In fact, being physically removed from your coworkers can make communicating that much stranger.
Luckily, its not tough.
Respect Everyones Time Zones and Busy Time
Be mindful of your colleagues time zones and working time.
Most of this is just plain empathy, but it extends to how you communicate too.
Here are a few things to remember:
Choose your communication method wisely.
Respect free and busy times, even if youre on when others are off.
Dont email and expect an immediate response.
If youre in San Francisco, dont send your New York coworkers late-day work.
Theyll need to essentially work overnight to have it ready by the time you get up.
Youll be comfortably rested, and theyll just hate you.
When in doubt, ask.
Dont assume.Think about the little things about office communicationespecially emails and chatsthat annoy you.
Now think about how awesome it would be if someone asked you about them before they just did them.
Maybe they wont care, maybe they have a strong preference.
Either way, almost everyone is more flexible when youre respectful of their space.
If something is important, tell them so, but dont feign urgency when there is none.
Get familiar with the ins and outs of your office email, or your work-issued smartphone.
Here are a few simple things you could do:
Schedule emails to send during office hours.
Almost every email app has a way to do this.
They may reach out and get frustrated you dont respond.
Use features likeGmails awesome Priority Inboxso you wont get notifications from less important people.
Do the same with chats and SMS messages.
Use services that make scheduling global meetings easy.
Pretty late, even by work-from-home standards.
Its even worse if you have people in London, where itll be 1am.
Those people probably wont show up.
Finally, make sureyou have the right gear for those meetingsand its set up properly before you need it.
Dont waste meeting time troubleshooting your machine while everyones waiting for you to join.
Read more than you bang out.
Youll get a feeling for the way everyone interacts naturally before you even have a reason to engage.
In the same vein, use chat features like pings sparingly, if ever.
Thats important, but you deserve some breathing room too.
For starters, check that youcommunicate clearly with your coworkers at the office and abroad.
Let them know when youre back, too.
ensure your own calendar is up to date and direct people to it to see when youre available.
Working from home has a lot of benefits, but close-knit relationships with coworkers usually isnt one of them.
As long as it’s possible for you to get those things down, youll be fine.
Title illustration by Tara Jacoby.
