What role do you play in your team and what does your remote company do?
Superside is a tech-enabled creative company that makes design hassle-free for marketing and creative teams. By combining the top 1% of creative talent from around the world with purpose-built technology and the rigour of design ops, Superside helps ambitious brands grow faster. Since its inception, Superside has been a fully remote company, with more than 700 team members working across 57 countries and 13 time zones.
My role at Superside is Senior People Care Specialist with a focus on DEI. The role of a PCS is to ensure that Supersiders (both the people and managers) get the support they need to thrive and achieve their full potential all while creating an international and engaging community.
What has been your remote work journey and how did you find your current role?
Superside is the first fully remote company that I have worked for, aside from the pandemic where everyone worked remotely for a bit of time. It has been nothing short of amazing and continues to be challenging every day
Funny story, I found my current role through Tiktok, I was scrolling, found a page that was talking about remote work sites, and saved the video. The next day logged onto Truly remotely, the job site, and sent my application to several companies. Superside reached out and here I am. That is not to say that I wasn’t actively looking for opportunities, I was an avid job applicant.
How did you deal with getting job rejections?
All job rejections are heartbreaking and discouraging, some more than others. I picked myself up and continued sending applications. The things that worked for me and continue to work for me are:
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Manifesting with actions – think positively but also do the work. Send in those applications
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Upskill – register for short courses that recruiters are keen on in your field. There are several free professional courses being offered by LinkedIn, Skillshare etc
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Have a positive attitude and keep clapping for others until it is your turn. If you do the work diligently and consistently, your turn will come.
What’s the best way to find a remote job?
Truelyremote.co, Weworkremotely.com, ToffeeTribe, and LinkedIn
What apps or websites can’t you work remotely without?
Slack, I live on slack
How do you personally manage work-life balance? (We feel it should be a life-work balance and not the other way around)
I like to term it as work-life integration, a balance seems like an impossible goal and when you don’t achieve the “balance” you begin to question yourself. Some of the ways I have found to work when integrating work with life, especially in a remote setting are:
o Setting, respecting, and clearly communicating your boundaries – you cannot expect someone else to respect your boundaries if it doesn’t start with you respecting the boundaries you’ve set. If it’s not going to impact a person or the business negatively, after my working hours, it can wait till the next day.
o Setting my working hours – primarily when you work from home, you can easily have 12 – 14 work hours.
o Exercise – being very intentional about this and setting aside uninterrupted time for it.
o Take breaks to avoid screen fatigue, I often take naps during the day. Adopt an animal, a plant, or anything to get you off your seat.
o Take time off to rest, it seems obvious, but most people don’t.
o I struggle with this, never eat at your desk.
o Make connections with your colleagues either by having coffee chats, watch parties, or participating in company community initiatives
What are the biggest benefits of working remotely?
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No commute – especially with the Nairobi weather
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Digital nomad lifestyle – I don’t take full advantage of this, but it feels my heart with joy to see my colleagues take advantage of this
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Work schedule flexibility – especially with Supersiders in 13 time zones
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Work autonomy and trust which enhances job satisfaction
What advice would you give to remote work job seekers?
It is a possibility. Keep doing the work, what is meant to be, will be.
What’s the best way to develop professional contacts while working remotely?
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Your colleagues are your biggest network, involve yourself in those company activities.
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Do not forget LinkedIn as well, keep your account active, and if possible, participate in online events, webinars, conferences, etc. And yes, don’t forget the human touch, get out of the house and interact with other humans. Remote work cafe’ does an amazing job of bringing remote workers together.