Member Jungle | Embracing Remote Work

At first when I was homeschooling my 11 and 12 year olds, working fulltime and in lockdown, some days were tough. I am a very social person and typically as a family have some sport every day, so I initially really missed seeing everyone. 

Once life went back to a little more normality, I really settled into working from home. I loved not wasting 2 hours a day in the car, I could start early, finish late and make the kids school presentation in the middle of the day. For the first few months, I worked too much and too hard and barely moved from my seat. I found that my back was sore and I was exhausted, so I started walking 5km every lunchtime just to break the day. 

Sometimes when there is no choice to change, it makes the leap easier.

As a company remote work has always been something we have talked about. I personally worked from home a day a week and one of our senior developers had been talking about a move overseas and wanting to keep working for us.  I had only recently finished reading “Remote” (https://basecamp.com/books/remote) and the plans were underway to gradually introduce working from home to all the team.

Then a few weeks later, the change was forced upon us, faster than we had imagined or planned for and what happened...

We thrived!!  

It’s hard to know if and when we would have really implemented the change to remote work without the shove, but I am so glad we did, half of us commuted 2 hours + a day. As a business we are still as effective, productive and efficient as before. BUT everyone is happier at home.

It means that in 2021, Member Jungle is moving forward as a remote workplace, we are adapting things along the way (online meetings, team rewards, Christmas parties) but overall I personally love the new normal.

My 2 hour trip to work on Monday with me stuck in traffic in horrible weather certainly re-enforced that how much change can be a good thing!