Tag: Freelance and Remote Working

This Remote Worker Spends 300 Nights a Year on a Cruise Ship | Entrepreneur

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^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Gutridge, an IT professional who spends more than 300 days a year on a cruise ship. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been told I’m crazy for trying to live full-time on a cruise ship, but it’s not just for retired people.

I work in IT as a cloud-solution engineer for a cloud-solution provider and started working from home in 2012. But because of the pandemic, my team was able to work from home and access the data they needed from anywhere.

At that time, cruise lines hadn’t announced when or if they were coming back. I thought that if they returned, I’d want to try taking my job with me on a short cruise. I wanted to see how the WiFi would work and if I could access some elements of my job with heavy security.

That summer, in 2021, I booked two four-night cruises on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, and went on both in September. Everything worked great, and since then, I’ve been on a cruise pretty much every week, except for a few weeks due to the holidays.

I’ve been to CocoCay and Nassau in the Bahamas more than 70 times each over the last two years

The ship does the same route twice a week, and both stops are on the same cruise. I primarily cruise on the same ship, but I’ve done cruises on larger ships too.

I do meetings in the morning and afternoons, but I can also go to lunch and socialize or meet people at the gym. I’ve even met people that I stay in contact with and that have come back and cruised on this ship with me multiple times since.

Working from home was isolating. I don’t have kids or pets, so it’s easy to become somewhat introverted, but cruising has really helped and made me a lot more social.

If you want to cruise full-time, you have to get your financial house in order

Think about your strategy. It’s about coming up with a transition plan — it doesn’t happen overnight.

I wanted to really look at the cost of cruising full-time before I began. I have a spreadsheet that automatically records all my expenses, which helps. I also set a budget every year. This year, my base fare budget is about $30,000, and last year when I started really looking at the numbers and evaluating how much base fare I paid to be on a ship for 300 nights, I found it was almost neck-and-neck with what I paid for rent and trash service for an apartment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Now, because I cruise so often with Royal Caribbean, I’ve moved up in its loyalty program

My drinks and internet are free. If people are going to do something like what I do, I recommend trying different brands because they all offer something different. But once you commit to one, you should stick to it so you reach those loyalty levels.

I found that Royal Caribbean has, by far, the most valuable benefits to me — discounts, free internet, and free drinks. The highest loyalty level for Royal Caribbean is the “Pinnacle” level, which I will reach after exactly two years of cruising on this ship.

Because of the loyalty program, I’ll actually spend less money cruising this year than I did last year, even though I cruised more.

If you have a phone that’s two or three years old, you’re going to struggle on a ship

I read Reddit boards and Facebook groups, and the biggest complaint I see from people is that their phones or device don’t work as well as they expect. The two biggest reasons are that people don’t update their operating software before getting on a ship or they don’t have WiFi calling set up on their device, which is a must.

I understand people don’t want to spend the money, but if you have newer equipment, it tends to work a lot better.

To get good WiFi, you also have to explore the ship and find where the WiFi works the best. I often work from the top deck of a lounge that’s not open during the day, so it essentially becomes my office space, which is great because it’s very quiet.

Keeping up a healthy and productive lifestyle on a ship requires personal discipline

Mondays through Fridays, on the ship, I do the exact same routine I’d do on land. I work, eat healthy, and go to the gym.

On the weekends, anything goes, but during the week, I stay diligent about finding healthy food options that are available on the ship. I stay away from desserts, and I absolutely don’t drink sugary drinks. If I drink alcohol at all, I save it for the weekend because come Monday morning, it’s back to work and back to being responsible.

When I first went on cruises, I was also testing if I could have a nice work-life balance

I spend about 20% of my time on land to go to the dentist and the doctor and to visit with some friends — but most of the time, I’m cruising. When I’m cruising, I spend about 90% of my time on board and about 10% in port because, during the week, I’m working.

Unless it’s a port I haven’t been to before, or it’s one I really enjoy, I remain on the ship — even on the weekend sailings. When we are at a location I enjoy, I use a day of my PTO from my job and enjoy the day away from work.

I have a strong relationship with the crew on this ship. It’s become a big family, and I don’t want to rebuild those relationships on another ship — I joke that I have 1,300 roommates.

Eventually, I’d like to get rid of my apartment

I’ve scaled back my cruising budget for next year because of inflation, but by 2025 I’d like to get rid of my apartment, sell my car, and purchase a scooter that I’ll store at a friend’s garage. When I’m home, I’ll have groceries delivered, and if I need to go somewhere farther away, I’ll be happy to just take an Uber or Lyft.

Sometimes I get tired of going to the same port, but it’s been an interesting experience, and I’m still loving it. Most of the time, I’m so busy that I don’t even notice we’re at the same place — I just know I’m not in an apartment staring at the wall. I’m stress-free.

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Jamie Killin

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August 10, 2023
4 Things To Look For When Hiring a Remote Team | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

While adoption rates vary by country, industry and company size, the remote working trend continues to gather momentum as more employees demand flexible working arrangements, and many organizations recognize the potential benefits, such as increased productivity, reduced overhead costs, and access to a larger talent pool.

At the same time, we’ve seen high-profile companies like Apple, Amazon, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Starbucks, Disney and Goldman Sachs, among others, rolling back fully remote workplace policies.

Leaders at these companies are mandating that staff hired for office work return to the office, citing reduced productivity and organizational efficiency, and stifled innovation and creativity as primary reasons for their decision.

This shift to hybrid workplace policies and stricter return-to-office mandates underscores the importance of hiring the right-fit employees suited to thrive in a remote environment to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the model.

Related: A New Remote Work Trend is Helping Employers Retain Talent Amid Labor Market Pressures

Our fully remote business has navigated a period of exponential growth in the number of passionate people we employ from countries across the globe. During this time, we have identified four key qualities and attributes that we look for to ensure we hire staff who thrive in the remote work environment.

1. Confidence to take initiative

Siloed and structured roles and responsibilities characterize the traditional corporate environment, which suits certain personality types and mindsets.

But the fully remote organization requires employees who thrive with unconstrained mandates. They also need the confidence, creativity and innovation mindset to deliver value beyond their basic job role and meet the company’s strategic objectives.

Identifying and hiring talented individuals who want to break free from a complex and toxic corporate environment for better work-life balance and personal and mental well-being are ideal candidates. These individuals typically thrive with the new-found freedom to work how, when and where they want, which can produce innovative and beneficial outcomes for the organization.

For example, a newly recruited Country Manager of ours took the initiative to grow the regional business by developing completely new processes and procedures from scratch, despite not having any experience with this management aspect. His proactive efforts successfully built the business in his region and were replicated in other key regions to grow the business.

Related: How to Identify and Nurture the Leadership Potential of Your Employees

2. A growth mindset

Career pathways in conventional company structures are typically rigid, linear and predictable. In contrast, fully remote companies’ potential for growth and development is less constrained.

As such, when fully remote companies identify and hire employees who see beyond the corporate ladder and create opportunities for professional and personal development within and beyond their conventional job role, remote companies can develop and nurture talented individuals who contribute immeasurably to the company’s success.

This was demonstrated when we hired someone who previously worked as an import-export specialist to fulfill a Customer Support Lead role. He leveraged his flexible, fully remote working environment to study User Experience (UX) courses to expand his knowledge. After completing his UX design studies, he completely transformed his career path and now works as a UX Researcher and Designer, creating new experiences and solutions that make customer lives easier, which offers the business a competitive advantage.

Related: How to Instill and Foster a Growth Mindset in Your Employees

3. Cross-functional capabilities

While cross-functional teams have become commonplace in conventional organizational structures to drive innovation, every fully remote company needs cross-functional employees.

Small companies can benefit immensely from building broad expertise and a more diverse skill set among staff by creating opportunities to work collaboratively with other people in the business. These experiences help employees learn about different systems and develop new skills across different roles within the business.

This experience can help employees develop cross-functional capabilities and grow in unconventional ways to potentially fulfill multiple roles within the business or evolve into hybrid roles that offer more value to the organization by fulfilling multiple functions or providing support across teams.

These cross-functional employees, with their multifaceted capabilities, can help the business grow without unnecessarily increasing headcount or costs to the company, which can accelerate company growth and fast-track success.

4. Passion and purpose

There are clear links between employee retention and productivity when staff find purpose in their work and are afforded opportunities to pursue their passions.

The virtual working environment offered by fully remote businesses allows individuals to pursue their purpose by securing work in their preferred field — no matter where they are in the world — with the flexibility to pursue their passions, even if those projects or pursuits fall outside their daily job role. The most common example cited among fully remote employees is the ability to travel while continuing to work and earn an income.

When passion and purpose intersect within a job role or the organization, it typically creates the most fulfilling form of work and attracts the most committed employees.

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Max Azarov

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July 31, 2023
How To Build A Strong Culture With A Remote Team | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In a traditional office setting, employees have more opportunities to interact with each other and build relationships. However, employees are often isolated in a remote work environment, leading to feelings of loneliness, disengagement and burnout. Therefore, creating a sense of belonging and fostering a positive culture that makes employees feel valued and supported is essential.

Connection

Successful remote companies are great at keeping teammates connected. Employees must know they are part of a team and their contributions are valued. In a traditional office setting, employees have more opportunities to interact with each other and build relationships. However, employees are often isolated in a remote work environment, working from home, coffee shops, or coworking spaces.

This isolation can lead to feelings of loneliness and burnout. Therefore, creating a sense of belonging and fostering a positive culture that makes employees feel valued and supported is essential. What does your company stand for? What types of personality thrive within it? When employees feel like they belong, they are more proactive and engaged.

Staying connected is crucial for building a positive organizational culture in a remote company. There are several ways to stay connected and foster a sense of community among remote employees. One is through regular communication to keep remote employees engaged and informed. Companies can use various channels like email, instant messaging, video conferencing and project management tools to stay in touch with their employees.

Another way of staying connected is by showing appreciation by celebrating wins publicly. Acknowledge the accomplishments of individuals or teams in team meetings or company-wide communication channels. Encourage employees to recognize their peers for their hard work and achievements. Listening to employees’ feedback, ideas and concerns is crucial. Use surveys, polls or personal check-ins to gather feedback and address issues. This shows employees that their opinions matter and that their voices are heard.

Finally, making employees feel safe and supported in a remote work environment significantly contributes to building personal connections. This includes providing resources for mental health and wellness and promoting work-life balance. For example, companies may offer flexible work schedules or unlimited time off to help employees manage their personal and professional lives.

Related: Building A Remote Work Time Management Culture

Values

Values are the principles that guide an organization’s decision-making and behavior. Establishing clear values in a remote work environment is critical to building a cohesive culture. Employees must understand what the company stands for and what leaders expect of them.

To effectively communicate values in a remote work environment, it is vital to make them visible. Leaders can do this through regular communication channels such as newsletters, team meetings, or the company’s intranet. Additionally, leaders can reinforce the company’s values by sharing stories demonstrating how employees have embodied them.

Leaders play a crucial role in upholding and modeling values. They must lead by example and demonstrate the values they expect their employees to internalize. Being transparent, accountable and treating everyone with respect facilitates this objective.

As a leader, it’s crucial to always strive toward being your best self. In a remote work environment, employees must trust each other and their leaders. By showing up on time, being responsive and meeting deadlines, leaders show employees that they hold themselves to the same high standards they expect from teammates. This practice establishes trust and respect and creates a positive work environment where everyone can thrive.

Related: 5 Ways to Enhance Remote Company Culture and Build a Team That Thrives Together or Apart

Behavior

Another component of organizational culture is behavior. Clear expectations for behavior are essential in the workplace and even more so in a remote work environment. In a distributed workforce, employees must be self-directed and accountable. Establishing clear guidelines for communication, collaboration, and work expectations is essential to incentivize ideal behavior.

For example, companies may establish guidelines around response times for emails or Slack messages or require employees to be available during certain hours. These guidelines help ensure everyone is on the same page and reduce the risk of miscommunication or confusion.

Reinforcing positive behavior is another strategy for building a thriving organizational culture. Recognize employees who consistently meet or exceed expectations and use positive feedback to reinforce behaviors that align with the company’s values.

Companies can use various strategies to reinforce positive behavior, such as recognition and rewards. For example, companies may offer bonuses, promotions, or public recognition for employees who go above and beyond. Additionally, providing opportunities for professional development and growth can motivate employees to work hard and stay engaged. Leaders can also provide coaching or mentorship to help employees develop skills and meet goals. Finally, leaders must be transparent and communicate openly with employees to build trust and maintain a positive work environment.

Related: Fostering a Development Culture for a Remote-First Workforce

Conclusion

Building a thriving organizational culture in a remote workplace requires intentional effort and a distinct approach to leadership and communication. Culture, values and behavior are critical components of a positive work environment.

By making people feel safe, establishing clear values and setting expectations for behavior, companies can create a sense of belonging and foster employee engagement and productivity. Leaders must lead by example, model positive behavior and enforce clear guidelines. With these strategies, remote companies can build a thriving organizational culture and achieve success.

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Roland Polzin

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June 13, 2023
5 Lessons from the CEO of a Fully Distributed Company | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

More companies are embracing the fully distributed workplace model to exploit the operational, performance and cost benefits.

While remote work was a growing trend before 2019, the pandemic accelerated the adoption of hybrid and fully distributed workplace models, and the trend looks set to grow.

The most recent Upwork Future Workforce Survey found that nearly 28% of US workers will be fully remote by 2026, up from 22.9% in 2020, while Zippia research reveals that 16% of organizations are already fully remote.

While working in this way offers numerous benefits, the work-from-home (WFH) model also poses various challenges. As the CEO of a company that was an early adopter of a fully distributed workplace model, these are five lessons learned from the experience.

1. Tackle challenges with a positive attitude

No matter what industry, company or working environment you operate in, you will experience challenges at some point. Concerning a fully distributed company, the idea of a WFH setup may seem idyllic, but it comes with a unique set of challenges for business leaders and employees.

However, no matter how big or small the challenge, you can turn almost everything into an opportunity to learn, refine and grow, even fail. What matters at that moment is your attitude.

By embracing challenges, I have come to enjoy the process associated with finding solutions and adapting to circumstances. This willingness to embrace a challenge — even welcome it — and tackle it with a positive mindset is a hallmark of business leaders who follow an entrepreneurial path.

When you allow challenges to drive you to develop and improve, you continually learn, making you more resilient and adaptable as a business leader and an organization.

Related: Leaving a Positive Leadership Legacy Is Really About Living Your Values Now

2. Learn to delegate

Operating a fully distributed company can give you access to a diverse workforce that boasts multifaceted skill sets and different work preferences and personalities.

While everyone has specific roles and responsibilities in a company, a fully distributed workforce can give business leaders and managers access to a broader talent pool, which creates opportunities to find employees who enjoy or are perhaps more proficient at specific tasks.

Delegating relevant tasks to these employees allows business leaders to focus on mission-critical or strategically important duties that drive the business forward or those they cannot delegate — like compiling company results and reporting to shareholders. And finding people who can perform a task more quickly and accurately boosts organizational performance.

Creating more flexible workflows can also give employees more personal control over what tasks they perform daily, which can positively impact their job satisfaction and happiness.

Related: 7 Rules for Entrepreneurs to Delegate Effectively

3. Company mission must inspire

For any fully distributed company to achieve its strategic objectives, business leaders must ensure every employee buys into the business strategy and understands the company’s mission because people need to understand the plan if they are going to execute it properly.

Without this understanding, you cannot get everyone moving in the same direction, which is when even the smartest strategy will fail to deliver results.

When staff clearly understand the business strategy, they can act autonomously and make decisions that they know align with the company’s objectives and execute them according to the organization’s North Star metric.

In this regard, it is important that the strategy is easy to articulate and understand.

What’s even more critical — the strategy should inspire. Only inspiration will align everyone to work towards this common goal.

4. Fail fast, learn fast

In today’s fast-paced business environment, more business leaders are embracing a ‘fail fast’ mentality.

This approach is vitally important when building a fully distributed company because you will make mistakes. While this is an important part of the process — because you need to make mistakes to learn – the key is to learn fast and move forward. Ruminating on a problem keeps you stuck in one place, which can prove detrimental to the business.

An area where this business strategy worked well when building our distributed workforce entailed making mistakes in who we hired. Ultimately, going through hardships with people gives you insights into who they are and highlights whether they have the right skills and traits to do the job you hired them for. Through this process, we learned what we needed to look for in employees and executives to align with our company culture and processes. It helped us better define roles within the organization.

As a result, we quickly started finding the right people for the job. We built teams with the proper dynamics to perform optimally and achieve the company’s mission and strategic objectives.

Related: 6 Ways to Encourage Successful Teamwork in Your Business

5. Connect with people to make them feel valued

While the fully distributed workplace model creates numerous operational efficiencies, business leaders must create opportunities for remote workers to connect and engage.

Combating social isolation is becoming a major challenge in managing remote workers’ well-being and, by extension, their output and performance. Without opportunities to work near co-workers and team members, business leaders need to create a sense of belonging and make people feel part of something bigger than themselves.

This requires a multi-faceted strategy, where the company’s mission creates a sense of purpose among employees, coupled with the innovative use of technology to foster collaboration and cohesion within teams and company initiatives like annual conferences that offer everyone an opportunity to meet and interact in person and offline activities that allow co-workers to engage in shared interests, hobbies or passions.

Furthermore, remote workers must be empowered to cultivate a healthy work-life balance by pursuing personal interests and meeting new people where they live. Workers need to leverage the benefits of remote working by using the freedom and flexibility it creates to build more meaningful social connections outside the virtual workplace to support their overall wellness and happiness.

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Max Azarov

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March 27, 2023
Is Remote Work the Future? It’s Time For The Agile Workplace.
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As the pandemic subsides, many executives and employees are transitioning to the new normal. Companies that transitioned to a remote environment are now opening their offices again and trying to determine how they will operate. Some businesses, like Airbnb, Salesforce, Meta and Google, have stated they will allow people to remain remote if they choose to, as employers believe it improves their chances at retention and employees have proven they can get the work done.

Others, like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Netflix, are pushing to have all employees back in the office five days a week in the belief that there is no substitute for in-office collaboration and interactions. Other companies are trying to land in the middle. Adobe, Apple, and Citi use a hybrid approach in which employees are generally expected in the office 2-3 days a week.

Several factors suggest the winning strategy won’t be forcing one approach but adapting to the needs and desires of the workforce. A more agile strategy toward workplace design, culture and operating models will be required to succeed. To understand why, consider the business realities and opportunities behind a more agile approach.

Related: Remote Work Is Here to Stay. It’s Time to Update the Way You Lead.

Why an agile strategy will win

Gallup published a study of more than 8,000 remote-capable workers to learn what they prefer, what they see as the future and what they plan to do if their company changes directions.

Fifty-six percent said their job can be done entirely remotely today, and only 20% said they believe fully on-site will remain a valid strategy, down from 60% in 2019. Only 6% said they want to work entirely on-site. That means 94% of employees surveyed want a more flexible strategy. With more than 70 million workers in the U.S. estimated to be in remote-capable roles, that’s a significant number looking for a more flexible strategy.

After two years of the “great work experiment,” in which vast portions of the workforce were forced to work from home, we have a lot of information and data. Here’s what we’ve learned:
- Workers are more productive at home: a Stanford University study found that working from home full-time was equivalent to adding a full day of productivity per week.
- Workers are more likely to stay at their employer: the same study indicated turnover decreased by 50% as employees felt more loyal and refreshed because they could be more comfortable at home and spend more time with friends and family.
- It limits wage inflation: a July 2022 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed those organizations that expanded work-from-home and remote work opportunities moderated wage inflation by 1% of wages over 12 months on average. The annual Survey of Business Uncertainty found that 55.4% of companies have been able to “restrain wage growth” by employing a flexible work strategy.
- It allows companies to tap into a more global, more diverse workplace: remote teams give employers access to worldwide talent and potentially be “open” to the public around the clock ― the “follow the sun” model, in which work continues in various regions night and day. Groups that have traditionally “fallen” out of the workforce, like women who have kids, can work from home part-time or full-time more easily.
- Employers save money on rent and other facilities costs. A study by Global Workplace Analytics estimates facilities savings could equal $10,000 per year per employee.
So what does an agile work strategy mean and look like?

An agile workplace strategy means an organization is not wedded to traditional 20^th-century operating models or organizational structures and is willing and able to adapt flexibly to meet the needs and preferences of its talent. The new models include:
- Fully Distributed Organizations: rather than trying to employ all technology workers in traditional markets (Silicon Valley, Seattle, Los Angeles, etc.), companies will establish hubs all over the world. Top talent can be obtained and retained in lower-cost markets like Eastern Europe, India or Southeast Asia, or even small non-traditional cities in the U.S. like Boise, Idaho.
- Full Remote Organizations: these organizations have removed the requirement to be in an office entirely for nearly every role and now employ a global “work where you are” strategy. Companies like GitLab, with 1,500 employees in more than 65 countries, have gone even further — they have no company-owned offices at all. Dropbox is “virtual first” now and retains 16 studios worldwide, but employees aren’t required to come in or be near a location.
How do you make this work strategy work? Four quick tips:
- Change your organization’s operating model and structure to allow this environment. For example, Google provides “distributed work playbooks” for leaders, managers, employees and buddies (to help new hires) to help drive how to make the environment work for everyone.
- Set clear expectations: practical goal setting, feedback processes, and regular and effective check-ins and 1:1s between managers and employees to ensure things don’t fall through the cracks with a remote, global or hybrid workplace.
- Gather the right tools: effective project management software like Asana, shared document approaches like Google Docs/Sheets/Slides, shared drives like One Drive, and effective real-time collaboration tools like Slack and Zoom for working seamlessly in a (usually) single-sign-on environment.
- Make it an organizational imperative to forge connections, bonds and friendships at work: in an Agile work environment, people will need to find ways to connect as informal in-person mechanisms will be more limited.
Related: 4 Things for Employers to Consider About the Future of Work

Conclusion

How to deploy an agile work strategy is complex, nuanced and challenging, but it will be required to win in the future. The organizations that begin the journey now will be more ready to survive the challenges ahead and capitalize on the opportunities the future will provide.
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Jesse Meschuk

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October 31, 2022