Hello and welcome to the Customer Support Leaders Podcast. I'm Charlotte Ward. This week is Throwback Week, so stay tuned for five leaders talking about five different topics from the archives. I'd like to welcome back to the podcast today, Ash Rhodes. Ash, it's lovely to have you back again. The topic for this week is remote work in support. And I know you are a huge advocate of remote work, and I'm sure could fill many a podcast episode, but we're on a tight schedule here. So let's hit the basics.
Ash RhodesAbsolutely. And and before we jump in, I also have every intention of talking about the pitfalls as well, because I don't want to brand remote work as the cure-all for anything. And remote work does not work for all uh organizations or for all people and personality types. With that said, uh I I actually pitched this topic to Charlotte, and I did so with the phrase that offices are germ-ridden disease factories, and I mean it. So I just had to uh get that out there immediately. I have been a remote worker for better part of a decade at this point. Um, before that, I worked at one of those disease-ridden germ factor germ that one of those places.
Charlotte WardUm ridden disease factory.
Ash RhodesThat's it. That's it. Thank you. And I I was I was sick all the time. So when I got the opportunity to go remote, for one thing, I didn't get sick nearly as often. I made sure that I still did things like go outside regularly, saw friends. It improved my life and my health, but it also improved my output. I was able to work on my own schedule. I was I was lucky enough to work for automatic, the people behind WordPress.com and at an early stage in their growth. And so I was able to make my own schedule and do what I wanted. I've kept to remote and I now build departments doing so. Um, and so I'm, as you said, I'm a huge advocate.
Charlotte WardThat's a big advantage of remote work and particularly in certain organizations, as you mentioned with automatic, the ability to set your own schedule and and by extension the flexibility that remote work gives you is a is a really big attraction for this way of working, isn't it?
Ash RhodesKeep in mind that CS is very much, I mean, I don't think I need to tell anybody that we are, unlike most other departments in any company, the code gets shipped whether it's at 2 a.m. or 2 p.m. Like it just doesn't matter. But CS, we mostly have to be online when our customers are online. You're you're extraordinarily lucky if you are working with a company that doesn't have any hour requirements. At those that very early stage, automatic was very flexible with that. You have a doctor's appointment, go to the doctor's appointment, work a couple hours later, or work a couple of extra hours the next day or over the weekend, communicate, because that's another aspect of remote work, is that communication has to be just on top. Like it needs to be top tier, but you communicate with me or communicate with your peers, or ideally both. I just can't make it back from my doctor or whatever. I'm gonna have to take the rest of the day. Cool, we're covering for you. We've got you, ma'am.
Charlotte WardWe might be quite some distance as office workers from our place of work. And therefore, something as simple as needing to take an hour out for a doctor's appointment probably, by extension, means that we have to commute somewhere back nearer to where we live. That means half a day is knocked out for what in reality might be an hour or 45 minutes or less. So given that most of our lives are conducted much closer to home, it does mean that you're much more available just under those circumstances that you don't have to write off significant portions of your day for small things.
Ash RhodesThat means that your vacation time can be spent doing something that you actually enjoy, as opposed to doing the mundanities of life, like picking your kid up from school or something along those lines. Waiting for a delivery. Oh my god, can you imagine having to take time off to wait for a delivery? Whereas I earlier today had my dishwasher fixed and I worked through the entire process. All of that said, like here's the negative parts of it. Some companies think that because you are an off a remote worker, that means you should be working all the time. That's not how it should work. A lot of people forget that uh you should not be doing work when you're at the telly or when you're sitting at your dinner table or when you're in bed. And then there's just some people who should not be working from home by themselves. It is a very, very isolating job. I'm one of those weirdos who has no problems sitting by himself and typing away in utter silence. Like I am totally cool with that. Some people are not cool with that. The first few weeks, it's cool, it's new, it's interesting. Around week five or seven, they're just like, I can't do this anymore. But but then there are some people who they have their very first day of remote and it's a love connection, and they never look back. I myself go through phases wherein my wife is like, you need to take a walk outside, and then you need to go work in a co-working spot because you're you're kind of grumpy and you're getting a little weird. It's good that it's just you, and I'm trying to pretend like I didn't just tell the entire internet that I get weird and grumpy, but it's it it happens to everybody. So remote work just it takes a lot of self-awareness and a lot of work in order to work.
Charlotte WardThe entire internet is listening. You're right.
Ash RhodesOh, great. I appreciate that. Thanks for for reminding me.
Charlotte WardThat's it for today. Go to customersupportleaders.com forward slash eighty three for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.