Redefining Professional Norms - Hybrid Work Evnironment

Cities transform, industries pivot, and the concept of the daily commute is being rewritten. Hybrid work is here to stay!

Were you captivated by Stevie Nicks' enchanting vocals or Pink's acrobatic performance the last time they toured? Laura and I Mary were, and that's where our latest episode begins – sharing the magic of these live music experiences before venturing into the transformative world of remote work.

As we peel back the layers of this ever-growing trend, we invite you to consider how the professional landscape is shifting, allowing individuals the freedom to sculpt their careers with the finesse of a seasoned CEO.

 We take a look at urban centers like San Jose and Austin, as they embrace the remote work wave, and ponder the fates of those trailing behind. The conversation gets personal with stories that illustrate the shift's impact on city offices, retail, and transit. Join us in a celebration of the positive outcomes, including the environmental windfalls and the gift of time back into the hands of the workforce.

Lastly, we're spilling the beans on "coffee badging," that clever tactic of showing face at the office before settling into a cafe or home office for the day. The discussion doesn't stop there – we dissect remote work challenges, from striking a balance in communication to managing the guilt of atypical work hours.

Emphasizing the significance of one-on-one time between employees and CEOs, we discuss how such connections can unearth hidden talents and strengthen teams. Before you tune out, we'll guide you through leveraging AI in the workplace and offer up a curated list of resources to help you keep pace with these seismic shifts in the job world.

Episode Resources
https://www.remotesource.com/
https://pll.harvard.edu/catalog/free
https://online.stanford.edu/free-courses

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Transcript

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:02

Welcome to the Redefine Your Career Journey Podcast, where we help career minded professionals like you become the CEO of your career.

Laura Bashore: 0:11

I'm Laura Bashore and I'm here with my co-host, Mary Fain Brandt. Together, we have over 25 years of experience in career development and coaching.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:19

We're thrilled to share our insights and expertise with you on this podcast To grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show. Laura, let's kick off this episode with something that we both are very passionate about, and that's concerts. We both love live music and we're always talking about which concerts we're going to go see, and Joe and I usually line up not as much as you guys, but we go to like three concerts a year.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:47

Last year we went to I believe, four, but I know that you went and saw some amazing bands and concerts. Let's kick it off with what was the best concert that you went to in 2024?.

Laura Bashore: 1:01

Oh, that is such a hard one. There were some good ones. I really enjoyed seeing Garbage and the song. I'm Only Happy when it Reigns came on and it rained while it was happening and we were outdoors, so it was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Jenna Jackson was phenomenal but honestly and I've already seen her like three times, but probably Stevie Nicks, just because I love her, so much I grew up on her music.

Mary Fain Brandt: 1:36

That's my era. I grew up and I have not seen her in concert and I wish I missed her. She was here in Phoenix and I'm missing her.

Laura Bashore: 1:47

It was amazing. And then I cried at the end because her encores were. She did a tribute to Christine McVee who had just passed last November. That was beautiful. And then she did her Tom Petty tribute again. So I was just crying. It's very emotional. Plus, I don't know if I'll ever see her again. It was amazing. It was amazing. And then I brought something to show you what For Christmas, for the holidays, just so you know how big of a fan I am. I got my first Barbie doll in I don't know like three decades and it is. You got a Barbie doll.

Mary Fain Brandt: 2:30

Stevie Nicks. Oh my gosh. Okay, show us. If you guys are listening to the podcast. You've got to go over and watch the video, because Laura's going to show us her Stevie Nicks Barbie doll, and then we'll get to the good stuff. Oh my gosh.

Laura Bashore: 2:47

She has a tambourine. Look at that, oh my gosh.

Mary Fain Brandt: 2:49

Go ahead and zoom in now. Look how cute she is oh my gosh, I love it.

Laura Bashore: 2:57

Well, I love that you and your husband go all in and have a lot of fun.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:01

We actually we saw some great. We went to quite a few concerts Pentatonix, amazing, oh yeah, they're good. Yeah, and it was in a bowl, so the sound was amazing, so it was in this bowl.

Laura Bashore: 3:16

The acoustic would be great.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:19

And then we bought tickets, like in June I think it was May for a November concert and it was pink and that's not just a concert, that is like a performance. And one of the most memorable parts, laura, was when she brought her daughter Willow I believe her name's.

Laura Bashore: 3:36

Willow yeah.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:38

And she went out to sing with her and she told the story that Willow was doing something. She walked in mom, pink is like writing a song recording. And Willow's like, oh that's, she said something. And and pink said what you think you can do it in one take. And Willow said, yeah, and she recorded it in one take, so that's why she comes out and sings that song. So, and we saw, you know, laini.

Mary Fain Brandt: 4:01

Wilson, who was country female artist of the year, and Bruce Lee all the country music. But it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to concerts in 2024, but this is the first time that I don't already have three concerts picked out. Do you have any concert tickets yet for 2024?

Laura Bashore: 4:18

Surprisingly enough, I'm a little light this year too. I just have one. We're going to go see the Foo Fighters, and that's what.

Mary Fain Brandt: 4:24

I have on the list so far. I saw that it's in San Diego, down in little Italy, at the little teeny tiny venue. I forget what it was called oh cool.

Laura Bashore: 4:34

Was that the music box? Yeah, yeah, that was the music box. When it was the music box, yeah, that was a great venue.

Mary Fain Brandt: 4:40

Okay, well, we'll have to get some concerts lined up, but let's dive into today's topic, which is a hot topic. We're saying don't just work remotely, kick some ass. What do we mean by that? Well, I think that we can all agree that remote work is here to stay, whether it's fully remote or hybrid style. That people have spoken and it's what they want. So, as long as the work is getting done, why not allow workers to work remotely?

Laura Bashore: 5:10

Yeah, I agree with that. You know more companies offered remote work in 2023, really kind of staying on the trend the number of US companies offering flexible work increased from 51% to 62%, and that's according to Flex Index's Q4 report. So, even though we're hearing how people are being dragged back into the office, that's not what the numbers are showing us here. So, according to this report that we pulled, we've got the industries that are the most flexible or offering the most flexible work not surprising. Technology right with 97%. Then you have media and entertainment and I can attest to that because I had a cousin visiting over the holiday and they last year, and they were talking about how they've been working remotely in entertainment for 11 years, which I hadn't really known. So that's cool. Insurance 91% that's an interesting one.

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:15

You no longer have to go into an office. Right the work that they do is on the computer and the phone, so why not allow them to work from home?

Laura Bashore: 6:25

Now professional services. I'm wondering is that like you and I Like that?

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:29

Well, that's the category people put us under, but there could be other. I mean, yeah, that's where people put us. But there could be other things that get lumped under professional services. We'd have to take a closer look at that. And the last one, Laura, what is that?

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:49

That one was financial services, so really interesting I can speak to that one because I worked at a bank. Yeah, I worked at a bank in San Diego, a private bank, and when the pandemic hit, obviously we were all working from home. Well, funny enough, the bank didn't break. Like, do the branches have to say open, absolutely. But you know what A lot of that back-end stuff you could do from home and still do it safely and secure without compromising the risk factor. That was the big thing.

Laura Bashore: 7:22

So that's true, that is true. But you say that one of my CFO clients for a bigger bank had been working remotely for years and loved it. When that happened in, the pandemic was like I'm not going back.

Mary Fain Brandt: 7:38

Yeah, a lot of the positions from that bank. They ended up just staying remote because they were like, hey, I'm doing the work, who wants to do the job? So the companies that people are like, oh no, you can't work remotely in financial services. Well, yeah, you can. So you can yeah?

Laura Bashore: 8:01

And then I think we also pulled some information which I think our audience will be interested in hearing, on the metro areas that offer the most flexibility as far as with a hybrid or remote work, so this also was not surprising to me, though. So you've got San Jose with 93%, san Francisco 92%, austin, texas and, for those of you who don't know, that's the most metro area really in Texas, the most diverse open and then you've got Seattle at 89%, and then Boston at 89%.

Mary Fain Brandt: 8:41

That was a surprise.

Laura Bashore: 8:43

Yeah, I was going to say maybe Boston was surprising.

Mary Fain Brandt: 8:48

I'm surprised San Diego is not there. Maybe it'll get there, yeah yeah, interesting.

Laura Bashore: 8:56

And then way down on the bottom of the list, the ability in metro areas where Knoxville, tennessee, wichita, kansas, lexington, kentucky and Lakeland Florida.

Mary Fain Brandt: 9:10

Well, I think that Tennessee needs to get on board because a lot of people are moving to Nashville with remote work and changing jobs. I know that Nashville, tennessee, was an area that a lot of people are moving to, just like a lot of people move to Idaho, washington and, of course, arizona during the pandemic, like us. So let's talk about some of the changes, or look at these changes and talk about how they're going to affect the workforce and the workplace in some manner, because we need to be aware and address what those changes are going to look like. So we're all going, yay, remote work, but there's some industries that are going to be hit really hard and that could affect you if you're in one of these industries or thinking about going into that type of role. So, city center offices and retail property owners many offices remain half-billed and it'll take a long time to recover as those office lease expire and new office policies and co-working structures are developed. And true story, you guys.

Mary Fain Brandt: 10:18

So I worked in a high rise in downtown San Diego at this bank. We had our branch downstairs and the executive offices were upstairs where I worked and we saw, like right before the pandemic, people like there were floors that were empty, right, and the whole entire I think it was the 15th floor was empty and they hosted the building's holiday party up there A whole floor in downtown San Diego and a high rise. And then there was another floor like we were on, I don't know, we were on a high floor, so we were on maybe the 14th or the 12th and it was empty. We moved in there from a different floor, like the whole floor was empty. So we saw this happening before the pandemic. And so what does that mean? Well, property management positions might be hard to come by, right, so that might be an industry that, with a lack of needing retail space and office space, right, so that might be an industry that you do a little more research in.

Mary Fain Brandt: 11:22

Another interesting sidebar from remote work is mass transit, rail systems. Okay, I know someone who is in San Diego. What do you guys have? Not the tram, what's it called? The Metro? The Metro, I call it a conductor, but whatever he's on the Metro. But now that hybrid work has leveled out, ridership has settled at 30% below the pre-pandemic levels. So, yeah, that's a big drop. So if you're having less people ride the Metro and public systems, transportation systems, that means you need less employees to run those right. So if you were thinking of getting into transit, it's just something to consider and to be aware about. You know the federal and state studies subsidies have helped prop up these revenues shortfalls, but in the long run the reduced ridership is going to have substantial impact on the local economies. And then the final one that I want to talk about is the big cities. People have been leaving them. Look San Diego. Now I'm in this little retirement community called Sun City.

Mary Fain Brandt: 12:37

Now I'm in Sun City now because we bought our home.

Laura Bashore: 12:39

Oh yeah, because you bought your house in Sun City. There's no more surprises.

Mary Fain Brandt: 12:43

Which is the original fun city, haha, or the city of volunteers, or the other thing is, if you're bored in Sun City, it's your own damn fault because there's so much to do here and there really is but people are leaving San Diego and LA and the big cities because of remote work. So that's going to affect, you know, the major city centers, leading to a drop in tax revenues, and local governments are going to have to make what budget cuts, right, if there's less taxes, they're going to have to make budget cuts and that could have some devastating impact. So take note on the industries and locations that are affected in a negative way with remote work, because you might want to rethink those areas for career opportunities.

Laura Bashore: 14:44

Excellent points. And you know, with every side of, I guess, losers or downfalls, there's also winners. So we want to go over some of the biggest winners for remote work Not surprisingly, are the workers or employees right? So people overwhelmingly want flexible work options and they assign high financial value to one which is less time commuting, yes. And then number two, more time spent how they please, which is, if you want to have an engaged workforce, make it so that they have downtime. You know, that's how union labor started back in the day. I'm watching the Gilded Age. I love the Gilded Age. I don't know if you're continuing to watch, mary, but they just had the union labor strike for the railroad system and it was the 888, where you have eight hours at work, eight hours off and eight hours to sleep. It used to always be that way. So anyways, there's my plug for the Gilded Age. Go watch it. So amazing.

Mary Fain Brandt: 15:53

OK.

Laura Bashore: 15:54

The other winner is the environment. Yay, go green. Right, we're talking go green here. So two days of work from home per week reduces pollution by 15%. That's a huge number. Huge and further. Fewer commuters means traffic speeds during rush hours have increased, so that's even helped those who still have to commute decrease the amount of time that they're on the road because obviously there's less people on it. So the third winner that we're highlighting here, which might sound surprising, are the companies. The companies themselves. So remote organizations see positive financial impact from one hiring remote talent and two higher retention rates. So add that into profitability. That has surged for a number of reasons in the last several years, but the widespread adoption of hybrid schedules seems to indicate that remote work is at least part of that increase. Absolutely.

Mary Fain Brandt: 17:02

I mean, in my opinion, remote work is really the way to go. It's a win-win for everyone if we can all get on the same page and if we can embrace it. Do rules or procedures or SOPs need to be created and adapted absolutely?

Laura Bashore: 17:19

But I do feel that remote work, it benefits the employees and the companies and I agree as somebody who manages so my company team referral network, my directors we're remote the majority of it, but we do have a central office in a co-working space where we meet and so we have our meetings once a month but we're moving them to bi-monthly where we have everyone in person together and outside of that I do touches with them regularly, you know, over the phone or in person, but it helps morale for them to have that flexibility in their schedule and it also helps with my overhead, frankly, yeah, absolutely Mm-hmm. So, wrapping this portion of it up, we have a quote from Julia Pollack, who is the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, and she says that she's expecting to see a slow increase in remote work from here on out. She says I think the numbers will gradually go up as this becomes more of an accepted norm as future generations grow up with it being so widely available as the technology for doing things, as the technology for doing it gets better.

Mary Fain Brandt: 18:41

It's a big shift in the workplace and the workforce and it's not going away. So it's one of those things that everybody needs to embrace and figure out how to make it work, because it's here to stay, you guys. So let's embrace it. Now, laura, I want to talk about this article that you sent over to me. It talks about coffee badging. So that sounds great. Does that mean I'll earn new badges if I drink more coffee? Because if that's the case, like sign me up, I need a second cup today already. So coffee badging, I get new badges if I'm drinking more coffee or try new coffees. What is this article all about?

Laura Bashore: 19:24

Well, I mean talk about a great phrase or headline to catch somebody's attention, but no, Mary, you do not get a badge. This is not Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts or Scouts of America, whatever it's referring to. Can I still drink more?

Mary Fain Brandt: 19:38

coffee. Is that OK? Can I still drink more coffee? Well, of course.

Laura Bashore: 19:42

OK, of course that's always OK, but the article really discusses a new work trend known as coffee badging, where hybrid workers show up to the office briefly, often in the morning, for coffee, and then work remotely for the rest of the day. So it's almost like you know how you say you get a badge of honor coffee badging. Right, it is your badge of coffee, like I've made my presence known. So a survey found that 58% of hybrid workers admit to this practice, while 8% are interested in trying it out.

Mary Fain Brandt: 20:23

So you know what I found interesting, laura, cause I actually read the whole article and there was a young.

Mary Fain Brandt: 20:28

Yeah, I know, and there was. You know I skim things. There was a young woman that was featured in the article and she practices this. So she works from 11 to 3pm twice a week in the office. Why does she do that? Cause she misses the morning commute traffic and she misses the afternoon traffic and she goes in. People see her face, they see that she's there, but she's made her own schedule and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long as the work is getting done in an accurate and timely manner. If she's going in twice a week and making it those hours, why not?

Laura Bashore: 21:04

Yeah, I agree. I don't see anything wrong with it either. You know, being able to have that flexibility is going to allow you to feel that you're doing your best at your job and that you're able to show up when you feel you can show up at your best, if that makes sense. That's kind of where the whole flexibility comes in right. I think with this new trend, we get a lot of questions right, like a lot of questions about working remotely, like from those who are interested in it to those who are trying to secure another position with it. So what are some things that have been coming up for you?

Mary Fain Brandt: 21:48

So I had a previous client reached out to me yesterday. She's high level political advisor, campaign person. She's been flown out to Washington but in the meantime those positions take a while to secure. She's doing some consulting work and this is the first time that she told me. This is the first time I'm not working full time in an office and she's working on two campaigns here locally consulting. So it's remote and she's having it going from in the office to remote that transition. She feels like she has to tell her boss every single thing she does and he's like, no, this is what she's doing. That's why I hired you. I know that you're doing that, but she was like reporting to him every day. So we had a conversation like what's that balance of making sure that your boss understands that you're doing the work without? She's used to being micromanaged. That's what she said.

Laura Bashore: 22:48

I said well clearly, when you have to, I understand that.

Mary Fain Brandt: 22:51

I understand that, because I was micromanaged before I said what if you did like a weekly recap, told your boss, I'd hear that I like that idea. Here's the three projects I worked on this week. Here's what phase we're at. Here's the ones I have planned for next week. Is there anything that needs to be adjusted? That is a higher priority. So you're having weekly communication indicating what you're working on, what's coming up and maybe listing any obstacles. And she really liked that idea, so she's-.

Laura Bashore: 23:19

And showing that you're open to feedback Open to feedback that last one that you mentioned is so important. Sorry to cut you off on it, but I mean that's really important and shows that you understand what the communication is about. It's not just Right.

Mary Fain Brandt: 23:33

It's not about communicating every day, but it's about having some consistent communication, especially in a political campaign, a local political campaign. But her other thing was I feel guilty, mary. Why do you feel guilty? Is your work getting done? Yeah, but I'm not working from eight to five, okay. Is your work getting done? Is he happy? Is he satisfied with the work you're turning in? Yes, yes. Are you meeting your goals and objectives? Yes, okay, you're not there you go, that remote work. It's like get the work done, but it might take someone five hours and it might take someone else seven, right? Yes, so that's okay. Now let's think about when we were back in the office, laura. Okay, no, when we were back in the office, did we work a full eight hours every day, or?

Mary Fain Brandt: 24:24

were we getting our work done and then talking, maybe doing the lunch, checking something on the internet like, let's be honest, none of us were working eight hours at our desk every day, nianne.

Laura Bashore: 24:38

No, no, you'd have some days where you yeah, I mean you might on some days when you felt really inspired, but that's what goes back to the whole flexibility of it. You know, people are always saying, or companies are saying, that they want their employees to be innovative. We can't innovate if you're always bogged down with the task. You have to have that time to create, so that's something for employers to think about as well. Is that giving this flexibility is going to lead to more creativity?

Mary Fain Brandt: 25:08

Creating and bonding, doing relationship stuff. So talking to your coworkers and understanding who they are and if they're having a rough day like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that your child is sick or your dog is sick or whatever Is there anything I can do for you? I've got a little space, what can I take off your plate? And then that just transfers to remote work. Oh, you're having. You know today's a wonky day for you. Is there anything that I can do for you? There may be, there may not be, but just the act of asking can really help solidify a relationship and I feel you know you can do that in person and you can do that remotely.

Laura Bashore: 25:49

Yeah, I think it's about creating that culture and understanding that you want people to have those check-ins so that they can get that relatability, because, you know, the number one thing I get asked for outside of you know how do I make sure they understand I want remote work is once people are working remote, how do they get promoted?

Laura Bashore: 26:12

They feel like they need to be seen in the office to be promoted, and I think that's something that people really forget about. So, talking about how do you build rapport with your coworkers and your supervisors, so according to a recent article in Fortune, employee satisfaction is still highly tied to managerial satisfaction and culture. So I personally have not reported to a supervisor remotely, except I do have the CEO for the franchise that I run. Now my thing is more aligned with having people report to me. What I do like about that is I can give more individualized attention to each of them and then know what we should be sharing in a group setting and what we should be sharing one on one. I think that's actually clearer to me as a remote supervisor, but then again, I've been working my own business remotely for nine years.

Laura Bashore: 27:19

Forever, yeah, so that's why I have a better understanding of kind of the mentality of what that employee does, I think.

Mary Fain Brandt: 27:30

I have reported to you with it. Yeah, so, through a contract job, I'm a LinkedIn coach for a group and I write their profiles for their clients, and so that was the transition for me, right, because I wanted them to know what I was working on. But now I'm just like I'm doing the work and if I have a question, we have Asama and they're in a different country, they're in South Africa, so it's not like I can pick up the phone, you guys. So we use Zoom and Asana and Slack, so you have to have the right tools to have communication, because some things I got to record a video and send it via email, quick questions that's Slack, right. So I think you have to provide different tools for your employees to communicate on, and you have to be.

Mary Fain Brandt: 28:24

We have a team meeting. Sometimes I can join, sometimes I can't. I'm the only one in the States. There's someone in Scotland like the South Africa, scotland, I forget where else, but we're kind of all over the world, which is kind of cool, right, working with people all over the world. But yeah, at first I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I'm doing what they wanted, and so I actually told my boss, like I just need to know that you're satisfied with the work I'm turning in, and is there anything that we would do different? And so I feel like it took a while. So my point is you don't give it time. Three months, yeah, it's a big adjustment.

Laura Bashore: 29:08

Yeah, yeah, it's a big adjustment and I like what you said. There, too, is communication. You have to change it to where no communication doesn't mean things are great. You have to figure out what's the appropriate amount of communication to give to someone so they know that you see what they're doing and that you value the work that's being done, while not bogging them down with like a 45 minute meeting that doesn't need to be there.

Mary Fain Brandt: 29:37

And we've got it and they see the work I'm doing because I'm writing profiles for their clients, right Background banners and profiles and all that but it's all tracked in a sauna so that we all can see what page we're on. So I think that's. The other thing is are you including everyone that needs to be included in the communication? I can go back and look at who's met with that client, where they got stuck, et cetera. But moving on from reporting to supervisors remotely, I like to talk about how do you keep that culture up and how do you really nurture relationships when your team is remote? And again, the bank that I was working at when the pandemic hit and we were all sent home, our the executive team which I was on was like how do we keep everyone engaged? How do we keep communication going? So, besides, like a weekly email, I came up with the idea of coffee meetup. So, just like in the office, when you go and grab coffee and water, you say hi to someone, ask how your weekend was, what are they working on? Well, you can't do that when you're working remotely. So we did a weekly coffee Zoom meeting and I would send a reminder out. And it was like 930 on Tuesdays. Never do it on Monday. Monday's crazy, right, but Tuesday is like 930 to maybe 950 or 10 o'clock for a half hour. Just leave that Zoom meeting open and anyone could drop in and say hi. Anyone could drop in and say hi. And then we did some fun things like crazy hat day Drop in the Zoom with your hat and there was a prize for it. So, just like the wood in the office, just do that. And we did that via Zoom and that did help for a while because it was all new for us.

Mary Fain Brandt: 31:28

The other thing I was reading this article where this CEO of this company he set up one-on-one meetings with each of his employees. It took him a full year to do it, laura, but I really see the value in that. And these weren't performance. This wasn't a performance review, this was just like hey, laura, I want to meet with you for 30 minutes. I don't know if it was 30 minutes, I'm making that up, maybe it was an hour. I want to meet with you and just see what you're working on.

Mary Fain Brandt: 31:58

What do you need help? Just kind of get to know you, because you can't know your employees, you can't help your employees if you don't know where they're struggling, what their strengths are. You might find a shining star, a shining marketing star, in one of those meetings. Oh, I really have a love for marketing. I'd love to maybe create some posts or create a campaign. Great, let's see what you got. I really liked that. This CEO went above and beyond, in my opinion, and met with every person in his company. It took him a year, though, so I don't think that you have to.

Mary Fain Brandt: 32:30

I think people are like oh, I can't do that. I have 30 employees or 50 employees. Take your time.

Laura Bashore: 32:38

Yeah, so Exactly, I think it's more about making the connection than the timeliness of it at that point, because if you're steering the entirety of the organization, it'll be seen as something that's helpful. Yeah, so I think the last thing to kind of touch on is how do you plan your career, growth and development? When we're in a remote environment, we can think that all we need to do is just keep our head down and work, but much like we do when we are in person. That's a good way to get yourself ignored. You need to be visible before you need to. Layoffs are happening, but if your job was spared, we encourage you to become more visible.

Laura Bashore: 33:26

How can you make yourself memorable If you can go into the office and show your face? You know, if they have that option, that's great. This is a big one is helping out a co-worker or a colleague or taking on a new project. But whatever you do, just make sure that you don't blend into the background, because it's really easy in a hybrid environment Over-communicate, not to where it is micromanaging or just seems like extremely needy, but just show your highlights. I really like what you said, with maybe just a quick weekly update on where things are and what? Am I meeting the right priorities? Learning AI, which you and I have been talking about it's really important and it's going to continue to grow and integrate into your department and company overall. Then, certain job functions that are going to become outdated they already are becoming outdated.

Mary Fain Brandt: 34:32

I was reading something where what was it In the last few years that AI? Because AI has been around for a long time. It's just mainstream now, like Alexa, google, siri, integrations, grammarly. There's so much AI around it's crazy. But, like you said, certain job functions are going to become outdated. If you have five job functions that can be done with AI, you need to learn AI. Ai still needs that human touch. But what if you're the person that says I'm going to start learning AI, I'm going to learn how. Is there a way we can use AI in the company to streamline a process, to help our customers to market ourselves better? Be that person, because they're going to need someone to train the AI, to set up the AI, and you don't have to be a software engineer to do that. I'm not a software engineer person. I don't do coding, I just learned AI and how to use it. So you know how passionate I am about that, laura.

Mary Fain Brandt: 35:37

So finally, resources we have a couple of resources for you and we'll put these in the show note. First off, universities offer some free courses, like I had forgotten. Like Stanford and Harvard, they actually have free courses and that could be a great way for you to get a refresher or maybe a credential that you need and put that on your LinkedIn profile. Don't forget to do that so that could be a great way to help you stand out. And then we have an amazing remote job board. It's a great resource. I'm on their weekly email, I think, so I can just stay in touch with what's going on, and we'll put that as well in the show notes and I believe it's called remote source, remote sourcecom. It's the biggest free job board in the biggest free remote job in the United States, so you can sit and learn more about. There's a newsletter for remote workers. You know, work smarter while remote, so we'll share all of these links in the show notes so that you can just have better resources at your fingertips.

Laura Bashore: 36:52

Yeah, because that's another thing. Update your resources. You're updating other things. Update where you're finding your information. So that's great. We'll make sure to put those in there, ok well, here's to remote work taken over.

Mary Fain Brandt: 37:07

If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you and don't forget to visit our website.

Laura Bashore: 37:20

You need to find your career journey so it can help you take the next step in your career.

Mary Fain Brandt: 37:24

So we'll see you next week with another episode was to help you redefine your career journey. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.