Ensure Your Zoom Space Is Secure?

With the increase of users online, security is always a concern. When Zoom saw a huge increase in remote working and more users on their platform, Zoom bombing started to become a huge issue. This event is where uninvited users join private meetings, and the results are usually not only disruptive but invasive. To help combat uninvited guests, Zoom put some new security features in place that anyone can take advantage of.

• Setting Passwords – Any host can set a password that would be required for joining a private call.
• Waiting Room – You can select if guests can join before the host or wait in a virtual waiting room. With a virtual waiting room, no participant can join unless specifically let in by the host.
• Lock Meeting – If you know all participants are present, you can lock the meeting so no one else can join.
• Chat, Screen Sharing, and Naming Settings – Zoom allows the host to control what features attendees can access. You can remove access to the chat, the ability to screen share, or disallow participants to alter their names (a feature that’s useful in a classroom setting when children are involved).

Additional Tools You Can Use with Zoom

Although Zoom is an online platform, there are some physical hardware pieces that can help improve your user experience.

Camera Covers: If you feel uneasy about leaving your camera exposed when not being used for video, you can buy a webcam cover. Essentially, a webcam cover is a cover with a sliding door that can easily be moved to show or hide your camera. Check Amazon for some affordable options.

External Microphones: Adding an external microphone to your computer setup can help ensure crisp, clean audio. This may be especially helpful for those who find themselves on calls often throughout the day. A lot of time, external microphones can come in the form of headset with a built-in microphone (and headphones) or something that looks like a microphone straight out of a DJ booth. There are many options out there at various price points. Shop around, but just make extra sure that whichever you choose, it is compatible with your computer system.

Headphones: We all know the distractions that home life can bring. Having a handy pair of headphones as part of your remote work setup is perfectly acceptable. They can be any type that you find most comfortable, but as is the case with your external microphone, just make sure they are compatible with your particular setup.

As a 100% remote company, WebDevStudios relies on Zoom to communicate amongst our team and with our clients. It’s become one of our go-to tools in building a successful remote culture. With the shift to working remotely, it’s a good idea to rely on these tips for using Zoom in order to prepare yourself and allow time for familiarity with a new set of tools that are becoming part of the new everyday work life.

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We’re now in June of 2020, and so much has changed since the beginning of this year. It’s been one of the most impactful seasons on companies and individuals as the transition from an office setting to working from home has become the norm. If you remember back in March, Twitter stepped out and made the decision to offer working from home available to their entire company, providing a huge benefit of flexibility to team members. With large companies making this more available as a perk, what does this mean for our mental health and remote work?

Here are some of the pros and cons of remote work that relate to mental health:

Pros

• Little or no commute time
• Flexible schedule
• Save money
• Personal work environment
• More accessible
• More independence
• Less expenses
• Increased productivity
• Improved technical skills
• Improved communication skills
• More work flexibility
• No office distractions
• Collaborate across locations
• Build professional networks
• Company perks and benefits
• Reduction in work absences
• Increased satisfaction
• Provides more job opportunities
• Provides work-life balance

Cons

• Increased isolation
• Managing your own schedule
• Hindered communication
• Home office costs
• Risk of overworking
• Risk to productivity
• Distractions at home
• Workplace disconnect
• Disproportionate work-life balance
• Less face time
• Burnout

Why is mental health important?

With so many things that distract us from our daily life, our mental health sits as part of the core of our well-being. It’s a crucial element that we often allow to be compromised, not well maintained, and struggle with being proactive on educating ourselves on how to improve it.

Mental health is made up of our emotions, psychological state, and how we view our social status. It touches every aspect of our life on how we think, feel, and act. It helps us decide on how we make decisions, handle stress, and interact with others. When we have positive mental health it can allow people to understand their full potential, cope better with stress, work more productively, and become more involved and contribute in communities.

In 2019, a survey was conducted from over 4,500 developers on their experience working remote by Digitial Ocean, a cloud infrastructure company. They found that 82% of tech workers who were remote in the US felt burnt out, while 52% reported that they work longer hours than people working in an office setting, and 40% feeling pressure to contribute more than their in-office friends.

This year Buffer, a social media engagement tool, teamed up with Angel List and completed putting together data from 3,500 remote workers from around the world to explore the benefits and struggles of remote work. The results were very interesting, here are a few of the questions that were in the survey and the top results.

Question: Which of the following statements best describes you?

• 70% – I am happy with the amount of time I work remotely.
• 19% – I would like to work remotely more often.
• 11% – I would like to work remotely less often.

Question: What’s your biggest struggle with working remotely?

• 20% – Collaboration and communication
• 20% – Loneliness
• 18% – Not being able to unplug
• 12% – Distractions at home
• 10% – Being in a difficult time zone than teammates
• 7% – Staying motivated
• 5% – Taking vacation time
• 3% – Finding other reliable
• 5% – Other

Question: What location do you primarily work from?

• 80% Home
• 9% Company’s office
• 7% Coworking spaces
• 3% Coffee shops
• 0.5% Libraries
• 0.5% Other

Question: Would you like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of your career?

• 98% – Yes
• 2% – No

It seems that people that currently work remote enjoy it and find it to be a great benefit and experience for their profession. However, there is still a large number that find it to be isolating and desire to have more communication and community interaction for a change of pace and break for their current work remote environments.

I feel that mental health is something that should continue to be talked about openly and companies should continue to provide resources for their team members relating to their physical and mental health. Our industry is only going to grow and more people will be making the transition from the office to a distributed working environment. It will be more crucial than ever for the proper support and structure to be in place to provide a healthy work space for remote workers. Being part of a remote team myself, I can only share my experiences on how vital it is to have people around you that care and want you to succeed personally and professionally.

My Story

Please know that I am not a mental health professional. I am only sharing from personal experience. If you need help, contact your doctor or mental health counselor.

Over the past 12 years, I’ve experienced some hard times and learned things about myself that have not only changed my life, but have allowed me to put myself in a position to help others.I was 19 when my parents divorced, and I moved out since I didn’t want to pick who to live with. Moving to a nearby college city, I started a new life for myself while working at a local technology company doing quality assurance and manual regression testing. Little did I know that would snowball into years of struggling with abandonment, trust, aggression, and pain.

I’ve worked remotely for the past six years and I can honestly say I don’t ever want to go back to working in a traditional office environment. Throughout that time, with the help of counseling, medication, my personal beliefs, and community, I’ve been able to stabilize myself and be a person who I am happy with. I still continue to learn, educate myself, and look for opportunities where I can serve others who might need someone to talk to.

The biggest mental health issues I’ve dealt with are depression, aggression, and abandonment.

In 2017, I took a psychoanalyst test that helped me determine why I was struggling with depression, anger, and abandonment. This was having a huge impact not only on my marriage but my job as well. The test was a list of 700 questions that provided results on how I approach different situations, my thought process, as well as a written report. The report showed that a lot of my trauma was sourced directly after my parents divorce. It explained in detail how and why my depression and anger wove itself into my behavior. It gave insight on why I feared abandonment within my own marriage from my wife.

So how did I deal with all of this? Over the years from my experiences, I started to apply the things I learned from counseling, knowing it’s okay to take medicine if it helps, and creating slow changes with my routine and communication style.

I am a pretty emotional guy by nature, but after I was married, there was a lot of pain and hurt that came out which was suppressed when I was single. I noticed that I became a different person and didn’t like that. I did years of counseling and tried different medications until early 2018. I found what worked for me and have been on that ever since.

I’m now the proud father of a beautiful 18-month-old and have one on the way due in November. My marriage and work environment are in a fantastic place and I am involved in several online and local communities where I have a supportive group of people who care and love on me. I am beyond blessed to have that.

Something else that has been a new change for me this year has been working out to start my day off in the right mindset and eating better. I started noticing that the days I’m not active and eat like garbage, I am not as productive at work. I joined an online workout group where each weekday we join a Zoom call at 6:15 a.m. and work out for 30-40 minutes.

We talk about our wins and how we can be encouraging one another. It’s been a game changer for me since I never thought I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. every day to work out. After I work out, I sit in my big chair in my office and read for about 20-30 minutes to feed my mind. Then I shower, make breakfast, and start my workday.

My journey with mental health has been over the span of many years; everyone might have a different timeline, and that’s okay! The important thing is that you take the time to understand how it’s impacting you, and no one else.

Let me share with you a charity I found out about last year that is something I am passionate about.

Big Orange Heart

Background

Originally named WP&UP, Big Orange Heart (BOH) is positioned to support remote workers in the global web development community. The board and volunteers of BOH understand the challenges, highs, and lows of remote working and how it can affect mental health and physical well-being, and endeavor to support others in the same working situation.

Given the current impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it will continue to have an enormous and potentially permanent shift within the remote working community, WP&UP took the necessary steps to pivot the charity to allow for a higher level of support and exposure from a much wider audience, hence the re-branding to Big Orange Heart.

How I got involved.

In the summer of 2019, I came across the Press Forward Podcast which was produced and published by WP&UP. I didn’t know much about the charity at that time but I had been seeing it all over Facebook and had been waiting to find an outlet I could get involved with around helping out others.

I joined the Slack community and started asking around how I can get involved. I started chatting with Nathan Wrigley who was in charge of the podcast. After getting to know me and sharing some of my past, he invited me to share my story on the Press Forward Podcast, which I gladly accepted. Please click here to hear my personal story about my struggles and victories with mental health.

Why I got involved.

After my interview with Nathan, I asked him how I could volunteer and become involved with the charity. I had an amazing time sharing my story, I wanted to use my experiences and background to help people anywhere I could.

My role involves being on the volunteer partnerships team at BOH where I talk to companies about the mission of supporting and promoting positive mental health within the WordPress community. I’ve always had a passion for people, relationships, and being open about my story dealing with mental health and how I have navigated it.

I also have spoken at WordCamps on mental health and enjoy having conversations with WordCamp attendees and hearing their experiences around mental health. Some of the best conversations have been when I have least expected it. It’s those moments where you create a connection with someone that is impactful for both people.

How you can benefit from BOH.

Remote working has the potential for increased isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and other related mental health issues. Big Orange Heart exists, “To support and promote positive mental health within the WordPress community.” To achieve this, the organization hosts live and virtual events and produces a weekly podcast covering a variety of well-being related topics.

In addition, BOH operates a live chat support service, monitored by a team of trained volunteers. They also have an active peer-to-peer support community online, which matches up volunteer companions with those who need someone, and enable small groups of peers to meet up and help one another. The group works to reduce social isolation, promote well-being, and bring down barriers relating to mental health.

If you find you want to help, volunteers are always welcome, from writers to fundraisers, to simply sharing the articles which spread the message that Big Orange Heart is there for you.

Tips for Staying Mentally Healthy While Working from Home

1. Take regular breaks, setting an alarm to remind you.
2. Remember (consider setting reminders) to eat well, to drink, to get up and move about. It’s easy to forget these things at times.
3. You don’t need to be alone. There are communities for you that will help with loneliness and isolation. Join them. You don’t have to join in, if you’d rather not, but being there with other people, if only virtually, can feel less alone.
4. Keep moving. Take a walk each day, or a run, or whatever you can do. Keep doing it. It’s very easy to get into your work and find many hours have passed sitting at your computer, and that’s not ideal for your body or your mind.
5. Try to find some space for yourself. This may not be easy with a family at home, too, but even if you have to put on the headphones and be firm with others that this is your work time, and be firm about this yourself, you’ll likely get more work done. But also take some time to unwind, perhaps when your work is complete, or before you start. Give yourself time for your mind to adjust from one mode to another.

Since the beginning, WebDevStudios has operated as a 100% distributed company. We know remote work. For more information and tips on working from home, please read our collection of remote work blog posts.

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Don’t forget

It is paramount that people remember to do the small things, like drinking water and going to the bathroom. It may seem silly, but I remember being a first-time remote worker. I would get so involved in my work (or worried that people wouldn’t believe I was actually doing anything) that it would be 1 p.m. when I realized all I had was coffee and I hadn’t gotten up to use the bathroom since I woke up.

Working that way can leave you feeling drained very fast and lead to burnout. As part of your staying healthy while working from home routine, I recommend that you get up and stretch your legs every hour. Taking short breaks like that boosts your productivity, as well as your mental well-being. Take your dog for a walk or just go for a 10-minute stroll, yourself, to clear your mind and get those creative juices flowing. (Plus, Vitamin D helps with concentration and prevents illness.)

Also, consider taking a power nap. A quick 10-minute snooze can help stabilize emotions, increase energy, and restore brain functionality. Set a timer to remind yourself to do these things so you don’t get lost in your work and forget to take care of you. Remember, it’s okay to switch your laundry to the dryer or wash your lunch dishes while you are working from home. One of the best parts about WFH is taking all those minutes that you stare at your computer screen thinking about what needs to be done and turning them into productive moments. When my mind is blocked, I get up and fluff the pillows on the couch to allow my brain time to recenter.

Treat yo’self

Humans need to eat to live. Start your day off with breakfast, even if it’s just something small. Having breakfast will give you energy for the first part of your day, light that brain up to tackle those hard problems, and aid you in your quest for staying healthy while working from home.

Take snack breaks during your workday. Try to make some healthy snacks, like sliced apples or carrots and hummus. Eating healthy will keep your immune system in fighting shape, which is more important now than ever.

Don’t forget that lunch break! I am awful at this. I eat lunch in front of the computer while still working most days. Don’t be like me. Take time for yourself to enjoy that fish you would never be able to bring into the office (because if you microwave fish in the office break room you will be scolded).

Use your break to relax and refocus for your afternoon tasks. Experiment with food during this time. Try that new recipe for dinner that you’ve always wanted to make but never had the time or energy to prepare. Pro top: make leftovers so you can eat your masterpiece again. By not commuting, you save time. So, take advantage and prepare that five-star meal at home since you can’t go out to eat right now.

Move that body

With your commute changing from anything it was before into walking to another room, you are losing your usual travel activity (even if it was small). So, you should take time to squeeze something in.

At WDS, we have a monthly newsletter sent to all employees where I include tips on easy, quick workouts or stretches you can do. Try doing some desk push-ups or seated leg lifts. Stretch your wrists and arms every couple of hours. Alternate mouse sides on your desk (this one works your mind muscles just as much as your hands). Turn that meeting phone call into a walking meeting. Start a competition with your team and see who can get the most steps in a week; push each other to succeed. When headed to the bathroom, do some lunges on the way. Have fun with it and keep it entertaining. Heck, dance to the bathroom if you want. No one is watching you!

Keep the chat alive

Schedule some “water cooler” chats with coworkers to check in on each other. We have monthly calls where groups of five to six people from our team meet for 30 minutes to talk about anything and everything not work related. Send out some icebreaker questions ahead of time to spark the conversation. You know you are wondering if extraterrestrials landed on earth. Would Bob go if they offered to take him to their motherland? Ask him and start a fun conversation.

Just because you are not in the same physical space with your coworkers doesn’t mean you have to lose connection. Even having just one person to check in with every day is grounding. If you have an office bestie, continue those chats you would have if you were at the office. Start a channel in your online communication platform for people to share the shows they are watching. Ours is very lively with Tiger King memes, and yes, I think Carol Baskins did it! Start a memes-only channel and let the laughs ensue (obviously, only share safe-for-work memes).

Jam Out

You are at home. Turn that radio on for the sweet sound. Crank it up! When else will you be able to literally have a jam out session with music blaring than now? Listen to whatever inspires you to do great things. Listening to music has been proven to decrease stress and boost creativity and efficiency.

Have a favorite podcast you never have time to listen to at the office because people always come over and interrupt you? Turn that on and learn something new while getting that TPS report done.

You are not alone

No matter what, remember there are lots of people in the same boat as you right now—all working toward staying healthy while working from home. It’s normal to be among those who are not used to working from home and unsure of what is acceptable during these times. Use your best judgment. Your company would not have hired you if they didn’t trust that you are the best person for the job. If you are struggling, reach out to your manager or someone you trust at your company and let them know. Open communication is the key to remote work. It allows you to stay connected with teammates and to hold each other accountable. You got this!

Who knows? Maybe this opportunity will spark a thirst in you for the remote life. For me, working remotely has been one of the best transitions from an in-office job. I have less stress, get to spend the day with my dog and cat, and have more control over my life. I know it’s not for everyone, but I really hope you give it a fair shake. Remote work has the chance to help the people and environment around you, and if you need more help, take a look at this collection of remote work blog posts WDS created just for you.

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