Out of Office: How Caster is Managing Remote with High Availability Amid Corona Virus Concerns
The workplace is transforming – this time, not because of new technologies or because Gen Z is entering the workforce, but because communities and businesses around the world are shutting down and going remote amid concerns for coronavirus.
Most trade shows and events scheduled for the next two months have been canceled, postponed, or moved to virtual. Many Caster clients have shifted to remote working starting this week to prevent any health risks and further spread of germs. Some opportunists are viewing this mass shift to remote working as an experiment about office culture and the “white-collar future”: “What we learn in the next few months could help shape a future of work that might have been inevitable, with or without a once-in-a-century public-health crisis,” read more on The Atlantic.
The Caster team is going full-time remote starting this week. Our plan is to be remote with high availability.
Some of the Caster team already works remotely from time to time as part of our flex time, and our Erin Philips is full-time remote from her home office in Canada. If you’re starting working remotely for the first time, read her Dos and Don’ts. Hint: Take regular breaks, but never work from your couch or living room.
Our clients and most of our media partners know how to reach us, whether on social media, email, or our cell phones. We’re planning regular check-ins internally to stay on-track — and sane — as we shift from in-person chats, brainstorming, and meetings. Caster already uses Zoom for video conferencing; we’ve been using it for more face-time with clients and media lately, as it becomes the norm for external communications. Now, as we move to a full-time remote office, we’ll use it as a tool to stay present and connected even while working from our home offices.
We’re each revamping our home-offices, setting up our office desktops, docking our laptops, and readying our data plans. The platforms we use every day for pitching, social media, writing, and communication are also accessible anywhere, and our business-critical partners have contingency plans in place to keep us up-and-running. We’ll continue social media management and monitoring, news tracking, media relations, writing, and more as usual. Our platforms, including Dropbox, Muck Rack, Sprout Social, Meltwater, Cision, etc., are cloud-based and accessible from our laptops and home-office desks.
The coronavirus outbreak has hit while many of us were in full swing planning spring launches and event schedules. In this pandemic, we’re recommending that our clients stay mindful when planning social media content, launches, events, etc., and we’re helping them to shift content and news schedules accordingly.
Media partners can find client news in their inboxes as it breaks, as well as in our Newsroom. Expect updates, news, and blogs from Caster to continue, and stay in touch with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Staying smart during this outbreak will keep us healthy and get us to the other side.
