It’s Friday afternoon and we are ready to hit the road and start our weekend getaway. Our last Zoom call is here and we are done for the day (or week)! Let the party begin! And all of a sudden, the screen freezes, the voices start to glitch, the internet crashes, and all hell breaks loose. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon… Have you ever been in a situation like this before? Feeling so exhausted with all of these tiresome virtual calls all day long.

Every type of team will encounter hiccups in the workplace from time to time. Whether these disagreements are about team projects or current affairs, the root of the issue can often be found in cultural differences. This is especially true as the world becomes increasingly globalized and teams are made up of members with various life experiences. As a leader and mentor, how can you effectively manage intercultural communication to avoid and work through conflict in the remote workplace?

Having a team chat and collaboration tool as a product we had nothing to fear when we were forced to go fully remote because of the pandemic. Things went on as usual with the exception of having more video conference meetings and virtual lunch breaks with colleagues. We were lucky that the product we work on has become a must have tool for any company literally overnight. However, we cannot say that remote work doesn’t have its challenges.

The pandemic has permanently reshaped the workplace. It made millions of people say goodbye to the rush hour and start working from home. The apps such as Skype, Zoom, Chanty, or Slack made it all possible. We no longer have to be in an office full-time. The truth of the matter is, we proved that working from home can be effectively done in our PJs from the comfort of our sofa. Based on research by the Conference Board, less than 10% worked from home prior to the pandemic.

Low-stress level, no commute, no shoes, PJs only, spending more time with family and friends, and so much more. Sounds neat right? According to some studies, remote work has brought higher productivity and a more positive work-life balance since the beginning of the pandemic. However, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, is it? We have been facing some challenges, to say the least.

The alarm rings on your phone. It’s 7 am. You swipe up to shut the alarm and unlock your phone to check your messages. The first message is from a client in Europe requesting an urgent video conference call for 7:30 am your time. You roll out of bed, freshen up, put on a crisp shirt over your shorts and flip flops, fix yourself a cup of coffee, and you’re ready to roll.

Remote working, working-at-home, telecommuting, and any other similar variations of terms that describe working outside the walls of a traditional office, are getting increased popularity in recent years. Before Covid 19 working from home was a luxury that many of us dreamed of. Seeing pictures of remote workers in some distant places was something that we all wished for (at least I know I did). But let’s be real. Not all that glitters is gold. Working from home has some pitfalls as well.

Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker. Paul Krugman, The Age of Diminishing Expectations There are different definitions when it comes to productivity. Wikipedia would say that “productivity describes various measures of the efficiency of production”.

Don’t work from bed. You want your bed to be a place of peace and calm, not work stress. Liz Grossman Kitoyi The situation we are in right now, the pandemic and our so-called “new normal”, has made some drastic changes to the global work scenario. Many global employers opt for work-from-home to save our economy from a new depression. Little did we know that we’d be facing a slightly different depression. Yes, I know, working from home sounds peachy.

There’s no question that the internet has forever revolutionized the way we communicate. Gone are the days where we’d write letters to relatives to see how they were doing — having to wait days if not weeks to hear back. In fact, many of us don’t even make phone calls or send emails anymore. There are just so many better online options that the digital world has brought us to the point where legacy communication methods have become increasingly obscure year after year.