{"id":4915,"date":"2019-11-13T06:54:29","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T14:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=4915"},"modified":"2024-12-13T12:38:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T20:38:29","slug":"top-9-remote-work-lessons-from-ama-with-sara-sutton-ceo-and-founder-of-flexjobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2019\/11\/13\/top-9-remote-work-lessons-from-ama-with-sara-sutton-ceo-and-founder-of-flexjobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 9 Remote Work Lessons from AMA with Sara Sutton, CEO and Founder of FlexJobs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the CEO and Founder of FlexJobs<\/a>, the leading service for professional remote and flexible job opportunities, Sara shared her expertise and remote work lessons in our leadership community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Watercooler<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every few months, we invite one of the 1,000+ managers who are a part of our leadership community from all over the world to participate in an \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d (AMA) session. It\u2019s an opportunity for managers, executives, and business owners to gain in-depth insights on remote work lessons.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, we had an AMA with Natalie Gould, CFO for Balsamiq<\/a>, the remote software company that builds Balsamiq Wireframes \u2013 a product used by 500,000+ companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other past guests have included Amir Salihefendic<\/a>, CEO of Doist<\/a>, Valentina Th\u00f6rner<\/a>, Happiness Team Lead at Automattic<\/a>, and David Heinemeier Hansson<\/a> (DHH), CTO at Basecamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara Sutton has long been passionate about helping people find jobs. She started her career in 1995 when she co-Founded JobDirect, the first online entry-level job service (sold to Korn|Ferry International in 2000). She is an expert and speaker on a wide variety of topics related to the future of work<\/a>, such as the impact of remote work, the hybridization of the workforce (freelance v. employee), gender equity, economic development, unemployment and underemployment, and entrepreneurship. On these topics, she has appeared in hundreds of media pieces, including with Time, Marketplace Money, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CNN, NBC, Forbes, Inc., and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her work in the employment and technology fields, she was named as a Young Global Leader<\/a> (YGL) by the World Economic Forum<\/a> and is honored to serve on the Advisory Group for the YGL program. Sutton holds a BA in Society, Technology, and the Environment from the University of California at Berkeley and resides in Boulder, Colorado, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara believes a modern workplace should address the needs of today\u2019s workforce, and that utilizing workplace technology to support telecommuting, freelance, part-time, and flexible work will achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits for both employees and employers. As a result, she is committed to providing education and awareness about the viability and benefits of remote working and work flexibility. So in addition to FlexJobs, she has also launched an advocacy initiative, 1 Million for Work Flexibility<\/a>; a resource for integrating remote work into business models, Remote.co<\/a>; and The TRaD* Works Forum (*Telecommuting, Remote, & Distributed)<\/a>, a conference that brings together thought leaders, policy makers, and organizations looking to further leverage the diverse benefits of remote and distributed teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned so much<\/em> following Sara\u2019s AMA. Here were the top 9 remote work lessons I took from her:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Question #1<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI started working remotely from home in 2011. My daughter was two years old, and I was waitressing as a single mom. I couldn\u2019t afford daycare. I remember scouring the Internet for work-from-home jobs that weren\u2019t scams or MLM pyramid schemes but they disguise themselves pretty well and I ended up wasting a lot of time looking for remote work. What are signs in job postings that might indicate scams or that the job posting isn\u2019t 100% on the up-and-up?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sara\u2019s Answer:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for your question, and you\u2019re very right that scams are a big problem in the remote job market! It\u2019s the reason I started FlexJobs – to create a safe place for jobseekers. It\u2019s actually estimated that for every one legitimate remote job, there are 60-70 scam jobs. Some are very simple and easy to spot, but others are far more sophisticated. Here are some things to keep in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, pay attention to the URL of the site you\u2019re on. You may think you\u2019re on a well-known company\u2019s career page, but scammers create copycat websites that look similar to a legitimate company\u2019s page, but are really just a scam. If anything looks off (poor grammar, misspellings, vague job descriptions, lots of talk about making money, etc.), open a fresh browser and do a search for the company\u2019s name and the keyword \u201ccareers\u201d to find their true careers page. Then, see if you can find that same job in their real listings. If you can\u2019t, you were probably just on a scam site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve actually detailed 9 of the most common job scams people should be aware of<\/a>, so I recommend reviewing this blog post for more information. It also has examples of actual job posts that are scams so you can see the kind of red flags to avoid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And before you even get to the job posting itself, make sure you\u2019re using the right keywords in your online search. Keywords that legitimate companies use to describe their at-home jobs include telecommuting, remote job, and virtual job. Scammers typically use the phrases work-from-home and work-at-home jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest assured, though, if you\u2019re using FlexJobs, you\u2019re guaranteed to not find any scams because EVERY SINGLE job and company is vetted by our research team before being added to our site. \ud83d\ude2c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question #2<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhat\u2019s the #1 thing you believe you can\u2019t compromise on as a leader of a remote team?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sara\u2019s Answer:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Proactive communication is truly the foundation of any healthy company in my opinion, and especially a strong remote work program. Proactive, open communication is critical to getting and staying on the same page when you work remotely, building good working relationships, ensuring expectations are clear, and giving honest, constructive feedback when problems come up. Leaders of remote workers (even partially) should make sure the right variety of communication methods are in place for their teams AND that their teams use them for the right functions\/processes\/etc. It\u2019s something we discuss a lot on our teams, and we are a couple of articles we wrote on our sister site, Remote.co<\/a>, about it to help other remote leaders and teams:<\/p>\n\n\n\n