By Chuck Chapman, Content Strategy Coordinator To say this last 12 months has been a struggle would be one of the bigger understatements ever. This pandemic has quite possibly been the greatest challenge our world will ever face in our lifetimes. The good news is that all indications point toward lower case numbers (and with that, fewer hospitalizations and fatalities). … [Read more...]
Is It OK to Turn Off Your Webcam?
Is it okay to turn your webcam off in the middle of a team call? That seems like a reasonable question, but it always seems to get people worked up. It should be a binary answer: yes or no. But the real answers are "sometimes," and "it depends." We all know the pros and cons of using webcams: The human brain is wired for visual communication. We crave seeing the other … [Read more...]
Five Reasons for Zoom Fatigue
Imagine being the people at Zoom. Eighteen months ago, few people had heard of you. Then the COVID lockdown begins and suddenly you’re the most popular new software in the world. Then, just as suddenly, you’re the cause of something called “Zoom fatigue” and people hate you. Hardly seems fair. But to remote workers around the world, it is very real. A report from Stanford … [Read more...]
Where Does Mistrust Come From?
One of the great paradoxes of remote work is that it requires a lot of trust, yet that trust is hard to build at a distance and easily damaged. Most of us start out assuming positive intent, and that we trust in people until they show us they're more deserving of mistrust. At worst, we take a wait-and-see attitude. As we point out in both The Long-Distance Leader and … [Read more...]
Your Back-to-Work Shopping List
According to several sources including the Wall Street Journal, most organizations are looking at late summer or even September for a full return to the workplace. Between vaccination roll-outs, local ordinances and internal logistics it will take that long to implement their plans. That means a mass of people who work from home returning to their desks, at least part of the … [Read more...]