daircomm – TechCommGeekMom

The secret to increasing productivity, work–life balance, and team happiness

Source: The Complete Guide to Working On A Remote Team – Megan Berry – Medium

Thanks to Adam Helweh of Secret Sushi for finding this gem. And oh–what a gem this is! I think this is probably the best article I’ve ever read that discusses the advantages of working remotely. I’ve been working remotely on and off (mostly on) for the past five years. I LOVE working remotely, for all the reasons listed in this article. The methods mentioned in this article are along the same lines of what I’ve practiced for years successfully, and I can endorse and validate everything that’s said in this article. Working remotely CAN be done, if it’s done in an organized manner, the work is still taken seriously and done well, and you maintain your communication skills. It’s no different working out of your house as it is your office if you are communicating with other team members or clients around the world! It’s still a conference call, or email, or instant messaging, or video calls, no matter the location! It’s the 21st century already! More companies need to get on board with this, especially for technical communicators!

If you are looking for a remote worker, I’m available right now! You can visit daircomm.com to learn more about what I can offer.

What do you think about the perspective of this article’s author? Include your comments below.

–TechCommGeekMom

Dair Communications launched July 4, 2015.

I’ve mentioned on a few occasions that with the completion of my contract at BASF, I would have to figure out what my next move would be. Job hunting is something that I dread, especially since the region where I live doesn’t have much opportunity unless I go out of my way to travel far to the cities. I’m in a position where I can’t move due to my son’s education for now, so I had to figure out what the best move for me would be. Thanks to my husband’s support, and my mom setting the example for me when I was younger, I decided that perhaps I’d make a go of it on my own. I’m tired of working through agencies or “the man”.

So, on July 4th, 2015, I officially launched my own business. I figured that it would be appropriate to declare my status as an independent contractor on (American) Independence Day. While many of you have read on LinkedIn that I’m working as a Content Marketing Strategist for Information Development World, that is my first contract, which started a big before my official launch.

My company is called Dair Communications, and it already has a barebones website that needs a little tweaking (my husband is helping me set the website up, as he’s a developer and wanted to help, as he should). I chose “Dair” because it’s Gaelic for “Oak“, and I’ll leave it to your imagination what words are evoked when using that description. There are also sentimental reasons for the use of “dair” stemming from my heritage, so it seemed appropriate. The other connotaction is that the word “dair” sounds like the English word, “dare”, so I’d like to think that I’m doing something daring by breaking out on my own, and that I would dare to try new and creative solutions for my clients. Hence–do you DAIR? 😉

Many of my readers have asked me to blog about being an independent contractor. I will do my best! I know that I will be doing a lot to help out with The Content Wrangler blog and Information Development World for the next several months, and I will share some of those projects and observations with you. You might not see quite as many TechCommGeekMom entries as before as I transition into this new adventure, but I’m not going away anytime soon.

I hope you will support me in my new endeavour!