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Return to Work: The New Different — SolarWinds TechPod 028
For many people, February 2020 marked the point when everything changed: When schools, stores, religious institutions, and businesses began to shutter their physical locations and we all began grappling with ways to turn our homes into multi-purpose office, gym, schoolhouse, and pet centers. But that was then, and the…
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Redefining the “Backhoe” Event
Until today, I hadn’t heard it called such, but I’ve worked in places that experienced a “backhoe” event. For anyone like me, who doesn’t know what this is, allow me to explain: A “backhoe” event is when someone—like a gardener, for instance—is doing some work around your office, removing plants, planting new things, etc.,…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: How Work Actually Gets Done
This may seem like one of the nitty-gritty questions for new remote workers, but it’s really simple: for the most part, you’ll get work done at home the same way you did in the office. Sure, you might have a few more emails than you did before, but otherwise, things are the same. You’re probably using a company system—or…
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Gaming Groups in a Remote World
As we all come to terms with quarantine and shelter-in-place orders being extended for longer than most prepared for (both emotionally and in terms of our stash of snacks), and for those of us who won’t feel comfortable venturing out into the crowds again for some time even after the shelter-in-place orders are lifted,…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Introduction
Like so many things at SolarWinds, this blog series arose out of a genuine desire to help our fellow IT practitioners by sharing our experiences and offering lessons we learned along the way. In this case, our goal wasn’t to help you monitor, manage, or automate your IT environment, but to simply wrap your head around the…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Sometimes It IS About the Tech
We have spent a lot of the previous entries in this series providing tips and tricks for the social, communication, and work/life blending aspects of having (and being) a largely work from home workforce. Now, we want to address actual pieces of tech to improve your remote working experience. After all, we DO work at…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: The Mostly Un-Necessary Summary
We’re calling this the “mostly un-necessary summary” because, if the previous 11 posts haven’t given you the information you needed, odds are you won’t find it here. Because this post isn’t about information, it’s about encouragement. As we said at the start of this series, at the best and most normal of times working…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Additional (external) Resources
If you’ve been keeping up with this series (and we hope you have), you’ve heard our opinions, tips, and tricks for working from home. Now, we’ve pooled together external resources from the WFH community, our teacher and school administrator friends, and other friends who help them (and us). These range from other WFH…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Being Heard When You're Not in the Room
Following up on Clear Communication—where we addressed the importance of (and tips to maintain) conversations and communication which happened naturally in the office—we now want to address the tech side of communication now that it’s remote. “Can you hear me now?” is funny until you’re in an important meeting and they…
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The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Clear Communication
Our last post covered the importance of and practical tips for collaboration. Today, we want to address communication. It’s imperative for the communication channels natural in an office setting to not get lost while everyone is geographically dispersed. It’s easy to lose important details (not to mention the sense of…