The Year Without Pants


Book Description

A behind-the-scenes look at the firm behind WordPress.com and the unique work culture that contributes to its phenomenal success 50 million websites, or twenty percent of the entire web, use WordPress software. The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 120 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day. With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What's different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods? To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. The Year Without Pants shares the secrets of WordPress.com's phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun's story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone's future. Offers a fast-paced and entertaining insider's account of how an amazing, powerful organization achieves impressive results Includes vital lessons about work culture and managing creativity Written by author and popular blogger Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com) The Year Without Pants shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic's success.




The Everything Guide to Remote Work


Book Description

Discover the secret to being productive and successful no matter where you are with this essential guide to remote work. During COVID-19, working from home became the new normal. Now, both employers and employees find that the remote work they were forced to adjust to may be, well, better—financially, sustainably, and even in terms of overall morale and productivity. But working from home is not without its challenges. It can be difficult to eliminate distractions, strike a solid work/life balance, and maintain social connections that are crucial in the workplace. Whether you’re trying to find and land a job from the comfort of your home, learning to manage a virtual team, or dream of living a digital nomad lifestyle, The Everything Guide to Remote Work has everything you need to be successful. You’ll learn to optimize your own workplace culture, whether it’s in your home office or a constantly changing backdrop. So whether your company continues to work remotely full time or you only have to go to the office a few days a week, you’ll be armed with all the tools you’ll need to make the most out of this new lifestyle.




Remote Work Revolution


Book Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR “I often talk about the importance of trust when it comes to work: the trust of your employees and building trust with your customers. This book provides a blueprint for how to build and maintain that trust and connection in a digital environment.” —Eric S. Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom A Harvard Business School professor and leading expert in virtual and global work provides remote workers and leaders with the best practices necessary to perform at the highest levels in their organizations. The rapid and unprecedented changes brought on by Covid-19 have accelerated the transition to remote working, requiring the wholesale migration of nearly entire companies to virtual work in just weeks, leaving managers and employees scrambling to adjust. This massive transition has forced companies to rapidly advance their digital footprint, using cloud, storage, cybersecurity, and device tools to accommodate their new remote workforce. Experiencing the benefits of remote working—including nonexistent commute times, lower operational costs, and a larger pool of global job applicants—many companies, including Twitter and Google, plan to permanently incorporate remote days or give employees the option to work from home full-time. But virtual work has it challenges. Employees feel lost, isolated, out of sync, and out of sight. They want to know how to build trust, maintain connections without in-person interactions, and a proper work/life balance. Managers want to know how to lead virtually, how to keep their teams motivated, what digital tools they’ll need, and how to keep employees productive. Providing compelling, evidence-based answers to these and other pressing issues, Remote Work Revolution is essential for navigating the enduring challenges teams and managers face. Filled with specific actionable steps and interactive tools, this timely book will help team members deliver results previously out of reach. Following Neeley’s advice, employees will be able to break through routine norms to successfully use remote work to benefit themselves, their groups, and ultimately their organizations.




Remote


Book Description

The classic guide to working from home and why we should embrace a virtual office, from the bestselling authors of Rework “A paradigm-smashing, compulsively readable case for a radically remote workplace.”—Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet Does working from home—or anywhere else but the office—make sense? In Remote, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of Basecamp, bring new insight to the hotly debated argument. While providing a complete overview of remote work’s challenges, Jason and David persuasively argue that, often, the advantages of working “off-site” far outweigh the drawbacks. In the past decade, the “under one roof” model of conducting work has been steadily declining, owing to technology that is rapidly creating virtual workspaces. Today the new paradigm is “move work to the workers, rather than workers to the workplace.” Companies see advantages in the way remote work increases their talent pool, reduces turnover, lessens their real estate footprint, and improves their ability to conduct business across multiple time zones. But what about the workers? Jason and David point out that remote work means working at the best job (not just one that is nearby) and achieving a harmonious work-life balance while increasing productivity. And those are just some of the perks to be gained from leaving the office behind. Remote reveals a multitude of other benefits, along with in-the-trenches tips for easing your way out of the office door where you control how your workday will unfold. Whether you’re a manager fretting over how to manage workers who “want out” or a worker who wants to achieve a lifestyle upgrade while still being a top performer professionally, this book is your indispensable guide.




Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager


Book Description

Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you'll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How can you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Where do you start? How do you know that you're doing it right? What does "it" even mean? And isn't management a dirty word? This book will share the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully. Going from engineer to manager doesn't have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You'll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to. Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You'll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics. Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how. Great managers can make the world a better place. Join us.




HBR Guide to Remote Work


Book Description

Get your best work done, no matter where you do it. Video calls from your couch. Project reports in a coffee shop. Presentations at your kitchen table. Working remotely gives you more flexibility in how and where you do your job. But being part of a far-flung team can be challenging. How can you make remote work work for you? The HBR Guide to Remote Work provides practical tips and advice to help you stay productive, avoid distractions, and collaborate with your team, despite the distance that separates you. You'll learn to: Create a regular work-from-home routine Identify the right technology for your needs Run better virtual meetings Avoid burnout and video-call fatigue Manage remote employees Conduct difficult conversations when you can't meet in person Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.




Work Together Anywhere


Book Description

"An excellent guide on how teams can effectively work together, regardless of location." STEPHANE KASRIEL, former CEO of Upwork IN TODAY'S MODERN GLOBAL ECONOMY, companies and organizations in all sectors are embracing the game-changing benefits of the remote workplace. Managers benefit by saving money and resources and by having access to talent outside their zip codes, while employees enjoy greater job opportunities, productivity, independence, and work-life satisfaction. But in this new digital arena, companies need a plan for supporting efficiency and fostering streamlined, engaging teamwork. In Work Together Anywhere, Lisette Sutherland, an international champion of virtual-team strategies, offers a complete blueprint for optimizing team success by supporting every member of every team, including: EMPLOYEES/small advocating for work-from-home options MANAGERS/small seeking to maximize productivity and profitability TEAMS/small collaborating over complex projects and long-term goals ORGANIZATIONS/small reliant on sharing confidential documents and data COMPANY OWNERS/small striving to save money and attract the best brainpower Packed with hands-on materials and actionable advice for cultivating agility, camaraderie, and collaboration, Work Together Anywhere is a thorough and inspiring must-have guide for getting ahead in today's remote-working world.




Remote, Inc.


Book Description

You can thrive and excel when you’re working remotely, if you adopt the mindset, habits and tech tools of professionals who are even more productive outside the office: Learn to think like a “business of one,” and that entrepreneurial mindset will transform your experience of remote work. Remote work can be satisfying and productive—once you craft a strategy that taps into the unique advantages of working from home. After a year in which many of us plunged into remote work overnight, we finally have a chance to make thoughtful choices about how to combine remote and office work, and how to make the most of our days at home. Remote, Inc. gives you the strategies and tools you need to make remote work a valuable part of your renewed working life. Learn how to... Gain control over how and when you work by focusing on objectives, not the 9-to-5 workday. Wow your managers by treating them like valued clients. Beat information overload by prioritizing important emails and messages. Make online meetings purposeful, focused and engaging. Build great relationships with your colleagues—whether at the next desk, or another city. Find a balance between work from home, and life at home. Make a remote work plan that lets you get the best from time at the office—and the best of home. Remote, Inc. takes you inside the mindset and habits of people who flourish while working outside the office some or all of the time: people who function like a “business of one.” That’s how productivity experts Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel describe the mindset that lets people thrive when they’re working remotely, whether full-time or in combination with time at the office. You can follow their lead by embracing the work habits and independence of a small business owner—while also tapping into the benefits of collegiality and online collaboration.




Leading from Anywhere


Book Description

The ultimate guide to leading remote employees and teams, tackling the key challenges that managers face-from hiring and onboarding new members to building culture remotely, tracking productivity, communicating speedily, and retaining star employees




Remote Work Technology


Book Description

Your small business survival guide for the remote work environment In Remote Work Technology: Keeping Your Small Business Thriving From Anywhere, experienced SaaS and telecommunications entrepreneur Henry Kurkowski delivers a step-by-step walkthrough for using SaaS technology and communication apps to power your small business from anywhere on the planet. You'll learn how to capitalize on the ability to hire a geographically distributed workforce and excel at serving clients at a distance. You'll also discover why and how you need to alter your approach to management and spot the common pitfalls that litter the way to a truly distributed business. This important book includes: Valuable case studies of businesses that embraced the reality of remote working during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and cautionary tales of unexpected challenges that arose during the transition. Discussions of how to incorporate remote workers into efficient workflows to increase your business' productivity Explorations of how to support your employees when you can't just pop into their office Perfect for small business founders, owners, and managers, Remote Work Technology is also a must-read guide for independent contractors who work directly with small businesses and entrepreneurs.