We have a truth bomb for you: the 9-5 office job is dead (sorry, Dolly Parton)! Remote work is the way of the future. Good news though for all our baby digital nomads, we work remotely at Work in Startups (in a variety of different ways) so we’re here to share our wisdom.

Advantages of Remote Working:

You might be asking, “Why should I jump on the remote working bandwagon?” Let us sell you on the merits:

• Productivity – we all know offices can be ironically distracting places. Between the inane Love Island chatter with your deskmates, and comings and goings of the team, sometimes it can be hard to maintain focus. The beauty of remote work is you can choose your workspace and tweak it for maximum productivity.
• Make your own hours – remote work is inherently flexible and lends itself toward nontraditional working hours. So, finish when you’re done rather than at 6pm on the nose! Need to take two hours out of your day for an appointment? Provided you can still make any pre-scheduled meetings or call, just catch up with your work later on when you’re free! And save time on that slog of a commute as well.
• Best person for the job – when you are a flexible workplace you can hire the most qualified person for your role (hopefully sourced on Work in Startups) rather than the best person who can also make it to your office. This is particularly true for London startups where not all the best talent is within an easy commute!
• Promotes Diversity – remote and flexible working is perfect for those with caring or parenting responsibilities which makes it a great option for an equal opportunities workplace.

How we work remotely at Work in Startups

WIS Fun Fact: the Work in Startups team is split between the UK and Greece!

Given this, we’ve had to develop a really tight remote-working system that works for all members of our team. Here’s how we do it:

• Tech and Software – we use cloud-based, remote messaging software to communicate in real time, and a ticketing system for asynchronous project work. We are very thankful for cloud-based productivity software as it allows us to work simultaneously on projects despite the ocean between us – this is a MUST!
• Workload and Organisation – when remotely working as part of a team (like we do) making sure you know what you need to be doing at any point is vital. We have clear goals over a variety of timeframes so we always know what to crack on with, regardless of where we are working!
• Support – the most important way we make remote working work is by encouraging all kinds of remote work: WFH, full remote work and flexible working. Remote is now commonplace! Making us more than just a group of digital nomads – a tribe, if you will!

Tips from one of our remote developers

Chris is one of our lovely developers, who is based in Greece, so is well-versed in everything remote work! Here are some of his top tips:

1. Your Space – “Space is always really important in my opinion. Realistically you are either working from home, a co-working space, or a cafe. Wherever you are: it needs to be a productive and calm place to work”
2. Working from Home – “For those that work-from-home, a good tip is to have a separate space for work only. Something like an office (if it’s possible) because it’s exhausting to stay in the same room all day, even after you finish your ‘shift’! I used to work in my living room which was a big mistake because I was getting easily distracted!”

We are the biggest startup job board in the UK and we have a huge selection of remote working jobs on the site so make sure to check out the board!