{"id":161,"date":"2020-04-22T01:27:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T19:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.remotejobs.co.in\/?p=161"},"modified":"2020-04-22T01:29:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T19:59:19","slug":"3-ways-to-manage-conflict-when-you-work-remotely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/3-ways-to-manage-conflict-when-you-work-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways To Manage Conflict When You Work Remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Remote work options have long been a coveted benefit among employees. And it\u2019s no wonder: The 2019 State of Remote Work<\/em><\/a> report by Owl Labs found that remote workers are happier, feel as if they are more trusted by their employers, and are better able to achieve work\/life balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even under the best circumstances, remote work is not without its challenges. A 2017 United Nations report<\/a> found that 41% of telecommuters were stressed since working remotely can lead to longer office hours and an increased overlap of one\u2019s work and personal life. Add new concerns over COVID-19, a struggling economy, homeschooling children, and shaky job security, and remote workers may find themselves mired in fear and anxiety, creating fertile ground for conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you are having a bad day, you might snap at someone, cut a colleague off in the middle of a sentence, or even raise your voice, which is not workplace-appropriate,\u201d says Gina M. Weatherup, founder of Chantilly Mediation and Facilitation, in Virginia. \u201cIt\u2019s really important right now that we treat ourselves with some compassion as well as the people we\u2019re interacting with every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that you\u2019re probably getting a grip on how to work remotely, here are some ways you can deal with conflict in the weeks to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Be meticulous about how and when you communicate<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Remote working is fraught with opportunities for misunderstanding among coworkers. If your manager casually asks you to meet up later when you\u2019re in the office, her calm and informal demeanor might not trigger any concern. But when you get a Slack message from your boss asking to set up a time to chat, the emotionless text leaves much to the imagination. \u201cAnd then you respond \u2018sure,\u2019 and they don\u2019t respond. All this stuff starts playing in your head,\u201d says Michael Pryor, cofounder of productivity app Trello, which was acquired by Atlassian in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 80% of Trello\u2019s employees work remotely at least part-time, so in Pryor\u2019s experience, \u201covercommunicating\u201d is in place to ensure that your tone and messaging are being conveyed correctly. It\u2019s better to add more context and be more careful with language than you might ordinarily be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Leschke-Kahle, vice president of performance acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Co., a consulting firm and division of ADP<\/a>, agrees. Instead of diving right in, use salutations in email and texts. Even if you\u2019re not a fan of emojis, or think they\u2019re silly, they can be useful and effective in adding tone and context, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weatherup advises remote teams to take a moment to review important communications. \u201cYou can never really be 100% certain that whoever you\u2019re communicating with understands fully unless you ask them what you said or what they think you\u2019re asking for,\u201d she explains. Discuss the reasoning behind such recaps, and what could seem condescending becomes a stopgap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Set clear expectations for your team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It takes longer to get things done when working remotely, so Praveen Kanyadi, cofounder and vice president of products at workforce productivity platform SpotCues, is explicit about his 45-member team\u2019s expectations and needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to resolve ambiguities than it would be if we were to interact in person,\u201d he says, so his team holds regular videoconference huddles in the morning, where they discuss the day\u2019s priorities and responsibilities. The entire team observes a common lunch-break time, and they conduct another call around 4 p.m. to evaluate the day\u2019s progress and any issues that need to be addressed. This kind of frequent check-in serves a few purposes: It gives the team face time and doesn\u2019t allow irritations to fester before they are addressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pryor also recommends replicating things that happen when you\u2019re sharing office<\/a> space<\/a> to keep a sense of normalcy. Schedule one-on-ones over Zoom with the teammates that you work with the most so you still simulate lunch conversations and coffee breaks. \u201cContinuing your good rapport remotely makes difficult discussions easier later,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Manage your emotions\u2014and pick up the phone<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Our attitudes and opinions about coworkers can also contribute to remote work conflict, says Mitch Warner, managing partner of the Arbinger Institute, a training and consulting company. \u201cYou can\u2019t hide your mindset or how you see other people,\u201d he says. When coworkers sense that you have negative feelings toward them, you\u2019re facilitating conflict. So work on checking your own preconceptions and treat people as a blank slate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, always assume good intent, Weatherup says. If a coworker isn\u2019t immediately available or says something in an off-putting tone, try not to take it personally. \u201cI can\u2019t overestimate the importance of picking up the phone,\u201d she says. And if tensions are flaring in a public discussion, make it a private one, so the added pressure of curious team members doesn\u2019t make things worse, Pryor adds. When you can meet face-to-face to deal with a difficult colleague<\/a>, one-on-one voice or video communication can work things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, be mindful of people\u2019s feelings. If you\u2019re delivering bad news, try to temper it with something positive. If you\u2019re in a bad mood, hold off on nonessential communication until you have a better handle on your emotions, Leschke-Kahle says. And use your curiosity to keep things cool. \u201cFind out what\u2019s going on. Say, \u2018Gosh, how did we get here?\u2019\u201d suggests Weatherup. \u201cIt opens up a deeper understanding of what the other person is dealing with, how this happened. And then you can figure out the plan to move forward after that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published at Fortune<\/a> & written by Gwen Moran<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>https:\/\/fortune.com\/2020\/04\/06\/remote-work-from-home-tips-tricks-advice-communication\/<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Remote work options have long been a coveted benefit among employees. And it\u2019s no wonder: The 2019 State of Remote Work report by Owl Labs found that remote workers are happier, feel as if they are more trusted by their employers, and are better able to achieve work\/life balance. But even under the best circumstances, remote work is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,9,6,3,7,8,4],"tags":[18,21,22,20,23,16,19,11,14,13,17,12,10,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}