Thomas Popinel - 17 December, 2018 - 4 ’ read

All about a remote worker.

Collaboration Tools, Remote Work, Sales, Salesforce

This year, when he joined Imagicle family as Channel Sales Executive France, Thomas, 28, started his smart working adventure taking care of the French theatre. Today, from his home-office in Deauville along the Côte Fleurie, he tells us about the implications of his telematic experience...

Where are you working from?

Who has never dreamed of working from anywhere in the world?

This is at the same time one of the reasons, an opportunity and a myth about being a remote worker in a Tech company.

Because of its attractiveness, indeed, this way of working is progressively spreading year after year, although it’s important to stress from the beginning that we are still talking about work, which always requires you to apply your productivity to your team and company.

For anyone who wants to work from home, it all starts with a positive environment and the right tools. In fact, in order not to downgrade the initial user experience and your efficiency, they must be of utmost effectiveness and suitability.

Now, I know that tools are crucial for every kind of job, but when it comes to remote work not having them means incurring in a communicative and sharing distance that will make you feel alone and unmotivated to commit yourself.

And we don’t want this to happen.

In Sales, our first case and contracts’ management tool is Salesforce, a Cloud solution natively designed to be used remotely (office, home, partners building, etc.). This platform allows the whole Sales team to do the same things in the same way, looking at the same interface.

Thereby, all the team members can contribute with equal effectiveness.

The right tools won’t take you to your colleague’s room…but almost!

Anyway, even with the most advanced tools, there is something not even science can do much for: distance.

Whether you like it or not, you should be aware that you won’t be able to shake your colleagues’ hand, and that a moment will come when you’ll miss this kind of things. On the other hand, though, nowadays we have learned how to shorten distances: thanks to collaboration tools such as Cisco Webex, I can work with my teammates from other countries, be they at home, in their office or out with a customer.

Plus, thanks to this kind of tools, phone calls are replaced by video conferences, which sometimes can be an excellent mean to get one-to-one video meetings with different people, turn partners into friends and take a little “virtual coffee break” while sharing information in the fastest way possible.

Indeed, information sharing is the very basis of remote working.

The more efficiently people can communicate and share useful content with you, the easier is for you to feel part of the team.

In order for this to work, any internal communication and exchange process within the company must be natively designed to work remotely.

Imagicle chose to invest in this type of tools, thanks to which I’m able to know what my colleagues know and chat with them about results, projects and issues (even if they’re not assigned to me).

Moreover, such tools are not exclusively useful for those who work from home: they’re also important for those who work in the same office, to quickly exchange documents and data and get immediate feedback from their colleagues.

“Remote” can be a block away from your office.

Sometimes it can be convenient for everyone to work from home.

In fact, most Imagicle employees choose to do it occasionally, even if they live not far from the office.

This is fundamental because – although working from home every day is not the same as doing it twice a month – the experience of an alternative method of collaboration is universally shared throughout the company.

By experiences both options, everyone get to know the benefits and drawbacks of a teleworker. In other words, remote work is rooted in Imagicle family’s culture because everyone understands and respects it.

Imagicle has the “Happy People” mantra in its blood, and that’s reflected on all our interactions.

Of course, the company management must be prepared to support this way of working, and a trusted relationship must be established to reach a compromise: even if he’s not physically next to you, your manager must always be able to make sure that you are working, and, on the other side, he shall not leave you alone.

Successful remote work starts with the right mindset.

Last but not least, remote working requires the right mindset.

It’s true, working from home offer greater flexibility, but you still need to organize your space and time. Personally, I find it crucial to have a dedicated room.

An exclusively working space allows me avoiding distractions (family, TV, etc.) and reduces the surrounding noises: for me those coming from the outside and, for the rest of the house’s occupants, those generated by a French Channel Sales Executive who talks all day long in video meetings.

But having a home office is also important to maintain a good work-life balance. In fact, while working remotely can be a way to organize your life more easily, it can also do the opposite by taking over your personal space and time.

As my colleague Francesco said, nowadays many tech companies are committed to creating a healthy balance between work and life, even if your office is your living room.

A room is a good boundary: when I leave it I turn off my devices and go back home.

Not to mention the traffic: how would you like to avoid spending an hour a day stuck in the car or in the jungle of public transport?

So, enjoy your family and hobbies, sleep in the morning…it’s your choice!

#stayimagicle