Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences: On working from anywhere

By In the Loop • September 24, 2020

Mayo Clinic is a unique place: the culture, the values, the people. "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" explores the experiences of Mayo Clinic staff as they navigate life personally and professionally. Sharing these experiences increases understanding of others and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work.

In this episode of "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences," you'll hear from Nicola Damerel, an Information Technology analyst/programmer, and Brittany Bones, an administrative assistant in the Office of Access Management. They discuss how they have adjusted to working from anywhere. Damerel has worked remotely for seven years while Bones started a new position at Mayo Clinic and began working remotely on her second day of work.

Listen as they share their experiences in working remotely:

DAMEREL: I might not be there, but the work that I'm doing matters. It still counts, regardless of where I'm doing it.

NARRATOR: In this episode, you'll hear Nicola, an Information Technology analyst/programmer and Brittany, an administrative assistant, discuss some of the perks and challenges of working from anywhere.

BONES: I am an administrative assistant for the enterprise Office of Access Management. I just started there in March, so I started teleworking one day after I started. I was super excited to start teleworking.

DAMEREL: I've been teleworking since 2013. At the time, when I started, the big plus was, "Hey, I get three hours back in my day that I don't have to commute." For me specifically, it was great because I was diagnosed in my early 40s with arthritis in my ankles. Walking around on cement, which is most of the downtown campus in Rochester, that was hard. Not having to go through that every day was another big quality of life change.

With technology and being able to afford the flexibility, I've got friends who have daycare that they have to kind of wrap into getting their kids to someplace, and that's enabled them the flexibility to meet those needs for their family. Last year, my dad passed away. Between the time that he was inpatient somewhere and then him passing, I would not have been able to be there, unless I was able to work from wherever I needed to. Being able to have that kind of flexibility is crucial. I'm definitely a proponent of working from anywhere. For some, it's a con. I'm not physically around my teammates.

BONES: That has probably been one of my biggest challenges with teleworking. I am a talk-it-out type person when it comes to different things, so having something come up, I can't just turn to somebody and talk to them like I'm so used to. Now I have to find them on Skype or I have to wait for an email reply. Throughout my whole life, I've always had close co-workers right there with me, so just being able to communicate with them has been hard, especially starting a new job right off the bat doing teleworking. I'm learning how to do my new job and trying to do screen-share to know what they're talking about. But when I was first sent home, I didn't have the correct Skype, so I had to upgrade Skype, and I don't have a phone other than my personal phone to be able to talk with them.

DAMEREL: In my experience over the years, I used to be really self-conscious about messaging someone because I don't want to unless it's an emergency. I don't want to just call out of the blue. I have to admit that was more of a personal thing of, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude or interrupt." When I was a part of a Human Resources collaboration and connectivity work group, one of the biggest things that people brought up was all those hallway conversations. Even if you're able to turn around, there's still the people who you bump into in the hallway and even if it's just personal ― "Hey, how did your kids soccer game go this weekend?" ― it seemed like we're missing out on that.

I know for me what helped ― and this might sound more A-type ― but it was one of those things where I know this is important to do: I need to put a reminder out there. I reach out to somebody every week. It doesn't matter who it is. It doesn't matter how long you chat, or whether it's work-related or not. I always put a reminder in that says, "Reach out to somebody today," and it was amazing how much that seemed to help even the other person. I'm not having that hallway conversation to find out how you're doing personally, but I want to make the effort. I want to reach out to someone to just chitchat to help kind of keep that same team-building piece in place. I try not to contact the same person every week. It's making that personal connection to say, "I recognize you're there and you're on my team, and you matter, so let's chat."

BONES: That's a great thing to do, too. I know hallway conversations were a huge thing in my old area. We would all sit together at a table and just chitchat about how the day is going and what we're going to do this weekend, and all that. And just not having that, it's definitely not the same talking to my 12-year-old at home. He's like, "OK, mom, I just want to go out and play with my friends."

DAMEREL: You have to be more accountable for what you communicate, how you communicate, to whom you communicate, but it's doable. You know, it just takes a little more effort on our part these days and of course getting over that initial, "I'm sorry, I'm pinging you."

BONES: It is one of those things, too, though that I miss if I'm working on something. I used to be like, "Oh, I should ask Jeff this," so I'd just run off and find Jeff, and I'd ask him a question and I'm back. And I'd have my answer right then and there. I'd get more steps in than I do at home because now even Skyping somebody, I always try and figure out if I can figure it out myself without bothering somebody else.

DAMEREL: You brought up something, too. You said that you would walk around a lot in your office. Do you find yourself moving around more?

BONES: I am a little bit now. I know when I first started, I felt like I had to be glued to my computer ― like glued to my Skype almost to make sure I'm always available. I needed to make sure that if anybody has a question or Skypes me, I am talking to them within five seconds. But it's just not true. I need to be able to take a 15-minute break in the morning, a 15-minute break in the afternoon, just to put it away, calm down. I've gotten to the point now that I will just go stand on my deck and sit for a few minutes. I clock out for lunch every day. I go for a walk. That's kind of my biggest thing since I'm not walking at all anymore. I don't have to coordinate necessarily with anybody else's lunches now, so I can just go when I need to.

DAMEREL: I completely hear you on that because it's the same thing for me. It was funny because I feel like I was such a bad, unhealthy employee when I was working on campus. I would literally sit at my desk for a couple of hours. I didn't have anything that prompted me or triggered me to get up, walk around, move around. I had a hard time at first when I started teleworking feeling like, "OK, if I'm not here and my light is not green, I'm going to upset somebody." And, like you said, it's just not the case. I'm actually moving around more because I can't just do heads down, ignore the rest of the world because that's just not the way working remotely works. You get more natural breaks where you can step away from work, and you're literally stepping away. I remember being on campus, if I were to go get a sandwich with someone, I'm still on campus. I'm still wearing the name tag. I'm still present there. Now I don't have to pay attention so closely to the time because instead of it taking me 20 minutes to walk across campus to get back to my desk, it takes me a minute. It just allowed those things to kind of relax.

BONES: Yeah, I definitely feel like I have gotten more productive at home.

DAMEREL: One thing that I find that's really helpful and helps us all stay connected, even though we're doing it remotely is take yourself off mute. What I mean by that is if you're chatting with someone and they say something funny, be willing to take yourself off mute and laugh. If we were in person, I wouldn't hold back. I'd be busting a gut. I'd be laughing so hard. Hearing laughter and hearing those little interactions to me is what helps us stick together because it's not just hearing one side of what somebody's saying. You're hearing all the reactions. I think people find it really easy not to let themselves be heard. It's easier to leave that mute button on and you might be laughing, but no one knows that you're having that kind of reaction. That's the human part of us, and we just need to embrace that more often. It's all the little things that we can do to keep that communication authentic and keep it two-way. That's what helps make working remote a lot easier when we can have those reactions.

BONES: That's a great tip for sure. I was kind of struggling the last couple weeks because I missed my office. I missed my opportunity to walk around the corner and get some coffee. I took one day. I went back on campus, mask and all, and just sat at my desk and worked ― and got my errands done for work. And I felt so much better after that day. Sometimes you just need to have a day back on campus to reconnect with the work part of it. I know that some people who are teleworking don't have an office space to go back to if they need to, but there are drop-in spots. It felt good to get back on Mayo campus for even a few hours just to feel connected to Mayo again and feel that you're part of that bigger picture.

DAMEREL: It is nice if you live close to a Mayo campus somewhere. It's nice to get that reminder of why we are doing what we're doing. One of the things that I do regularly is pay attention to the articles that get sent out. I honestly don't know how some people don't read the newsletters or don't read articles that get posted out on the intranet. Those are the little things we can do to stay connected, to get the reminder. This kid was able to beat this disease, and it's because of the people there. And I'm supporting the people that are there.

NARRATOR: Whether you're new to working from anywhere or have done so for years, consider sharing your experiences and tips with your colleagues.

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