Destination Remote: The Portuguese 🇵🇹 in Germany 🇩🇪

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Hi there (future) Remote Workers of the World,

It’s already the second edition and I’m extremely happy to see how many of you are interested to meet a new Remote Work Champ every week 🤗

We are already +450 after only one week!

Let’s go for it 👇

👀 A glimpse of what you can expect today

• 🇩🇪 Meet Mafalda from Germany

• 🙅‍♂️ The unspoken advantage of Remote Work for Women

• 💸 Remote Work pay cuts send the wrong message

• 👩‍💻 Workplace flexibility goes beyond Remote Work

 👋 Have you met Mafalda (🇩🇪)?

Last week, I met Mafalda and the call was super interesting. At 32 years old she’s Business Development Director at Wonderway, a remote sales training software.

Even though she is very extroverted and confident, she still needs much time to prepare for social events. But once she’s prepared, it’s impossible not to remark on her presence.

Mafalda is also breaking the taboo about menstruation & work. I loved it so much that I’m sharing more about it further down the newsletter (there’s a big link with remote work) 🔥

And oh, I almost forgot her favorite place to work from: her sofa 🛋

💡 Mafalda’s Remote Work tips:

• ✈️ Put your phone in airplane mode or better: put it away!
  → Our phone is our worst distraction

• 📅 Abuse and exploit your calendar
  → Timebox everything you can

• ❌ Remove all work-related apps from your phone
  → It’s the best way to disconnect from work

👫 Mafalda’s tip against loneliness:

“Don’t expect your employer to be the matchmaker for your social life. Take on a hobby/activity outside of work to meet (new) people/friends.”

🗽 Mafalda’s must-see in Berlin:

“The only thing every person who visits me has to see is The Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz in Berlin.“

🙅‍♂️ Breaking Taboos: Women’s Menstruation & Remote Work

About half of my call with Mafalda, we talked about how menstruation affects work and why it shouldn’t be taboo anymore. It’s a subject that affects a lot of women and we don’t talk about it enough.

And guess what? Working remotely during their periods is already helping all those women a lot!

Nearly 60% of women have called out of work because of painful period cramps. Mafalda gave some very concrete examples for everyone to better understand the struggle of having the period in an office:

• Traveling on public transport during your period? Worse than a high-fever commute!

• Using a cozy, comforting warm pillow at the office to alleviate the pain in front of everyone? Not likely, right?

• Sharing a restroom during that time of the month? No, thank you.

• And there are so many other examples…

Imagine the impact of remote work to make that moment of the month easier! It’s a win-win for employers and employees

🔑 My key takeaways from our chat?

Encourage women to talk openly about their menstruation with everyone, no matter whether you are their friend, partner, boss, or colleague! It’s part of life so we need to start accommodating it properly 💙

→ Mafalda had the courage to be honest about it with her boss and guess what? He’s an amazing guy who wants his employees to be at their best so he introduced a period policy.

Big shoutout to her for raising her voice and speaking up about it!

🖥 Set-up of the week

🌍 Remote jobs

Imagine working from anywhere without having any location constraints.
It’s possible and here are 4 WFA job offers to prove it 👇

• Software Engineer - Trafi

• Project Manager - Alight Solutions

• Sales Development Representative - Talentify.io

• Full-Stack Software Engineer - Listella

_{Is your company hiring for remote positions? Contact me to be featured in next week’s newsletter (WFA positions only).}

🗞 The Remote Work Gazette

• Some CEOs are tying in-person office attendance to higher pay, but this approach is sending the wrong message and may lead to compensation disparities. Remote work has value and studies show that remote workers can be productive. Instead of penalizing remote workers, companies should focus on rewarding output and be transparent about their policies.

• Workplace flexibility goes beyond remote work and includes adaptability, autonomy, and work-life balance. It leads to higher retention and satisfaction, benefiting companies in various ways.
  

• Google has surprised many by urging its employees to return to the office. This shift in stance raises questions about the belief in remote work's effectiveness, especially coming from a tech giant that played a significant role in facilitating remote collaboration during the pandemic. What do you think about Google’s move?

🏋️‍♀️ Remote move challenge

Let's face it, working remotely often means we're glued to our desks longer than we'd like to admit. The downside? It can sneakily affect our health, zap our energy, and impact our overall productivity and happiness.

To keep yourself active and energized, I have another challenge for you:

☑️ Do 5.000 steps every day
☑️ Dedicate 2× 30 minutes/day to working while standing
☑️ Start every day with a 7-minute workout

Try it and see how it positively impacts your productivity and well-being!

📊 Remote Stat of the week

This week I have a fun combination of 2 stats for you!

→ Workers only average 4 hours 12 minutes per day (Zippia).
→ Remote Workers are 7% more effective on average (Forbes).

Luckily, bosses shouldn’t be surprised (or worried) 😉

📌 Want to build a strong, authoritative personal brand?

I help Remote Work Advocates & Company Founders grow their personal brand to become top of mind:

👉 LinkedIn Ghostwriting: I put your words & thoughts into authentic content.

👉 If you want to build an authoritative brand yourself, I recommend Stop The Scroll. It has been approved by awesome LinkedIn creators such as Matt Lehnhoff and Blair Sharp (and myself 😇).

It’s game-changing and the best value for money you can get.

Which remote work buddy of yours would love this newsletter?
Be a good friend & share Destination Remote with them ✌️

Thanks for the read, I hope you enjoyed it & don’t forget: you are awesome!

From sunny Belgium 🇧🇪

Remotely yours,

Alex

PS: I’m on a mission to meet a remote worker in every country in the world. See my progression here and get in touch with me if you are currently working remotely from a country I haven’t checked on the map yet.

PPS: Respond to this mail if there are any topics you’d like me to tackle. I will analyze the topics that come up the most!