People I meet in person often find what I do unusual because I’m a remote worker who works very flexible hours. And those who know me online often assume I’m based in their time zone, USA time zone, or I’m a bot!
So I thought sharing a glimpse of my work life would provide an insight into what life is like as a remote worker.
Background
I’m the Support Manager for Edublogs and CampusPress — part of Incsub which is also behind WPMU DEV.
Inscub Is a specialist WordPress company with over 60 employees. We’re spread across different countries and time zones; most are remote workers like myself.
My Computer
Much of my day is spent testing, supporting people using our blogging platforms, or working with our support team, developers and sysadmins.
I’m a notorious multi-tasker and can be working on several tasks at the same time.
I have a reasonably large desk with x3 24″ monitors. I would have a fourth monitor if it would fit on my desk!
How does anyone get any work done with one monitor?
I run Windows because most of our users are Windows users. My computer is housed in a noise reducing case — hate excessive computer noise!
Bonus tip:
Photos from my phone automatically upload to Google photos when I connect to wifi.
Search in Google photos is incredible! It’s very accurate. Rather than take a photo I quickly searched my computer to find the latest photos of my set up.
Company Communication
We use Slack for most company communications — with different slack channels for different teams or work tasks.
Slack provides real-time messaging, asynchronous messaging, enables us to send direct messages to each other, and lets us search for previous discussions on a topic and supports voice calls.
Our slack conversations are generally very work focused. However, we also use it for the occasional personal chatter, as highlighted above, like you have in an office.
Other Work Tools
Here’s a quick summary of some of the other work tools we use:
Helpscout is used for all email communications. It enables multiple staff to access at the same time and for emails to be assigned to different people with notes.
We use Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets because both enable us to work collaboratively and add comments for feedback.
We use Asana for managing tasks and projects.
And off course Twitter! I have TweetDeck set up on my computer set up logged in @suewaters and @edublogs so I can quickly provide assistance by Twitter as needed.
Any time Any Where
I don’t work standard hours. My work hours are flexible to fit in with when I need to work with other team members and to support our users. And my phone is my portable work office for when I need to deal with something quickly if I’m away from my computer.
After all the articles written on why we shouldn’t take our mobile devices to bed, you would have thought that I would have learned by now?
I haven’t!
The After Midnight Google Hangout
Even after accidentally answering Google Hangout after midnight when I turned over the device.
Nothing like a live webinar from bed at 1 AM answering questions when you can barely think (and not dressed for the occasion).
FYI William Chamberlain in the above photo isn’t the person who rang me! He was one of the participants and probably wondered why I was making no sense.
Waking Up To Snakes
Or waking up to snake photos from my South African work colleague who was excited to share his latest photos; knowing I’m scared of snakes and I would be seeing the images as I wake up once he was asleep.
What Else?
This post is part of the ongoing #EdublogsClub series. Check it out and learn more here.
Hope you enjoyed the quick tour? Was there any thing else you would like to know about what I do?
Sue Waters 
Leave a comment