I will never forget a conversation I had with a young remote worker.

She was part of our initial study into the remote workplace and, as we talked, it became quite apparent that she was struggling. We asked questions about trust and psychological safety and listened as she described how alone she felt. It just seemed like her manager was always too busy.

As a result, she felt like she had to figure things out on her own. After watching youtube videos and making things up, she would submit things she hoped would be right. Sometimes they were and sometimes they weren’t, but she never got the feedback she needed to tell the difference. The longer she worked with the organization, the less confident she felt. The voices in her head, telling her she wasn’t good enough, had plenty of time and space to grow.

And here’s the thing…her boss was a nice enough person, but probably had very little idea how his “busyness” and lack of check-ins were impacting this new employee. Just a few regular, short, predictable meetings each week would be all it would take.

After talking with this young woman, I knew I had to let leaders know (part of the reason I chose to write a book)…creating trust in the remote workplace isn’t necessarily hard, but it IS different.

We just can’t assume the people we manage are OK. Check-ins are one of the most important keys to creating trust at a distance.