Supervising and Working Remotely

If you have ever waffled on whether supervising / working from home is or is not feasible for your job, in the context of covid 19, you probably will be forced to figure out the extent to which it actually is.

So let’s say it’s happening, whether you or your workplace are ready. Here are three things that you may help set you up for success.

1. Setting yourself up to work from home for an extended period

Expect that covid-19 will have public health containment implications for 3 weeks. You know your calendar and many of your operational requirements. Figure out what you need at home to be able to support your deliverables.

This includes setting up a dedicated functional work space. You will want to ensure you have remote access to necessary tech and all the documents/resources that are only accessible at work. Figure out how to transport what you need to your home work environment so they are accessible.

You will also need to manage the home environment. This includes deciding how home life interruptions will be managed and what routines from normal #worklife you will retain (e.g. lunch, breaks, informal checkins with management and others).

2. Communicating your expectations to management

Beyond setting yourself up, you will want to have an arrangement with your supervisors about what they need from you and vice versa, and how communications can occur in a timely way when you are no longer in the office and able to accost them in person.

There may be business continuity protocols that you will have a responsibility for distributing to the working level. You want to establish how you will receive these communications from management and how you can raise issues that arise in a timely way.

This is especially important when things are changing rapidly: you want to have the most updated guidance and to be able to determine and discuss the operational impact.

3. Communicating your expectations to subordinates

Your communications with subordinates may already be established. If so you will want to revisit them to ensure they are still appropriate under current circumstances.

Like most instances of supervising offsite/from offsite, planning will be of the utmost importance. Beyond planning, you must then communicate operational requirements and deadlines, maybe even more in advance than normal because in the office you typically do it by other means.

You will want to encourage subordinates to think through what they need to support whatever plan is communicated, and actively ask what they might need from you rather than simply wait for feedback.

But overall you will want to explain your expectations for working offsite, including checkins (e.g. when they sign on and off for the day), availability for calls, turnaround time for deliverables, and how and when they can raise concerns and needs for accommodations.