You are a remote worker: a digital nomad; a road warrior; and the world is your work playground - home office, coffee shop, the other coffee shop, Bali, wherever. All you need to be productive is your laptop, a hot cup of coffee, and WiFi, right?
What is a remote meeting donkey?
As collaboration becomes increasingly digital and teams more widely distributed, meeting donkeys are appearing more often. They are distracting and they waste precious time. Meeting donkey behavior includes:
- Joining meetings late
- Communicating poorly
- Rarely being seen clearly
- Leaving meetings randomly
Digital meeting donkeys may be well-intentioned. Unfortunately they fall victim to poor and inconsistent internet quality. Sure, wired-in at the office is mostly reliable, but we are humans - untethered, spread out, and mobile. In order to remain #human we accept the risk of being #meetingdonkeys.
The real cost of being a remote meeting donkey
It's important to prove to the antiquated work world that we can have our cake and eat it, too. Remote workers lose credibility, however, when the cake crumbles.
Impressions are still important
Being unprepared for a meeting makes for a poor reflection regardless of the cause. Sure, people might show sympathy for factors entirely out of your control, but people are also busy. You have to optimize the hard-won 30 minutes with a client who also has a hard stop. It may take awhile before you get another 30 minutes, and that could mean a longer sales cycle, or worse, a lost deal.
Rapport matters
Relationships can be built digitally, but it takes at least as much if not more effort than it does in real life (#IRL). Presence is important, and video is a superpower for achieving presence remotely. Mindful, high quality video communicates facial expressions and body language and provides immediate feedback. Video makes digital relationships more engaging and human.
Accountability
In real life and digitally, ultimately we are accountable for being prepared for work, which always includes being appropriately dressed, on-time, and organized. For the digital nomad, this also includes planning where work and collaboration takes place. It’s on us to ensure that our ever-changing work space conditions will be sufficient. Does this mean being accountable for the poor WiFi at the local coffee shop? Yes! If you can’t engage effectively from your chosen location, then your employers will make a case for why you need to be present in the office. Or worse, they’ll find someone else who will be.
HubbleIQ and the realities of remote work
HubbleIQ believes that prevention is the best version of support. Out in the wild where every factor can’t be controlled, early detection helps the remote worker avoid the unavoidable, find alternative paths forward, and manage expectations with sufficient time to do so.
Don't be the meeting donkey. Run HubbleIQ before every video call!
Be prepared before every remote meeting by running HubbleIQ for Chrome whenever you connect to a new network. Share this test with the other meeting attendees and make working remotely as predictable and consistent as an in-person meeting.
HubbleIQ’s free Chrome extension tests your WiFi and tells you if it’s fast and reliable. HubbleIQ anticipates WiFi issues and detects outages to help you fix them.
