Zoom. Invite by mistake. Yeah. Oh, good. A one. OK. Uh Let's start. Hey, everyone. Uh Thanks for being here. I also have Libby here who is going to join me together for this talk. Excited to speak. Um I can uh share my screen as I speak.So let me know if you don't see anything and yeah, I'm happy to uh answerable. That's so let's start. OK. Mm I hope everybody can hear me fine and see me fine. Be all good. Thank you. So yeah, so yeah. Uh Today I'm gonna speak about uh a work life balance with remote first culture. So what does it even mean? I mean, it ex it means exactly what is what you see in the picture. I think this was my life when COVID hit and how it was working in general. And I would say like, like a lot of people, I think that was the first time I also started working remote uh remotely, you know, when COVID hit, but it became like uh mm I never expected that this would be the kind of life that I would lead. And also this is something which is going to help me as well. But I would talk more about it as I move. So yeah, let's move to the next slide. Uh So yeah, what, what am I gonna speak about?

I will talk about me a little bit in the beginning and then a little bit about high graph. This is where I'm working at right now and this is also the first remote first company that I started working with. Uh And yeah, it's honestly, you know, a great uh place to work and also like something which introduced remote first work for me. So I would like to highlight a little bit about that and also how we are working. And uh also what helps us work remote. Uh Then I'm introducing Libby as well, who is joining me for this talk because I would want her also to kind of share ideas and tips about how she's doing it in her company at the moment. And then in the fourth side, I'm going to talk about remote first culture. How does that look like uh for us at the moment? And then on the fifth slide, I'm going to talk about time management and tools that we use and something uh which works for me personally as well. And then the sixth slide is about finding the balance. So let's let's go ahead. Uh So yeah, I'm gay. I am a full time working mom.

I and I emphasize on the full time because uh As far as I know from uh women who are mothers, uh most of them, they go back to part time work or maybe they take a break, not because it's their choice but because they have to uh because the work for them, I mean, the environment for them is not helpful enough or uh the work is not flexible enough.

And now that we are like back to, you know, post COVID era, I think a lot of the companies are also moving away from remote work and asking people to come back to office. So this is why I'm saying I have emphasized on the full time uh working mom part and I'm based in Berlin and I have around eight years of work experience and I worked with some technology companies uh in the past. And also um uh and then uh yeah, as I mentioned, I'm currently working with Hir and we are the more first company. And yeah, that's, and I also like joke a lot about like how I have two full time jobs, not just one. And yeah, that's, that's a joke I make every time I talk to anyone, right. So yeah, that's, that's pretty much about me. Um And if I talk about high graph, so high graph is uh a little bit about high graph. The company that I work at right now, high Graph was ordered in 2017 and has a team of around 70 people who are distributed glo globally. Uh We are a B two BS, a company who is building a Federated content platform. And this allows our customers to uh consume data or content from different sources and deliver it to different platforms using a single API, graphical API. Basically, we started out uh being called as CR C MS.

Uh And we started out as a headless C MS company and rebranded in mid mid uh 2022. And uh we have around like half of us are based like globally and not in be and not in Germany. Like we have like around 32 people who are based in Germany or like 24 in Berlin where we have like an office. But apart from that, uh yeah, most of us are like working from different parts of the world. So we have uh basically. So even if uh I would try to like, reiterate a little bit about this part as well because even if people are based in Berlin, they don't have to go to the office every day. Uh I mean, there is no rule or policy around, hey, you have to come to the office once in a day, uh sorry, once in a week or twice in a week. So we don't have anything like that. It's completely up to people how and when they want to come to the office or if they want to come and work in the office because there are also people who come maybe once in a month, you know, or just come to the office to socialize and yeah, uh it's completely up to them, how they want to get their work done.

And yeah, that's pretty much about high graph and uh how it introduced me to remote first culture. Next we have introduction Libby. So, hey, Libby, maybe you can introduce yourself a little bit. Yeah, I'll be brief

because this is really gaggy conversation. I'm here to support and participate and give like another perspective. Um I'm Libby, Libby, Swan, CEO and co-founder of Action where a technology services provider, our passion lies in helping our clients get to A to B with the supportive technology.

We're often a technology partner uh for agencies and or businesses who need the additional skill sets. We're often using C MS systems. Um I will be following up with gaggy about using high graph. Um But we do do a lot of headless C MS uh implementations as well and we do a lot of application uh development. Our team is largely based in India, but we also have presence in the UK and the US and our clients in the U SI split my time across all three environments. So I'm very familiar with the whole remote working scenario and I look forward to this discussion and the insights g he's gonna share with

us. Thank you. Thank you, Libby and I will reach out to you for your inputs once we speak. Thank you. Um So yeah, uh Remote first uh company, right? Remote First Culture. So what does it even mean? Uh if you see this picture, you would see that there's like day kind of light in one picture and there's like evening in one picture and this is exactly what uh remote first working is because, yeah, it's almost like high graph, never sleeps in the week on the weekday because there's somebody who's awake, somebody who's working and there's somebody who's just sleeping and not a big, right?

So, I it's more about, you know, um uh So this is exactly what I said before as well because people work from different uh geography, you know, from us to Philippine. And uh so, yeah, and, and, and how does it even work, you know, uh when somebody is from completely different time zones and how do they interact with each other? And uh how, how, how can you know, any collaboration happen, you know, with uh a setup like this? So this is what I'll be talking about in the next slide. Uh But this is exactly what remote first means. Uh Libby, how, how does it work for you in general in your company? Because I also know that your setup is in a similar one.

Yeah, I think I wouldn't say we're necessarily always on around the clock. I think we remain conscious of our, the time zones, our fellow teammates, um the schedule send option is something I use frequently. Um It's, it's an interesting one, navigating time zones and, and also like, I'm conscious of my role and seniority in the company and how someone might receive an email from me outside of their usual time zone hours. So, um yeah, that's, that's all I have to say on that.

Ok, thank you. Yeah. So what I meant was that, you know, like it never seems because there's somebody in the time zone who's working in the time zone, right? So, yeah, this is exactly what it is. I mean, of course, we also have like one common time zone where, you know, people from different time zones are awake and then they can collaborate and have the meetings. But other than that, we are quite flexible, you know, when people can do them like, you know, personal work and uh versus meetings, right? Meetings are very much limited to, you know, like a time zone where everybody can do it. Uh And you know, and it's comfortable actually having a meeting basically. So that is how we're doing it at the moment. And if I talk about how it works in general, well, I mean, I, I mean, this is the learning that I have had since the two years that I'm at higher because as I said, this is like the first remote, first company and the culture uh that I'm working with, uh, and these are the things with which work for a lot of people.

I mean, I mean, of course, I still have to get better at it but when I do stick to these things, this really works. So the first thing is of course, planning and scheduling in advance. Uh, yeah, planning is always, always important at least once, you know, like just one day ahead. You, you, you, you have to see your schedules and you have to look at your calendar, you have to see like, uh what is important, what should you prioritize on and what is it that you need to work on? And uh also, and, and not just like the professional schedule, I would say, even the personal schedule because that go quite hand in hand. Uh, for me personally, I think, yeah, I need to look at both the things and, um, I, I don't remember like scheduling or planning calendar, uh you know, invites for personal stuff, but I do that right now because it really helps, especially when you're working remote because yeah, somehow the personal and professional life would get, you know, intertwined or it just becomes one for you at some point.

So that's why you need to just plan it and schedule it all the time. Um And the next thing that I, uh that I really believe in and this is something that I have seen working is communication, communication and communication. I'm sure a lot of the tech companies use slack. We also use slack. So, yeah, communication is very important because, yeah, so people can snooze their, uh you know, communication or slack button at the moment. But it's just that, you know, you kind of, at least, you know, when you have something to say, you have to just put it there and, or, or at least when you're, uh, or at least when you know that there's someone in a different time zone and uh they shouldn't be disturbed now. So you can just do a send later at their own time zone so that they get it later, right? So, I mean, there are so many good techniques how you can communicate. Uh But what is important you do that and automation is also a great thing. So in slack, you can also put like remind me later, which I do quite a lot because I know that I'm not going to look into it, but I know that this is important and I would put it to remind me later and then I would just go through it when I have time uh and task management tools as well.

Like there are various task management tools as well, which you can integrate into your slack, you know, and then just create uh this ta task reminder and then work on it. So yeah, this is something that has worked for me. Uh The next thing that I show here is timers and reminders, you know. So yeah, just create like tasks and create reminders. Create as many reminders uh possible for you. Create it in Google uh in Google or created in Slack. Uh I think it really helps and also blocking time for like uh one task that also helps because you know, that you need to get this done uh on that particular day and not keep it till later, right? Otherwise, um, it just gets lost somewhere and, uh, reminders not just for your professional work but also for breaks or also for, I don't know, to drink water. Sometimes that is also needed or, or just to kind of, yeah, I don't know, just go eat your lunch, you know, or go for a walk. I know a lot of people do that they go for running and so this is uh something that is really important, uh, snooze notifications. Um Yeah, this is something that I have learned over time as well like snoozing notifications.

I do that quite a lot when I really am focusing on something. And, um, yeah, I would just get back to people later and not have anyone like come up to me uh during this time and also when you have slack and like this constant communication all the time, you would be very much, you know, uh interested to see what's going on. Uh But yeah, if you snooze this, then it's just out of your inbox and it's not just for like, uh, a slack notification or workwise, but also, personally, I think it helps when you snooze notifications and, uh, just not look into the stuff all the time. But yeah, just have a blocker just to look at these notifications and then work on the ones which is important. Uh, the next thing that I have shown here is just say no, I mean, it's exactly what it says here. Just say no. Right. I mean, uh I think it's also difficult, I don't know about others, but for me, I feel that sometimes it's difficult for me to say no. And it's very important to actually say no that hey, you know what, like uh I can't do this at the moment or like let's park it later or let's just do it after two days or like, you know, it's uh I have something more uh uh which is more priority and like just explain people why it's not important at the moment.

Because if you don't say that that's also a problem. I think you need to communicate why that's not a priority and uh say no. So that is something that we need to do as well. And uh yeah, and the last part is announce and inform. Yeah, that's a big speaker there. I think as I said earlier, we have to like announce and inform about all the things all the time and in different channels. So that, you know, people do know what's going on because you're not sitting in an office. So you wouldn't like just talk to each other and you just wouldn't know what's going on. So you need to like this. A sync, communication is really important. You know, as I mentioned earlier, like in Slack, just message send later or um you know, just like, uh share your schedule or share your, uh the, the task that you're doing and that really helps. Yeah. So that was my two cents on time management and the tools that we can use. Uh Yeah. What are your thoughts on this, Libby? No, it's

awesome. Um I, yeah, I, you touched upon all the things that I think need to be touched upon in. Yeah, I think the number one thing is the, the only thing you can really control is yourself. Um And so I think, yeah, the time management and tools that one sets up for themselves is super critical. I think sometimes people underestimate the discipline required to do remote work. Um I often, you know, we often even internally, sometimes some people transition to remote work and I think they underestimate the discipline required in order to set up one's day and the tools and the turning off and the turning on of the various tools required. And then also just um personally speaking, operating amongst three different time zones myself. I have to have discipline in adapting to those three time zones and yeah, discipline, self discipline is key and self control because that's the only thing you can really control.

Um I'm, I'm big with you on the announcement inform and I think we'll be touching upon that when we spoke in the next, in the next session as well. Yeah,

yeah, 100%. Thank you. Thank you for your uh sharing your thoughts to be uh the next slide I have is about finding the balance, right? So, uh so um II I think that uh finding a balance is a very personal thing and there is no one rule or one formula for finding balance, right? So you cannot just say that, you know, uh i it's a very personal thing like there, there can be someone who works from, I don't know like 9 to 6 and would say, ok, I, you know what, I'm not gonna look at my phone or my notifications or my email at all. Uh for me what personally works because of course, because I'm a mom. So I would like start early um leave early and then maybe look into emails and check few things, you know, later in the evening or in the night, right? Uh But yes, of course, I have to be mindful not to kind of message people also in the night if they're not working. But as I mentioned, like send later is what it, what works. So yeah, finding the balance is a, is a, is a very personal things but what we, uh, what we need to do is take breaks in between, uh, it can be for a run, you know, you can go for a run or you can just, uh, do some, I don't know, just play video games for all I know or, or I, I don't know, just sleep and I know people who also take a nap in between their work and that really helps like a power nap.

So I think breaks are really important, you know, also for lunch also for a walk. Uh Yeah, me, I'm not a big, I, I'm not a big taking break in between what kind of a person. But yeah, I have to like put blockers just to remind myself, but that's really important because you feel refreshed after some point, you know, when you take a break and uh what the, the slide about, OK, is that it's ok if you don't get things done uh on the same day because um, I know that uh when we work from home sometimes you feel that um you're not doing enough only because you're not going to the office, you know, and that's a feeling which is there in remote work that OK.

But uh but if you just write down things or if you just, you know, create a checklist and pick those things you would read. I said, OK, actually I did a lot of things and it's ok if I couldn't get it done today, but maybe I can work on it tomorrow and create a new checklist for the tomorrow, right? So that's why I have mentioned that it's ok to kind of uh you know, like uh if you're not completing everything today and if things are not urgent, then you can just like keep it to the next day and the last one is just breathe. There was a time when I started like with remote work. Uh uh in the beginning, I used to have this uh slack board uh which would just remind me to breathe. Uh and I don't need that anymore because I do that as such. Uh But yeah, I think yeah, just breathing is really important, you know, because sometimes you are so much into work that you also forget to breathe uh or just like deep breaths and yeah, that really helps. So yeah, that's uh that's my take on how to, how we can find the balance.

Mm Yeah, I, I don't know if maybe you have something to add here as

well. I, I'm not conscious of how much time you have left so I probably will hold back.

Yeah, it's uh we have like 10 more minutes because it's like a 30 30 minute uh like 30 minute session. So yeah.

Yeah. No, I just said, like I said, self-discipline before and I do really think remote work requires one to be so much more self discipline because no longer the workforce no longer the workplace is holding that discipline for you. So now you're taking that on, but as you become more self discipline, you need to give yourself a lot of grace and that's what I think like breathing. Um Yeah, in taking breaks. Um I, I call that grace because, you know, self discipline can then drive a lot of self judgmental thoughts. So this is honestly very helpful for me. Um This is a, you know, a very kind of uh it's, it's, you know, it's a me it can be a mental health. Um Yeah, uh challenge, right? So I think, yeah, grace and breathing and taking breaks is really helpful.

Thank you. Uh Yeah, that was the slide that I had. So I will stop sharing that and I would now check the chat or if anyone has any questions. Uh Yeah, we are happy to take them.

I think it would be really useful to see in the chat. Like out of everything that gaggy touched upon like what are some of the things that resonated the most or people related to the most? If people probably wouldn't mind just sharing that in the chat that would be really helpful for everyone to see.

Yeah, I, I see that you, I mentioned that you're big, big of a fan of taking breaks, move sleep or who for a drink? Nice. I see tests. She likes to take walks. That's nice. Yes, I see. Uh, Zing, who is said to share? That's so true. Thanks for sharing time management and taking breaks. Yes. That's amazing. Yeah, let's see. Taking breaks and communicating about when you're available. Yes. 100%. Yeah, I think that's really important to say people when you are available. Exactly.

Um, Tael is Tael Tael, sorry if I mispronounced your name? Tenille has a question, gaggy. Her question is, um, on ways to create prioritized checklist, I have a tendency to just wanna do

everything. Um Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question, Tany. Um The, yeah, I mean, this is a problem that I go through and I think a lot of people go through for, for me personally, I think I just know, uh, what is priority, um, work wise because, you know, there are deadlines for a few things and if I don't do that then that, that's just over, right?

And, uh, the things don't get done like a payroll, let's say or, or like, you know, uh, like an invoice payment or something like that. So for that, I really have to like set reminders in, in, uh Google calendars. That's what I do always creating the reminders. So that helps me, uh, but when it comes to like personal versus professional, then of course, I would, you know, for example, I would prioritize the personal thing, uh, to start with like if it's about picking my daughter from the kindergarten or something like that. Then I would prioritize more that more. Of

course. II I wanna add to that to Neil. Um, and got me, uh, yeah, I, I'm a bit of that way. I like to do everything but, uh, I'm gonna just, I don't know if this is gonna come up but, um, ok. No, it's not gonna come up because I have a blur on. Yeah, but I have, I have long lists and short lists. So I'll have like my long dump list and then on the day it's, I'll like write my top three priorities out of that long list. So I don't get to. So in many ways, I have two lists and I like to write versus do it with computer tools, some tools. I think it's really tilda finding about what works for you and experimenting. That's what's worked for me over the years. I experiment morph a little bit. There's a great book out there called Getting Things Done. And it has like a visual chart for really answering your question to Neil. Um It's the book, getting things done and I can't remember the author. But um it's a book called Getting Things Done, but it might help you there. Um Tess had a great question also. Oh, there are a few questions now in Yeah. Um Tess had a great question as a team lead. How do you manage the different personalities? G

thank you, Tess is from my team. So, yeah. Uh how do you manage different personalities? Um Yeah, that's a, that's a very, very interesting questions. I think you just, uh, we just have to be mindful about the different personalities and what they need and what I do is I constantly ask them, uh, uh, I, I remember asking you as well. Tess, like when, when we had our first chat or like one on one, I was like, how do you want to be managed? You know, like, like what is, what is your idea or what do you need from me as a manager? Right? Because not, not everybody is the same. There is someone who would need, I don't know, more, uh more input about how to get things done or about prioritizing things. There are some people who do not want that. So I think it's important to talk to people and understand what they want versus you actually just, I don't know, just giving them things to be done, right? So, yeah, I don't know if that answers your question. Tess.

I, I think again, like it comes down to the only thing you can control is yourself. Um, and then learning what that means in an environment with so many different personalities.

Exactly. You have

so many different things coming at you that really test your ability to adapt. It's really hard. Um It's not an easy challenge at all. Um uh t you're saying we have questions in the Q and A tab. Sorry. Are we missing things? Do you, um,

um, do you have any strategies for dealing with, uh, mentally draining meetings? Usually multiple ones all packed together? Oh, yeah, that's a tough one. yeah, strategy. Um, I don't know about a strategy but, uh, but when I do have a lot of meetings, I would just not work on anything important after those meetings get over, I would just pack up, go home and I don't know, like take a very long break and just look into the other things much later because I think after I'm mentally drained, I just cannot look into anything, you know, and it's a very, it's a very normal thing to be, right?

So, uh yeah, I would just take a break, take a longer break. I don't know, sleep and look through the important things the next day because I me personally if I look at into any important things, right? Of the meeting, it just doesn't register with me, you know. So I think that's really important.

Yeah, I'm not seeing the Q and A tab. But yeah. Um I really like that question. I really like that question that Diana just highlighted from Jennifer. Uh Which one I, I have, I get, I get triggered by that question because that's, that's a really tough one for me having grown up. Like, I mean, I think there's this group of people that have never seen the prepa remote work life also. And then there was this group of people that has, um, and I'm obviously biased towards the, uh, you know, the experience I had of like being in, in the office with people and how that builds relationships. I'm like, I know at least with our office, I'm big in like driving, team events, team lunches getting people in. Um, at least we have a policy where we get people in at least two days a week. So we're not a remote first. So I'm really curious, doggy, how to, how do you do it at high graph? How do you especially, um Jennifer said, how do you ensure that the relationships between people don't become transactional?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, with remote first culture, it does. But then for us it's easier for people who are in Berlin. It becomes easier because we do talk, we do go out for lunches. But otherwise what we do as a team and this is something that I have seen is that uh we always ask about what did you do on weekend? Like, genuinely we talk about uh what did we do on weekends and, and about, you know, uh the personal things and not just work related stuff when we start a meeting and sometimes we actually talk a lot about personal stuff, then the work related stuff and that actually helps, you know, and then everything, the work rated stuff becomes very easy because then we OK, we don't need much time to talk about that.

It just, you know, because I think uh the stress is kind of taken away uh when, when you know, we share because we are human after all and we want that community feeling. So yeah, we do that. Yeah, non work and non transactional conversations. Like, you know, when I say personal things, it's more like not related to work like, yeah, you know, it could be stuff like this

where people can talk about things. We actually set up something called our share learn apply sessions, which we do every two weeks. And then someone within the organization takes on a topic and it tends to requires in order to have those non transactional um conversations, it requires you saying no and it requires you pushing back. It requires again, a lot of self-discipline and a lot of ones being confident enough to create the space to do those things and say no on things that might be eating up their space. So and that's, it's hard. I think the with depending on how experienced you are in the workplace, right? If you have uh less amount of experience, you're gonna be more cautious about asking for the things you want and need and pushing back and saying no. So it's, it is a bit of a minefield I think.

Yes, that's, that's true. I mean, I I also see a very, a very interesting question from someone anonymous. How do you stop thinking about work when you are having free time? I think I haven't mastered this yet. I mean, uh to be honest, I haven't Libby. If you have done that, please feel free to answer this question.

I think it's again coming down to grace for yourself. It's like if you're doing it, like, and then there's something in Buddhist Buddhism called the double arrow, which is OK. First you're giving it the first arrow you're giving yourself is thinking about work during downtime and then you're getting judgmental on top of that for thinking about work during downtime

that arrow. Why am I thinking about it? Right? So at least

get rid of the second arrow, which is like, have grace on yourself and don't get so judgmental about yourself for thought and, and, and also work can be something pleasurable for people like I've had, I look, I have therapy so I'm lucky and privileged enough to be able to engage in therapy.

And I've had my therapist like, help me understand that work is something I enjoy. And that's OK. A lot of people I think say, oh, you shouldn't be thinking about work or doing work outside of work, but maybe for maybe for you and some people it's OK. It's really dependent on what is your relationship with work. So I just, yeah, avoid the second arrow. Um be great. Have grace with yourself and recognize, like, what is your own personal relationship to work and it can be whatever you define it to be. It doesn't have to be what the zeitgeist says. It should be.

Exactly. Exactly. Um Yeah, there's another question. What's a good strategy to cope with stressful jobs? Yeah, I think the, I think a good strategy is, um I is basically, you know, everything that we talked about, uh you know, before, like, just to like taking breaks and like, like not thinking about work, there's so many things that you can actually implement because, uh, I mean, you can think a job is stressful as much as you take the stress, right?

So, I think, uh as Libby said as well, it's all about self discipline. It's a lot about self as well that, uh you are aware of what is giving you stress and you are aware of what is not giving you stress. So the things that are giving you stress, maybe you have to like, think about like how you can work on those things and how, uh when and how you can schedule those kind of parts of the jobs that, that, you know, like, I, I don't know, like in the morning, maybe doing some parts of the job in the morning when, when there's less distraction and then keeping some of the other things, you know, to kind of other part of the day.

So I think it's all about like prioritizing and also about, you know, checking how you can get things done and how, and, and, and basically keep all the stressful, stressful stuff in the morning and not towards the end of the day so that your whole day is not like stressful as well.

Yeah,

I, I'm with you there uh creating space within the day. But I think sometimes things get stressful when they get out of control and then they get out of control. I think often because we're not comfortable with conflict management and we're often not comfortable with conflict management based on how we were raised in our education and background. So I think one thing you can do for yourself is, is look into how well you deal with conflict management.

And do you have the skills and have you either gone out to get those skills with respect to conflict management? So conflict management does involve saying things like no and then dealing with the outcomes of saying things like no. And I think again, a lot of people just not comfortable with that and hence they get into stressful situations because they haven't been able to, they've been fearful of something like saying no and then something becoming a conflict. Um So yeah. Um,

um, I also see a question from, mm how do you deal with days of low motivation? Because I have those as I also work from home. Uh Do I, is it like, do you work from home permanently or I, I believe so. I, I think you work from home permanently, right? Uh I mean, it's a very subjective thing uh when you, you know, when you feel low because of, uh, or, or you feel low in motivation, is it because, uh you're not getting things done or is it because of pressure? But all in all, I would definitely recommend therapy because I have also done this, you know, um in the past and, and um sometimes it's you alone mot motivate more motivation because you think that you're not getting things done. So taking a break is really important, right?

And, and doing things that you like and just stopping and uh thinking about things again because um I have seen personally that I get stuck on things uh and I'm not able to do that thing for a long time and I'm thinking about it again and again, but I would just take a break and look into it the next day and somehow the solution magically comes to me.

I mean, it's not magic, right? It's just that your mind is decluttered and you do uh see those simple solutions. So I think you should just take this break and, and work on things later. And yeah, if you're feeling demotivated because you're not getting something done or you're not finding an answer, I think just go away from it, step back and then come to it again.

I call it, sleeping on it. Sometimes I call it sleeping on it for a night, sleeping on it for two nights, three

nights. Like,

yes, like some just you wake up and you're like, am I ready? And if there's friction, no, you're not to sleep on it another night, right? Like sleeping on it is a good strategy. Um, I really like uh Sandra's question because I think it's a tough one. So I'd love to hear your answer on this. G um the remote work can be quantified by number of tasks done or in the quantity of hours or what is the metric. So, in what way I'm interested in hearing in what way does high graph um measure and, or ensure people are getting things done and how are they monitoring that?

Yeah. So um I mean, for us, we know like if it's product and the engineering team, then they have like the product life cycle, right? So they know that they have to get few things delivered, right? And for different things, uh you know, for all the different teams, uh also it's uh it's uh it's just uh you know, you know, for us, for example, we know we have to hire a few people or, or we know that, you know, we have the specific numbers that we're looking into. So, but at the end of the day, it's not about hours, of course, in the contract, we have eight hours per day. But, uh, uh, and it's, uh, definitely about how you get things done and how flexible, uh, you are. Right. So, we do not actually monitor, um, how many hours someone is working in a day. Right. Uh, as long as things are getting done and it's completely up to you. There are times when people would, um, I don't know, work for, uh, five hours a day and then have a doctor's appointment or they are like finishing something later in the week. It's completely up to you how you do it. And um yeah, and I, I for us uh as employees, what I see in my company is that people would block even the personal stuff in the calendar, you know, taking the dog for a walk or um going for a walk or a doctor's appointment, we would just block it and uh this is for everybody to see it's quite open.

I mean, people can choose to write it or not or they would just put like a personal blocker so that everybody knows that they are out and they would uh snooze and they would just say that I'm out of office so that everybody knows that they are not available at the moment. Uh But yeah, but monitoring, I think it's all up to like communication, right? Like there's no something called as monitoring, monitoring. But yeah, it's all about communication and who's working on what and how do we get things done and what is priority and what's not priority.

So that is exactly how we do it. I don't know if this answers your question, Sandra, but let us know.

I think, I think as a product company, it probably is a little bit easier to see that we're a services company, it becomes a little harder. Um, we do have our sheets and we compare them to estimates and what have you. It's always a bit of a freak conversation but I think it's still a an I still, I think out of friction sometimes good things and good conversations and good reflections and good retrospectives can happen. Um I don't think it's a perfect system. No, but um yeah,

yeah, I mean, I mean, to be honest, we are still learning and working on these things, right? We are growing at the moment. So yeah, this is still something that we are. Yeah, investigating and

working on. Yeah, I think for any business it's measured at the end of the day by the business' numbers and whether or not you're hitting your revenue goals and your margin goals, at least that is for us. And so if we're not, that becomes more questioned if we are, maybe there's a little bit of pressure taken off those conversations.

Exactly. Yeah. Um I, I do see a question. How do you deal with perfectionist personalities at work? Um Yeah. Um Yeah, that's a very good question. I, I'm a perfectionist. I, I used to be a perfectionist before I had a kid, to be honest, you know, like I, I kind of lost this thing and in a good way, actually, but you are a perfectionist still, right? So maybe you can.

Yeah. And I saw like, I, I've learned to embrace that as well in some ways. Like it is what it is. I fought it for a while. Like there was a movie on Netflix called um Stutz, which is about some Hollywood actor and his relationship with his therapist. And this guy Stutz goes into one something called the shadow self. And I believe my shadow self is my workaholic and perfectionist and rather than reject it, I'm like, I'm on this path to embracing it, right? But then in terms of the question is about, well, how does someone work with someone like me? Um Yeah, I think it's pushing back and saying no in, in polite ways as much as possible and, or asking how much level of is, is asking, I guess in polite ways is not necessarily easy. Is that much attention really needed here? Because it in many tasks and situations, a certain level of perfection is not needed. It's not gonna have like if we spend x more hours on something, is it, what is it gonna have x more results? And if the answer is no, then why? Um Yeah, I think it's a generational thing as well. And Yeah, I think, look, um there are A I tools now which enable us all to be somewhat perfect.

Um

I'm loving. So I'm like, oh, I'll just give us this to the A I tool chat GPT or bar and they can figure out how to say it better than I can. So I'm like, if you have tools to help you improve something that you may be knowing you need improvement on, then use them. So yeah, I didn't think that really gives a clear answer. But um but look, we're all dealing with some affliction of some sort and I think perfectionism is affliction.

So, yeah, yeah. As long as it works, right? I mean, yeah, as long as you're not stressed about it and as long as you don't take it to your head, I think everything works. Um Working from home uh There's some, there's a question by a working from home. I find it difficult to get help when there is issues. Um uh OK. So uh I don't know what the exact reason is, but if um I think what would have, I don't, I don't even know which time zone you're working from. But if you do have someone, you know, from the same time zone uh or uh that could help or documentation could definitely help, you know, if you are in a company where documentation is not promoted, I think. Uh Yeah, that is something that you can look into I think

also, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but also I think also thinking ahead, uh pecky about the things that could potentially go wrong and in planning for that in advance. Um Yeah, a planning in advance for potentially things that could go wrong and then if something does go wrong that you didn't potentially foresee, then that's just it is what it is. You just have to kind of, you kind of have to wait.

Uh Exactly. Yeah, I mean, if it's like a burning thing, yeah, what I've seen is like documentation, I think it gets filled up over time. So yeah, this is something that I have experienced as well that you know, um Yeah, or just ask if you don't know how to deal with it, you can always say like no uh uh you would look into it or, or you will just get back to it, right. So yeah,

we have a channel at in the office on our slack could help. Oh no, that's great. So I think, I think it's really helpful to have a help channel. Um Yeah.

Um I think that's uh that's it. That's all the questions that we had. Is there something else that I'm missing? Um um I don't think so. Ok, I think that was it. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks a lot for being here and thank you for asking all those questions. I hope or we hope that we answered your questions. Uh but otherwise, uh feel free to reach out to me or to anyone from my team or also Libby in linkedin. And then yeah, we would be happy to answer your questions. And me and Libby have another session actually at 7:30 p.m. ce T uh they are like le let's just say that we are continuing this topic or like some of the topics from here and then we are talking about a lot of different, other different topics. So yeah, we will be happy if you're there again. Yeah, and thank you. Thank you Libby for being here and yeah, see you soon. Thanks. Bye bye bye

bye everyone.

Um ok, just so. Yeah, I just end the Yeah. Oh, ok.

Um, how did that go from your perspective?

Oh, wait ii I think we still have people here. 00, it's ok.

Huh? May maybe.

Uh yeah, let's have a look.

Yeah. Cheers. Bye bye.