When people complain about email, I get it. You’re working from home and the barrage of pinging, flashing icons and messages piling up never seems to stop. We hear all kinds of moaning about the volume, lack of clarity, and just plain rudeness in people’s inboxes. Those are all legitimate complaints. But I am old enough to remember the “before times.” I was around before … [Read more...]
Emojis, GIFs, and Avoiding Confrontation
Do you find yourself using emojis, GIFs and other electronic symbols in your writing more than you used to? Do you love them or hate them? Have you ever sent an emoji or GIF and it didn’t mean what you thought it meant? (Eggplants mean what?) Like it or not, the way we communicate is undergoing a change. Pros and cons of written communication You are part of an evolution in … [Read more...]
When Should We Use Virtual Backgrounds for Meetings?
Have you been on a zoom meeting with Bob in Accounting, and it looks like he’s sitting in a luxurious office with a view of Manhattan? He’s not, of course. He’s using a Virtual Background to hide the fact he’s actually working from the North end of the dining room table. Someone recently asked a question on our Long Distance Worklife podcast: When is it appropriate to use … [Read more...]
Snow Days
Over the past two years, we've all learned to work remotely. That's been a great development for organizational productivity, but as Wayne explains, it's not always a good thing. … [Read more...]
Picking Alternatives to Email
Maybe the most divisive topic in remote work is whether email is a help or a hindrance to our productivity. It’s fast, convenient and pretty much free. On the other hand, there’s too much of it, our inboxes are inundated, and responding to all those notifications stops us from doing other, more productive, work. There is a whole cottage industry of experts saying we need to use … [Read more...]