Working Remotely – A Week Eight Retrospective

[#1]

Hello once again!  It’s now been two months now since I started these posts.  I’ll be honest that when I started these posts, I had no idea I still be doing them this long.  This week was better than the last, but it still had some challenges.

What went well:

• My Son was in a better mood this week, while he still had times that he wanted to have his mother around, I didn’t have to spend nearly the same amount of time as I did the previous week calming him down because his Mom “went to work” for a couple of hours.
• Atlassian Community Virtual events continue to go well. At the leader of the Waterloo, Ontario, Canada group, I decided to embrace the remote situation and I’ve been hosting weekly virtual sessions.  We have had different guest speakers and we have some really good topics so it has been very enjoyable.
• Exercise has been more consistent! This was the biggest win for me. I don’t like treadmills or the gym.  I prefer to get my exercise playing sports or taking the dogs for an off-leash walk in the woods.  Unfortunately, my preferred methods are unavailable to me.  Watching TV shows on my phone while on the treadmill really helps talk my mind off the monotony of the hamster wheel.

What could have been better:

• As much as this was a better week for my home life, work was extremely difficult. The type of role I perform has me spending time on strategic projects when users don’t need support and assistance with our software development tools or our release process.  This past week was constant interruptions as everyone needed everything and they wanted it right now.
• Coupled with point number one, I also had issues with people not respecting my personal time. If I marked myself as unavailable or someone sent me a message in the evening outside my working hours, this past week seemed to come with the expectation that I would immediately respond regardless of the time.  I’m not an on-call employee, I never have been, so this felt like an invasion of my personal time that was being justified by the fact that everyone is already at home, but that still isn’t ok.

What I will change:

• I’m currently working with my manager to help re-establish personal boundaries with other employees and to get them to recognize that I need to be allowed to leave the office at the end of the day, even if I am just walking downstairs.
• My biggest weakness is the fact that I want to help people, and that can lead me to taking on more work than I’m able to support by myself. I’m learning to tell people no, or at least not right now.

What will stay the same:

• I’m currently booking into the first week of June for virtual Atlassian Community events. I can hardly believe that there are so many partners that are willing/actively looking to speak at events and I’m more than happy to facilitate sharing their knowledge with Atlassian customers.
• Getting more regular exercise I have found boosts my energy levels and helps with my mental state, so I want to keep that up as much as possible.

There are uncertain times we live in.  As I’m writing this article it is currently snowing.  Yes, I live in Canada, but snow at this time of year is unusual for the area I live in.  I hope that you all continue to stay safe and healthy.  If you enjoyed reading this, last weeks article is here.  Stay tuned for next weeks article!

[Tamanna Godara]

Great read @Jimmy Seddon!

[Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_]

There is a constant struggle between the people with good routines and habits and the ones that don't have and respect these boundaries. Good that you are from the persons who drive change and strive for better collaboration within the company!

And I'm always happy to hear that someone is exercising more! :) Keep up the good work and waiting for Week Nine (You can't skip week Nine ;))

[Jimmy Seddon]

I promised a few Community Leaders that I would continue these posts until quarantine has ended +1 week.  The very last article I will post in this series will be a summary collection of all the Retrospectives.  I'll look at where I started good and bad and how that evolved over all the weeks.

[Carrie Billig]

@Jimmy Seddon I understand your weakness - that's mine too! I have a control issue on top of it and there are things I feel I can't pass along to teammates due the thought it may not be completed correctly. Its a re-learning situation for me to start trusting other team members so tasks aren't all on me. Good luck!