Bahareh Nasseri – Remote-First Employee Spotlight

In our third article in this series highlighting the people who make the difference for our clients – our 100% remote staff, we are crossing the Gulf of Mexico and taking a visit to Central America. Located in the port town of La Ceiba, Honduras; featuring beautiful mountains and a beach view, is our very own – Bahareh Nasseri. 

Bahareh has been working remotely for three-and-a-half years and oversees a team of 11 people for one of our clients. Her role involves being a centralized point of contact between the client and our team. Let’s catch up further with Bahareh and learn more from her experiences working remotely and managing a remote global team.

Benefits of Remote Work

While remote work brings with it many benefits and some appeal more than others to each individual, Bahareh credits her interest in working from home to being able to travel when she wants to. She also appreciates the ability to connect with potential clients without the need for travel. 

Bahareh says she has benefited from working remotely because it has given her the opportunity of growth that she was always aimed for in her career. Her favorite thing about being part of a remote team is that she gets to work from the comfort of her home. Seriously, there’s no place like home.

Tips for Working At Home

When it comes to working at home, Bahareh is experienced and disciplined such that she makes sure to keep her work and her personal time separate. She feels it is important to have a delineation between work and the time set aside to enjoy life and get rest. For someone new to the freedom of working from home, she says it may be a challenge for some people to navigate regular home distractions. 

However, becoming more disciplined on following a work schedule, like that of an office setting, is what works best based on what she has seen. She says it is important to log in on time, just like if you were commuting to work. Another tip she has is to create an office set up somewhere in your home. Combine all of that with scheduling when you will take breaks, and making sure to stay busy on your work tasks. Bahareh says that the busier you are, the less time you will have to be tempted by distractions.

For anyone having challenges adjusting to working remotely, Bahareh says it is important to reach out to co-workers who have experience working from home, especially those who have been working from home the longest and ask them for advice. Bahareh says it should be understood that everyone is different and might find challenges depending on their personality and their skill set.

Staying Connected in a Remote Workforce

To stay connected with her team, Bahareh loves having weekly meetings in order to keep everyone updated. She also uses that time to check on workload as a team and see how those responsibilities can be equally shared. She makes sure that her team has time to share their thoughts, provide feedback and ask any questions in regards to the task during the meeting with everyone on the team. In addition, she also values open communication and the reps know they can always reach out to her individually if they prefer that method of communication. 

Bahareh’s top picks for programs and apps to manage a remote team include:

• Skype, which is the communication platform everyone at work uses.
• Basecamp, to organize tasks on a day-to-day basis.
• Google calendar and email, which provide perfect guidance to what is coming next in one’s assigned tasks. 

Global-Thinking as a Remote Worker

While Bahareh loves living in La Ceiba, Honduras for the warm weather, lush trees and beaches, what if she could work from anywhere in the world? Her point of view is borderless and forward-thinking. She would like to work remotely from any advanced country that uses solar power as a source of energy or has fiber optic cables installed in the building for a stable internet connection. 

While it is true working from home has its perks and freedoms – what if any cuisine in the world could be delivered straight to Bahareh’s doorstep? She says she would love to have a delicious Persian Kebab, since she is so far from home. Sticking to local cuisine in La Ceiba, Bahareh enjoys organic chicken stew.

Celebrating Global Cultures

With so many countries and cultures around the world and part of our team, we ask each participant in this series what they value about the culture of their country. Since Bahareh is a dual citizen, here are her thoughts about Iran and Honduras: 

We hope you enjoyed this article and that it helped broaden your outlook on what it means to have a remote global team. If you are considering the move to a remote-first workforce for your business, or have already made the switch but need help improving your processes, drop us a line. We would love to work through your unique scenario and see how we can help you get started with quality workers from our global team.