ReDistributed: A podcast about the future of work

In this episode of Remote Rants, I break down a recent article on Poynter titled, "How to deal with micromanagers in a COVID-19 world." https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/how-to-deal-with-micromanagers-in-a-covid-19-world/ Specifically, I cover: Why micromanagement is due to a lack of visibility, not bad intent Why you as the employee should do your part to regularly share information and updates Why the only sustainable fix for micromanagement is to create clear expectations and regular process Why saying things like "you need to trust people" is generally unhelpful If you want an easy way to share your work without your boss micro-managing you, check out Friday: https://www.friday.app

In this episode of Remote Rants, I'm going to break down a recent article I read, titled "Why remote work makes people less productive, and what to do about it": https://www.fastcompany.com/90488625/why-remote-work-makes-people-less-productive-and-what-to-do-about-it I loved this article as it highlights a deeper issue when working remotely. When your daily work is more private vs. public, it creates the potential for accountability to go down unless you create thoughtful systems for sharing your work. If you're looking for a tool to help increase accountability when remote, check out my company, Friday. We help you automate routine updates, so people share their work in public and stay accountable: https://www.friday.app/

This video a response to a recent Planet Money article, titled "Why Remote Work Sucks, According to Science." https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2020/04/28/846671375/why-remote-work-sucks-according-to-science In this episode, we discuss why this article is a poor take, including: - How NPR is cherry picking data to build a case against remote work - Why surveying HR professionals is not indicative of the employer's experience - Why PWC's research is a counterpoint to NPR's #science - Why productivity will go down if someone stares at you on a video call for weeks on end

I recently came across this fun tweet by Hiten Shah: "On Zoom fatigue, here’s a shocker: Remote work does not require video." Source: https://twitter.com/hnshah/status/1254549044929519616 In today's episode of remote rants, we break down if it's possible to work remotely without constant Zoom calls.

In a recent article using data from the Covid-19 crisis, Microsoft research indicates that managers are spending way too much time in meetings (10% more than before) and micro-managing their team in workplace chat (115% more messages). Read the Microsoft Study here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/04/22/how-remote-work-impacts-collaboration-findings-team/ If you'd like to work better remotely, feel free to check out Friday. https://www.friday.app