Secrets of the Remote Workforce: By Employees, For Employees

by Teresa Douglas, Holly Gordon, Mike Webber

The world is now your office! You can work from home, from a coffee shop, or even from the gym—but how do you keep on task and stay motivated when you’re alone.

In Secrets of the Remote Workforce, authors Mike, Holly, and Teresa discuss how to ward off toxic levels of loneliness, how to get what you need from colleagues spread across the world, and how to network and grow in your career when you are sitting in an office of one, plus many other topics that will help you survive and thrive as a remote worker.

Mike, Holly, and Teresa use their different paths through Kaplan to help the remote worker figure out how to set up the right headspace for them.

“Secrets of the Remote Workforce paints a very real picture of what it's like to be a remote worker in an organisation... In contrast to most books on remote work which have been written with managers, business owners or freelancers in mind, Secrets of the Remote Workforce speaks directly to employees, guiding them through their day to day.” -Pilar Orti Director of Virtual not Distant

“Secrets of the Remote Workforce is a terrific map for helping employees who work remotely take charge of their own career. The authors have all survived and thrived as remote employees... While other resources focus on how to manage remote employees, this book highlights the power that employees have to drive success for themselves.” -Susan Cates, Strategic Advisor

144 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2020

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike the last business book I read, this one was fantastic! I wish I had had a copy at the beginning of the pandemic. The book thoughtfully reflects on a huge variety of aspects of remote work in a well edited and succinct fashion. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, if you're a knowledge worker sitting at a computer all day long, this book is helpful for framing how you might do a better job maintaining relationships and avoid extra hardships suffered from not being face-to-face.

I like the description of the many types of interactions one might do in a job function and how they vary if you're remote. Not really a self-help book, but instead an index of areas one might pay attention to!

[M]

A bit difficult to rate this one. I'd probably give it 2.5 stars. During the first half, I was thinking 2 stars and 😬😬😬 a bit. Things seemed too basic or obvious. It's possible that someone entirely new to remote working wouldn't feel that way. I found the second half of the book to be more 3 stars and things that might not be so obvious to some people, or just good advice for ways to handle things in general were addressed.

[Michael Levitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of useful tips to successfully work remotely, as well as painting the picture of what working remotely actually looks like. It's not all working from the beach (although you can!)