We feel it's important that we provide the flexibility for people to work wherever they feel productive and happy. Be that in the office, remotely at home, or from a coffee shop. We acknowledge that working remotely can lead to increased productivity, and have positive effects on wellbeing.
There are tradeoffs when choosing between working from the office and from home. Below is some general etiquette for occasional remote work, along with guidelines for working remotely on a regular basis.
- Check and clear any remote work with the rest of your team before the end of the previous working day
- Ensure your absence does not negatively impact the productivity and/or success of other team members
- Once agreed with your team and customers add time off as 'Working from home' in Charlie HR
- Check that you're not needed on-site by a customer or your team
- Ensure you're available for your team ceremonies as normal, and are able to dial in without interruption
- Be a good Slack citizen and check in regularly and visibly with your team throughout the working day in public channels
- Ensure you're clear on your workload for the day or days you wish to work from home and ensure that you won't benefit from working closely with others
- Ensure you're not scheduled for any meetings or sessions
- Barring any extraordinary circumstances, we like people to be in the office on Friday for lunch and Learn Tech
There are some additional considerations when working from home regularly
- Talk to your team ahead of committing yourself to working remotely on a regular basis. Team members on Delivery should check in with the Delivery Lead. Members of business teams should check with their Head of Department.
- Once agreed, put a recurring event in Charlie HR
- We recommend remote working on a recurring basis a maximum of 2 days per week when part of a delivery team to ensure you don't lose context.
- Make sure you choose days that will have the least impact on customers. A larger organisation's time will be less flexible and you'll need to ensure there are clearly set expectations around when showcases will be etc.
- It is also important to ensure that a regular absence doesn't impact the productivity and success of other team members (such as a pairing partner), or interrupt the flow of regular team ceremonies.
Note: For fixed remote working requirements (i.e. I need to work from home every Wednesday) there are additional considerations. We would generally want to try and faciliate this but it is dependant on the types of projects we have at that time. For customer facing roles (tech and delivery) we'll have to communicate this to clients in advance to manage their expectations. In some instances a fixed remote working requirement may not suit a particular engagement which could limit the engagements we can assign to you.
All requests to work from home should be considered in their individual circumstances. The decision ultimately resides with teams, but below are some guidelines around when you may want to refuse a request to work from home
- If the request will clash with and important ceremony with the client or the rest of the team (planning, retros, etc.)
- If there are concerns the remote working will impact upon the productivity or success of the rest of the team
- If there are concerns about productivity from a team member (this should be first addressed with the team member directly, and with their Line Manager if necessary
When remote working, and when onsite with a client, it is important to pay close attention to these security guidelines in addition to your normal security practices:
- If you are in a public place, such as a coffee shop, make sure you are handling any sensitive data responsibly and securely. Can you be overseen? Is your connection secure?
- Ensure any work-related conversations can’t be overheard. If that’s not possible, try to talk in general terms, and without specific details such as names or clients.