Spoiler alert: yes, remote work really does work! With nearly nine years of experience as a remote employee across three different companies, Lauren knows the ups and downs of remote work. In this session, Lauren will dive into what the research says about remote work and share her personal stories of failures and successes. You'll walk away from this session knowing why remote work is awesome, empowered to convince your boss to let you work remotely, and armed with the tools you need to be a happy, successful remote employee. If you've been thinking about making the transition to working remotely, you're a manager of people who are or could work remotely, or you've made the leap to remote work and are struggling to make it work, this is the session for you!

1. Does
remote work
really work?
@Lauren_Schaefer

2. Think about a time
you were fabulously
productive.

6. Open offices spaces can be
THE WORST.

7. Cubeland can be
THE
WORST.

8. Working remotely can be
THE WORST.

10. Does
remote work
really work?
@Lauren_Schaefer

11. My Story

16. Will you let me work from home?
Check yes or no.
Yes
No
✓

18. Cubeland can be
THE
WORST.

20. Working remotely can be
THE WORST.

21. Working remotely can be
THE BEST.

22. Why do you want to
work remotely?

23. Why work remotely?
● Unable to relocate due to spouse’s job or kids’ school
● Lengthy commutes
● Availability for children or aging parents
● Distracting office environments
● Travel the world

24. Why do employers offer
remote work options?

25. Why offer remote work options?
● Attract and retain top talent--no matter where they live
● Increase employee morale
● Save money!
○ Smaller/no office space
○ No relocation costs for new employees
● Increase employee productivity
○ Fewer sick days
○ Shorter breaks
○ Fewer distractions

26. What does the research say?

27. Where do developers want to work?1

28. How often do developers work remotely?1

29. Greatest challenge to productivity1

30. 2014 scientific study2

31. 13%
performance increase in work from home employees2

32. work satisfaction
in work from home employees2

33. 50%
reduction in attrition rate
in work from home employees2

34. 50%
reduction in promotion rate conditional on performance
for work from home employees2

35. 22%
performance increase after allowing employees to choose where to work2

36. 2009 Cisco Teleworker Survey3
Black this time, a nice change by Gary Denham, Creative Commons

37. productivity, work-life flexibility, and job satisfaction3

38. $277 million
savings in productivity from teleworking3

39. 47,320 metric tons
of greenhouse gas emissions not released in 1 year due to teleworking3

40. Summary of 46
studies
spanning 20
years4
“Telecommuting has a clear upside:
small but favorable effects on
perceived autonomy, work– family
conflict, job satisfaction,
performance, turnover intent, and
stress. Contrary to expectations in
both academic and practitioner
literatures, telecommuting also has
no straightforward, damaging
effects on the quality of workplace
relationships or perceived career
prospects.“

41. Downsides to working remotely
● “Professional isolation negatively impacts job performance”5
● Having a remote manager may negatively impact you7
● Remote employees fear stalling careers, isolation, distractions, and blurred lines
between work and home life6
● Remote work encourages employees to “overwork and to allow their work to
infringe on their family role”8

42. Does remote
work really
work?

43. Does remote
work really
work?
YES!

44. Remote work works for…
The employee.
The company.
The environment.

45. How to convince your boss
to let you work remotely

46. Propose an
experiment9
IMG_9425-001 by Oleg., Creative Commons

47. But what about collaboration
and water-cooler conversations?
The Lunchroom by Sonny Abesamis, Creative Commons

48. When all else fails,
talk about the bottom line.
Money by Keith Cooper, Creative Commons

49. How to succeed at
working remotely

52. 5. Join the right team
World Map by shaireproductions.com, Creative Commons

53. 4. Be productive

54. 3. Communicate with your team
all eyes on the docent by michael davis-burchat, Creative Commons

55. 2. Travel
Airplane by Sean MacEntee, Creative Commons

56. 1. Actively prevent burnout
40+234 Work! by bark, Creative Commons

57. Top 5 tips for making remote work
really work
5. Select the right team
4. Be productive
3. Communicate with your team
2. Travel
1. Actively prevent burnout

58. Does remote
work really
work?

59. Working remotely can be
THE WORST.

61. Working remotely can be
THE BEST.

63. Does remote
work really
work?
YES!

64. Remote work works for…
The employee.
The company.
The environment.

65. Telle Whitney
Former CEO and President
The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
"If I could change
anything, it would be
that each and every
one of you would ask
for what she wants."

66. Remote work
really works!
Advocate for yourself and
advocate for others.

67. Remote work
really works!
Get the slides on my Twitter page:
@Lauren_Schaefer
Find me at the MongoDB booth after
this talk!Advocate for yourself and
advocate for others.

68. Appendix

69. References
1. 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
2. Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment
3. Cisco Study Finds Telecommuting Significantly Increases Employee
Productivity, Work-Life Flexibility and Job Satisfaction
4. The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown About Telecommuting: Meta-Analysis of
Psychological Mediators and Individual Consequences
5. The impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and
turnover intentions: does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or
having access to communication-enhancing technology matter?

70. References
6. The Evolving Nature of Working at Home
7. Does it matter where your manager works? Comparing managerial work mode
(traditional, telework, virtual) across subordinate work experiences and
outcomes
8. Toward Understanding Remote Workers’ Management of Work–Family
Boundaries: The Complexity of Workplace Embeddedness
9. REMOTE: Office Not Required

71. Other studies & articles
● Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort,
well‐being and work‐life balance
● Contagious Offsite Work and the Lonely Office: The Unintended Consequences
of Distributed Work
● Team dynamics in virtual, partially distributed teams: Optimal role fulfillment
● Comparing telework locations and traditional work arrangements. Differences
in work-life balance support, job satisfaction, and inclusion
● How To Succeed At Working From Home
● Implementing & Managing a Telework Program. A Complete Guide to Properly
Managing Telework Employees
● Putting the work-life interface into a temporal context: an empirical study of
work-life balance by life stage and the consequences of homeworking

72. Other videos
● Nora Denzel Keynote Speech - Grace Hopper Celebration 2012