I can proudly say that Addteq is a work-from-anywhere organization. It was quite easy to go into a remote working environment. We already had the tools such as Jira, Confluence, HRIS, and other platforms to function remotely without any issues. To accomplish our goal of becoming a work-from-anywhere organization, we worked on improving our internal communications, policies, and the general way we work. Today, our employees work in different time zones, continents, and in different places. We rarely think about where the other person is but we know that we will all work towards our goals every day.
When we say Addteq is a work-from-anywhere company, this underlies the impact it had over its people, who are us, Addteq employees. So how do we feel mentally after spending 2 years outside of the office? I spoke to our employees to explore what it means for them to work from anywhere.
A common theme among us is that we are happy that we have flexibility, especially in a family environment where we can attend to others’ needs spontaneously and continuously. This relieves us from many emotions such as feeling guilty because we are not around, or stress over workload, and is replaced with confidence and good memories. We can attend our kid’s activities or spread some of the chores to different times of the week instead of just on weekends.
Another interesting point is that we are happy that we can sleep more. Sleep is one of the aspects of mental health but we give up quickly when we are busy. A common perception is that with spending more time at home, we are distracted and overloaded. This may create issues in following a routine. What I found was that commute, daily chores and obligations are hard to limit so we just quit sleeping enough hours. Our folks are happy that they can sleep which reflects on their work.
Many of us picked up one or two hobbies, things that we enjoy. It may be physical activity, especially outdoors, or gaining knowledge in different areas that we didn’t get a chance to do before. I started biking which includes extended rides over the weekend. Some folks started other sports such as swimming, body training, cooking, and growing plants.
So all these add up and create a happy crew. Going into the office every day created this routine that limited flexibility. We mostly waited for the weekend to do what we enjoy including our families but then the weekend seemed too short. Now we can focus on our efficiency and work-life balance and make adjustments. It is a good feeling how you look at your own life and see the changes.
