By: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

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This book was written as a manifesto about remote work long before the pandemic of 2020 forced it on most of the working population.

Basecamp, the company behind the project management software Basecamp, and now the email service Hey, have been working remotely since their company was formed.

Prior to 2020, they had an office in Chicago, although most of their employees were distributed around the world, and those in Chicago could come and go as they pleased.

As the pandemic took hold, they made the transition to 100% remote work, and are now 100% office free.

As we start to transition back into whatever our new normal is going to look like, remote work will be remain a part of our lives, and so we must learn how to do it well.

Join us as we explore how one of the world's most successful small companies manages to work remotely, and make it work...both for the company, and for their employees.

The time is right for remote work

There are a number of reasons why the time is right to consider remote work.

Your best work doesn't happen in small fragments

The office has always been the last place people want to be to get actual work done. That's because offices are the world's best interruption factories, slicing and dicing your time down into small fragments, and then interrupting what's left with ad hoc requests.

Any type of work that matters requires extended periods of uninterrupted time. Creative work, strategic work, planning work, all require time and space to get "into the flow." If your sleep was interrupted every 15 minutes or half an hour, you'd wake up feeling exhausted. Your best work is like that - not very good when you can only get it in fragments.

People are wasting their lives away commuting

This is one of those things that we rarely think about, but has a huge impact on productivity and well being. If your commute is 45 minutes each way, you are spending almost 400 hours of every year commuting. That's 10 full weeks of work hours, just going back and forth from the office. Not to mention the money you spend for the privilege.

Most work doesn't need to be done from 9-5

One of the largest benefits our advances in technology has granted us (aside from work that truly requires people to be in person to get the work done, like manufacturing), is that it allows for work to be asynchronous.

You could, for instance, get your work done around your family schedule, the sleep patterns that give you the most energy, or around other things that leave you fulfilled and truly "on" when you are doing your work.

If you can escape the 9-5 mentality, you'll unlock all sorts of great benefits both for the productivity of your workers, and their wellbeing. It's a virtuous cycle.

However, the 9-5 mindset is so ingrained into our culture, that there are a number of hurdles to overcome if you are going to make it a reality in your business.

We'll explore these next.

Dealing with excuses

There are a number of excuses you'll hear from the people who don't want to "go remote."

The first excuse is that the "magic only happens when we are all in the same room." There is no denying that there is a place for synchronous work - much like a jazz band, creativity, planning, and strategy work can be enhanced by live interaction.

However, as Hansson points out, and as the pandemic has shown us, that kind of work can be handled well enough through the use of video conferencing tools - some of which have even enhanced that process.

The second excuse is the idea that you can't know that people are working if you can't see them. But here's the thing - lazy workers will always slack off, even if they are right in front of you. And productive workers will always work, even if you can't see them. In fact, being remote might finally force you to deal with the unproductive people on your team.

The third excuse is that people's homes are full of distractions. This is potentially true, but certainly no worse than the office. And if home distractions are an issue for you, you could always decide to work from a coffee shop, library, or a co-working space.

The fourth excuse is that having your team working remotely is a security risk. However, as Hansson points out, there are plenty of steps you can take to make remote work just as secure as working in the office.

The fifth excuse is that if big businesses don't do it, so why should we? This excuse held more weight before the pandemic, but even then there were examples of large companies who promoted remote work, like IBM, Accenture, eBay, and others.

You can add to that list many of the Silicon Valley technology giants that have realised that their workers were getting as much (if not more) done while working remote that they made it a permanent change.

Finally, there's the "we are paying/paid so much money for this office" excuse. Of course, this is a great example of the sunk cost bias - it's irrational to make that part of your decision to work remotely or not. You should only weigh the costs and benefits directly related to becoming a remote-first company.

Now that we've covered why you might want to work remote, and the common arguments against it, let's turn to how to do it well.

How To Collaborate Remotely

There are a number of things you'll need to get right in order to make the switch from in-person work to remote work.

First, you need to make sure that there is always overlap between working hours. In order to allow for the optimal balance of asynchronous and synchronous work, you need to make sure there is at least hour hours of overlap in work hours so that you don't cause any large collaboration delays.

Second, you can't neglect the social aspect of work. In the office, people gather around the coffee machine or the water cooler to take a break and socialize. Make sure that whatever technology you are using allows for that, and make sure that the socializing still happens.

Third, you need to make sure that everybody remains in the loop on what's happening at the company. Consider, at the very least, a weekly discussion thread where everybody gives on update on the work they are doing, and their plans for the coming weeks.

Fourth, take it easy on the meetings. This is one of the things that we learned during the pandemic - that filling people's calendars with Zoom and Teams meetings leads to no work getting done, and leads to even more burn out than doing it in person. If you do it this way, you kill all of the benefits that you could be enjoying from remote work.

Make sure you are giving people the time and space to work on the things that are critical to their role.

Beware the Dragons

Even if you set up your remote work environment perfectly, it would be naive to think that there aren't any potential pitfalls to be aware of.

The first pitfall is cabin fever. This one was big during the pandemic. If you never leave your house, eventually this is going to be a source of anxiety. Even if your home office is your home base, get out of the house every once in a while to work in a coffee shop or a co-working space.

The second pitfall is work-life balance. Ironically, the biggest fear of managers (that their people won't work as much remotely) turns out to be completely unfounded. The bigger danger is over work, or more specifically, being "always on." Make sure you are creating a separation between work and home, and when you are done your work, "log off" for the day.

The third pitfall relates to how you test whether or not remote work will work for you and your company. A bad test would be to send a single employee off to do some remote work, which only isolates the single employee. A better test would be to have an entire team work remote, and pay attention to the quality and quantity of their work (it will most likely go up and to the right in both measures).

The fourth pitfall to avoid is dealing with customers, clients, and other stakeholders who might be suspicious of remote work. The solution in this case is to address it head on, and make sure that your work output doesn't suffer, or even better, gets significantly better, during the transition.

Hiring and Keeping the Best

One of the largest benefits of going remote is that your talent pool becomes a lot larger. You'll start to find quality employees in areas you've never thought to look - like other areas of the country, or even halfway around the world. As you do this, ensure that you don't sacrifice on the quality of communication - language barriers could become a real issue.

When you are hiring remote workers, you'll have a tendency to want to get cute and sophisticated with your hiring practices. The authors suggest you avoid any parlor tricks in your hiring process, and simply ask your potential candidates to submit samples of the work product they'll be asked to create on the job. For designers, look at their portfolio. For customer service reps, ask them to answer some questions they'll likely get on the job. And so on.

And just because you are hiring people for remote work, doesn't mean you can't meet them in person as well. In fact, the authors suggest you do this whenever you can, because you'll learn a lot about them in the process. Did they show up on time? Do they treat other people well? Are they decent human beings? Going remote doesn't mean throwing the baby out with the bath water.

On the flip side, whenever you find exceptional employees, you'll want to make sure you do whatever you can to keep them. Teams get better over time as they learn how to work with one another, and create a chemistry that only time can create.

You can do little things (perhaps funded out of the money you'll save by having a small office or none at all) like providing them with holiday experiences (rather than a cash bonus), and encouraging and funding their hobbies. Anything you can do to make your team feel like working for you helps them be a better human being is an easy way for you to differentiate yourself from any other company they might jump ship for.

Managing Remote Workers

Now it's time to discuss the nitty gritty - how to actually manage your remote team.

First, you'll need to decide when the right time to go remote would be. The authors suggest that if you've concluded that remote work is the future of your company, the best time to make the switch is as early as possible. And if you can't start early wholesale, start small now.

Second, remote work is not a fairy tale land where no work gets done - your job is still to lead and verify the work of your team. And you can't effectively do your job if you don't know the details of what your people are working on. So double down on the things that will help you do that, and don't worry as much about when and where the work gets done.

In order to get this done, make sure you are having frequent one-on-one meetings with each of your team members. This will enable you to coach them on their work output, but also keep a consistent open line of communication, which is even more critical when you are remote.

Third, even with all of its benefits, you'll still want to make sure your team gets together in person occasionally. It's easier to work together with people you've met in real life. It's also a good idea to have an occasional work sprint in person to finish up or launch a big project.

Finally, be on the lookout for overwork, not underwork. If you are doing your job as a manager, the work will get done just as well as in person, if not better. The bigger issue will be people burning out from over work because there's much less separation between the home and office. This might sound like your dream scenario, but burnout always comes at the wrong time (when the pressure is on), and is hard to recover from.

Life as a Remote Worker

Finally, we'll cover some of the things you'll need to consider as you set yourself up for success in remote work.

First, build yourself a work routine. For instance, even though you could easily roll out of bed and do your work in your pyjamas, consider putting on your "work clothes." Grab that cup of coffee from the shop down the road, etc.

Second, divide your day into chunks. At a minimum, have time for catching up, time for collaboration, and time for doing serious work that requires you to be in the flow.

Third, make sure you have a dedicated work space in your home, preferably a space that doesn't get used for other things.

Fourth, even though you have your routine, make sure to try out different places to work. You might find a place that is great for churning through emails, a space that's great for creative work, and a place that's great for your video calls. Now that you are not chained to your desk, use your freedom to get your different types of work done at the highest possible level.

Conclusion

The way we work is changing, and if you are not doing remote work yet, it's likely that you will in the very near future. Make sure to set yourself up for success with the tips and strategies in this book when you do.