Remotely Love by Lori Thorn
Create a Routine
“It takes self-discipline to work from home. Nobody else sets your schedule or even sees it! Creating a daily rhythm or routine will elevate your productivity.”
Present Day…
Hazel crackedher eyes open only the slightest bit to assess the light out of her bedroom window. She was hoping it might still be dark; early enough she could drift back to sleep for a few minutes. However, what she beheld was the soft grey sky of the morning. She relented and opened her eyes fully to check the time. It was two minutes until her alarm would sound. Fair enough.
She stood up from the bed, stretched her arms towards the ceiling, and leaned from side to side. She moved into a shoulder stretch as she walked into the bathroom, pulling one arm across her chest to the other side, swinging her hands out wide, then alternating arms.
Hazel had a morning routine, and she was in it. It wasn’t something she even had to think about, like a list of tasks; these steps were ingrained. She would use the bathroom and catch up with the news on her phone, get dressed, brush her teeth, splash her face with water, comb her hair, take a vitamin, and roll on some aluminum-free deodorant, all in just a few minutes.
Feeling clean, she padded out to the kitchen to begin her usual tasks there. Coffee was her favorite morning treat, so she started it as soon as she reached the kitchen, filling the electric kettle with water, grinding the beans, and emptying them into the French Press. She settled on cereal for the breakfast of the day and ate while the coffee steeped. She cleaned the kitchen, then poured herself a steaming mug of the good stuff. This ritual was the part that made her feel present. She poured half and half into the dark potion and watched as it feathered through the drink like a dance. She dropped a spoon into the cup and stirred, listening as it clanked against the porcelain.
Grabbing her cup and phone, she slid open the door to her small back porch. A dainty table and chair were facing out toward the yard. The rest of the area was covered with an assortment of potted plants, most of which she had cultivated from clipping plants she found on her walks around the neighborhood. The view of the yard felt cut short as it was met with dense trees that were part of a preserved park, but that didn’t bother Hazel. She settled into the chair, savored her first sip of coffee, and started reading the ebook on her phone. The book club she was in was reading a modern-day retelling of Beauty and the Beast this month, and she needed to read through chapter 10 before Thursday evening.
It was difficult to lift herself out of the story, but her alarm had sounded angrily, announcing the need for her to relocate to her office and get the workday started. Here begins the work routine. However, this one does require thoughtful engagement. Hazel had learned the lesson early in her work-from-home career. After six months of staying late, struggling to keep up with things, and becoming so frustrated she nearly quit, she found that making a “rough schedule” was the solution. Her routine needed to be flexible enough to change her schedule quickly but stable enough to provide a usual structure. At this point, she proudly considered herself an expert at being efficient and productive while working remotely. She sometimes even got to help other FutureApp employees who were struggling to adjust to an at-home environment.
The computer booted up, and Hazel logged into the VPN. Dings, chimes, and whistles sounded from various applications announcing their alerts. She verified her meetings in Calendar, volleyed email responses, caught up in Chatter, and started building a retrospective presentation of her latest project within 8 minutes. Her plan would be to finish the first draft of the presentation by the end of the day. She could easily work on it while handling one-off items between meetings, and getting it done early would make Tamra happy.
She had finished the first few slides when her Cal alerted her that the All Comms meeting was starting soon. This was a monthly meeting where the entire Communication team met to discuss the state of the business and anything on the horizon. She minimized her presentation, fetched her water bottle, then logged into the event.
Chatter started chiming frantically. Hazel already knew why. She clicked onto her group chat with her two best work friends.
Frank Simms
What the shit is Dana doing here? 10:00am
Frank Simms
Did we know she was going to be here?! 10:00am
Meg Malloy
Do ya’ll see who is here? 10:00am
Meg Malloy
LOL exactly Frank 10:00am
Hazel Rogers
I don’t think many people knew judging from the SyncUp chat. I sure didn’t. 10:01am
Hazel Rogers
You know what this means… 10:01am
Frank Simms
Something’s up for sure. 10:01am
Hazel Rogers
Get ready to be BUSYYYY! 10:02am
Meg Malloy
I hate to say it but yeah, anytime Dana is here it means we’re in for a ride. Schedule vacation time now. Looking at you Frank. 10:02am
Dana Jessup,the CEO of FutureApp, was in their All Comms meeting. Her presence was a rare event and usually marked a significant change for the company. The Communications teams were disclosed to business shifts early. This was necessary as they were the ones who would plan out the cascade, forums, and tone of the rest of the communications for the entire company, and depending on the topic, stakeholders, and customers.
Dana started to speak, which kept her video feed the center of attention. The room stilled as everyone listened attentively. “Thank you so much for having me here today; it’s always a privilege to be among our Communication gurus. You all represent the strategy and voice that keeps FutureApp strong, and that’s true on multiple levels.” She cleared her throat. “If I can have my slides shared, please?” Within seconds a presentation was on screen. “Thanks for that. As you can see, our customer satisfaction has increased year over year, and our clients continue to come back to us for their App development needs.” People started celebrating in the chat and sending applause emojis. Dana continued, “Yes, you should be very proud of this! If you direct your attention to the chart at the bottom, you’ll also see our brand recognition amongst the general public has increased by 62% this year. That’s above our annual goal, and we’ve seen a marked increase in new customers due to this. We are so grateful to everyone, especially our external communications and marketing teams, for driving our brand recognition!”
Hazel’s Chatter went off again. She assumed it was the group chat commenting, but when she glanced over, it was Sam.
Sam Pierce
I have a surprise for you. 10:16am
Hazel Rogers
Oh really? Well I’m sorry to say I didn’t get you anything, I didn’t know we were doing gifts. It’s your fault, you’ve gotta tell me these things ahead of time. :P 10:17am
Sam was typing back,but Hazel turned her attention back to All Comms. The conversation there had taken a more serious tone. Looking at the new slide, she saw that Employee Satisfaction was lower than last year. It wasn’t a massive decline, but she knew how seriously upper management took even a 1% change there.
Dana explained, “We value your feedback and dove deep to understand the decline here and what we can do to improve. This is why I’m here today. We believe we can make things easier on our employees and continue to increase our brand recognition and customer acquisition with one move.”
Meg Malloy
Here we go…. 10:22am
“I’m so thrilledto announce today that we are retiring ICE. It has served us well over the years, but times have changed, and how we think about supporting our customers has to change with it.”
The meeting chat was now a mixture of questions pouring in and people whooping in celebration. Dana watched the action. “I see your questions and that some of you are already excited.” She smiled. “Your questions will absolutely be answered, but today you’re getting the preview only. Without further ado, I introduce our new support strategy, CARE.”
The slide was updated again with a large colorful CARE in its center. The acronym was spelled out; C for Capture the Vision, A for Align with Goals/Ideas, R for Review, and E for Execute the Plan. Dana continued to read through the slide, but Hazel had seen what she needed to for now and returned to her Chatter, which was exploding.
Meg Malloy
I knew it. 10:23am
Frank Simms
Fuck 10:23am
Frank Simms
I mean WTF was wrong with ICE? EVERYONE LOVED ICE! 10:24am
Frank Simms
Didn’t we just move to ICE a year ago? 10:24am
Hazel Rogers
It seems really similar to ICE to me? Identify the Goal, Capture the Vision, Execute the Plan. It’s only a different order and adding a Review section. What’s the point? 10:25am
Meg Malloy
I guarantee you the point is that CARE is a word we can use in marketing, it’s all warm and fluffy for the customer to snuggle up with at night. 10:25am
Meg Malloy
Nobody wants to snuggle ICE, we used it internally only 10:25am
Hazel Rogers
Damn M, you’re a genius at tying the message together. “Employee satisfaction AND name recognition.” 10:25am
Meg Malloy
Bingo! 10:26am
Frank Simms
I just can’t with more acronym changes. What was it before ICE? Can you remember? The three R’s or something right? 10:26am
Hazel Rogers
Yes LOL, Recognize Realize and Release! How could you forget the Rs?! 10:26am
Meg Malloy
It’s going to be tough to get people on board with this, we’ve got our work cut out for us with messaging. 10:26am
At lunchtime,Hazel closed her computer and went for her usual walk around the neighborhood. She lived in a unique part of town. The housing was older and a little run down, making it affordable, but it was also within walking distance to one of the bustling streets leading into the small city of Crestwood, North Carolina. If she turned left, she would continue into a historic district with large, old houses and maple trees lining the street, which were beautiful all year long. If she turned right, it would lead her to the busy throughroad and her favorite bakery. Today she turned left, influenced by the color change in the maple leaves and wanting to take their sight in.
The slightest tinge of yellow appeared at the tops of the trees. Hazel enjoyed the view as she strode down the sidewalk, but her thoughts about the All Comms meeting and CARE quickly overtook her mind. This was a big adjustment. ICE was the structure nearly every employee at FutureApp relied upon. The customer-facing teams who worked directly with clients used it, as did their coaches, the quality department, and the engineers. It was referenced constantly because everyone was accustomed to it and on board. Sometimes it felt exhausting, all the constant change inside the corporation, and what leadership didn’t seem to understand was any migration like this…. Regardless of the consideration in communications or compelling training pieces, people would not be speaking the same language for a time. That was the hard part. Hazel sighed. Change was inevitable, and she even agreed with something Dana had said today. When times change, methodologies have to change to keep up. But was that the current truth? Frank was right when he said they’d only been using ICE for about a year now.
Her thoughts continued to swirl until she found that her feet had carried her back to her desk. She re-opened her laptop and checked her email and Chatter to ensure she hadn’t missed anything on her walk. Her mail only held a few newsletters that weren’t pertinent to her, Sam had still not replied to her from this morning, but a new message from Tamra appeared, “DM me when you’re back.” She responded right away and received a SyncUp link back from Tamra.
Tamra was in the room when she entered, “Thanks for coming in impromptu.”
“No worries, you know I don’t mind.”
Tamra smiled. “I can still appreciate it! Anyway, I wanted to give you the heads up on a couple things.” Hazel leaned closer toward the computer screen. “Two projects are coming that are important enough I need you alerted now. In my last All Manager meeting, they discussed a pain point. Our retention for remote new hires has dropped while on-site new hires haven’t. What ideas do you have about that?”
Hazel slumped back in her chair and put her hand on her chin. “Well, it’s complicated, right? It’s what I always say- I need more information. I wonder about the hiring profile, and I wonder about what conversations the recruiters are having. Has anything changed within onboarding, or is there a way to better prepare people for working remotely, or a better way for us to support them?”
“Mmmhmm,” Tamra hummed, “I knew you’d have a lot to say about it right away. You’re thinking along the right lines, and you’re not going to like this part, but for now, the project is simply to build a How-To for successfully working from home.”
Hazel’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding? It’s way more complicated than….”
Tamra cut her off, “I know. I told you, you wouldn’t like it. Do you know what I’m thinking?” She tilted her head down and gave Hazel a significant look. “This is something that could, should be taken very seriously by Training. You can make this compelling and then pitch it as a need to them for all the reasons you mentioned. Hiring profile, recruiting, literally the onboarding training. It’s all related.”
Hazel’s hand was back at her mouth, and she directed her eyes upward. Her physical cues were easy to follow, and Tamra knew she was deep in thought. She allowed her the space to consider everything.
After a few seconds, Hazel let out a protracted whistle. She nodded her head, “You’re right. Okay, I will do some research and start drafting. When is it needed by?”
“Okay, so remember I said there were a couple of things?” Tamra grimaced; she shot her dark brown eyes up to the ceiling briefly. “You’ve been tapped for something else, and I don’t have the details because I’m not disclosed for it, but it’s going to be big. I imagine it’s going to take a lot of your bandwidth.” She rushed onward, “And before I forget, you can’t exclusively research, Hazel. Anyone can look up best practices for working remotely. Only you can make this special. It needs to be researched, yes, but it also needs to come from you, your experience, and your knowledge of FutureApp. Make it unique.”
Her eyes narrowed, and Hazel started, “I hear you, but let’s go back to the disclosure project. What is it exactly? Who’s it with? Please tell me it’s not CARE?”
Tamra laughed. “CARE would be a good thing for you. The visibility of that project will be huge… but I really don’t know. It wasn’t even up to me. You’ll find out more soon; I wanted to tell you, so you won’t commit to anything else. Thankfully, the How-To due date is flexible because we aren’t hiring until next season.”
Hazel’s bodywas filled with buzzing after her meeting with Tamra had concluded. She had too much energy and too many unanswered questions coursing through her to focus appropriately. It took her much longer to build her retro deck than it usually would have. A few times, she found she had come to a complete halt and was simply staring somewhere beyond the screen. After working through the final slide, she gave it a brief review. It was not her best work, but she couldn’t apply more focus to it right now. She decided to move around for a bit, hopefully shaking off some of the lingering unease. She started a load of laundry and prepped for the dinner she’d be making later. The Chatter App sounded in the office as she sliced through the Brussels sprouts. Hazel popped a shaved piece of fresh parmesan into her mouth, looking forward to the Cacio e Pepe she’d get to enjoy later, and walked to her desk. Sam had finally replied.
Sam Pierce
You got me there, but I think you’ll owe me one. Can you SyncUp? 4:01pm
He didn’t waitfor a reply before sending the link to his room. Hazel also didn’t reply before clicking to join the room. Sam looked up from his keyboard when she entered, flashing his teeth in a smile, “Sorry I didn’t respond earlier. It’s been busy like you wouldn’t believe… umm, what’s on your shoulder?”
Hazel followed his gaze and looked down at her left shoulder. She plucked off a rogue Brussels sprout leaf, frowning. “Brussels sprout.”
They both laughed. “Send me the recipe for whatever you’re putting together?”
“Sure, but you know I’m impatient. What is the surprise?”
“Nope, first I need an update on whatever is happening in Belle’s Beast.” Sharing the details of the romance books Hazel was reading had become a recurring event between them. She loved it because she could squeal and gush about the exciting things happening without worrying about spoiling anyone.
Hazel cut her eyes but smiled indulgently. “Belle is starting to catch feelings, and I have to say it’s a little creepy because he’s a literal beast, but she’s starting to comment on his broad shoulders.” Hazel couldn’t help but notice Sam’s strong-looking shoulders. Remotely, you only ever saw people from the shoulders up. She had wondered how the rest of him looked plenty of times before. A normal curiosity.
Sam cut in, a wicked grin on his lips, “So what you’re saying is that you’re a furry now?”
Hazel clutched at would-be pearls and put on an over-the-top look of disgust. “Well, I’ve never!”
They both laughed again, but Sam suddenly silenced and because serious. “Are you ready for your surprise?”
Hazel leaned in, and Sam changed his virtual background with a “Tada.” It was the same image she had seen in the All Comms meeting of the rainbow-colored CARE.
“Oh, you got on CARE! That’s exciting, it’s obviously the project right now.”
Sam corrected, “Not quite. We will be working CARE!”
She tried to reconcile the immediate conflicting feelings flooding her. This was a mission that would be difficult. It almost felt doomed. Yet, she would be working with Sam for the first time.
Finding her words, she said, “Wow, okay. Thank you… I don’t know what to say.”
For a single second, Sam’s face appeared shocked, but as he was so great at doing, he quickly returned to a neutral expression. “You don’t seem as excited as I expected you might?”
“No, Sam, I am. I’m so flattered to be part of such a major project. It’s just….” She scrunched her lips together and looked for the words.
Sam prompted, “It’s just….”
“It’s just that, I mean, doesn’t it feel like we cycle through all these acronyms? It’s busy work for us and only annoys the people living it.” To her surprise, Sam smiled.
“This is exactly why I picked you for the team.” Hazel blinked in disbelief as Sam continued, “I knew you would cut through the bullshit and help make this into something meaningful. Imagine if CARE was actually something our people could embrace instead of feeling annoyed by - which I’m sure you’re right about!”
“You picked me for this?”
He nodded emphatically. “Yes. We need skeptics with experience and creativity to do this right.”
She tried to suppress any visible results that her feeling of flattery might betray. “I am so flattered. Sam. Wow. But I have to be honest. I’m not sure how to add that value.”
Sam sat back in his chair and put a hand up. “You don’t have to know yet. I don’t know either, but we need the best thinkers to figure it out together. That’s how I tried to create the team.”
“Tell me more about the logistics. What will my role be? Who else is on the team?”
“I will definitely fill you in, but first, you need to sign the disclosure agreements. I’ll send them over now. You can sign them and then forward the entire thread to HR.”
Hazel signedthe agreements and sent them right away. She and Sam ended up speaking until it was time to go home. She learned a few basic things about the project.
1.She would be working on the internal communication plan for CARE (no surprise there).
2.There were several phases of launching CARE, and they were in charge of Phase 2. Phase 1 was already completed. They would hand off to Phase 3 and Phase 4, which would work simultaneously but focus on different areas. Phase 3 would be the All Employee Training, and Phase 4 would work on external Marketing utilizing CARE.
3.Phase 2 had two goals to accomplish, both lofty. They needed to get FutureApp leadership excited about CARE and ready to use it with their teams. They also needed to identify and update all the existing internal documentation that referred to ICE.
4.Phase 2 would culminate at the Leadership Summit in November, where Sam would be presenting on stage as one of the main events. Attendance would be required for all employees.
5.The core team was shockingly small. Just Sam, Hazel, and a technical writer named Lou, whom Hazel had never met. He was apparently an expert on FutureApp documentation. He would be helping update their Expert Database, where all their How-To articles lived.
Hazel still hada million questions when 5pm rolled around and started by asking why the core team was so small.
It was as if Sam was aware of her timezone, though, because his reply had been, “So we can work efficiently. We will have to take partners, of course. Lou will partner with Quality to update their forms and any other info. We’ll partner with Training to keep them informed and ask their opinions and HR for approvals. Importantly, it’s time for you to log out.” He said the last line almost accusingly. “Brussels sprouts wait for no woman.”
She chuckled, “I don’t mind staying over a few minutes to learn more, besides it’s still 2pm for you!” Sam lived in Oregon.
He shook his head. “I’m afraid we’ll have plenty of late nights to be ready in time for the summit. Don’t start them too soon.”
Sam paused there, and Hazel was about to tell him goodbye when he continued, “You know, if I have to work after hours, I’m glad it’s with you.” Something in his tone made it feel a little awkward, and a slight heat rose to Hazel’s cheeks.
She sang awkwardly, “Best work friends!” and they parted ways.