“Work from Anywhere at Anytime“(WFA) was introduced about a year ago. In this “WFA Special” series, we offer insights into solving the challenges of working remotely by sharing some practices our colleagues have adopted.
Today we are pleased to introduce you to Takayuki.
Here are some of the highlights and challenges he has encountered since he joined the company using the WFA system, along with some photos of the locale!
Takayuki Mieno
Enterprise Engineering Department
I am working in the Data Management Team of the Enterprise Engineering Department, operating the GCP (Google Cloud Platform) and building data analysis infrastructure.
Why Hokkaido?
Before PayPay, I was working for a company that has an office in Sapporo. So after joining PayPay, I remained in Hokkaido! My wife is from Sapporo, so that’s also a big reason why we stayed.
How is remote work, really?
There’s almost no downside to remote work! I couldn’t imagine what working remotely all the time would be like before joining PayPay, but once I started, I had no problem at all.
I feel much better now that I don’t have to go to the office on Mondays. Also, it’s nice to be able to eat lunch with my family and have more time to talk with my wife and children.
What are you careful about with remote work?
This is not limited to telecommuting, but I reply to messages or talk to people as politely as possible. If there are too many text messages, there’s a possibility that the other person will get the wrong impression.
Also, I try to not read too many chat messages and to reduce my workload by reviewing my daily tasks and not getting involved in assignments that I don’t have to be a part of.
For information that I need to know, I enter specific keywords in Slack’s notification settings or allot a time to read the chats on various channels in a short period of time.
I sometimes go fishing in the mountain streams.
I spend the nights making fly lures (artificial bait) for fishing.
What I feel about WFA
In my previous job, we had a system that worked smoothly, where the team in Tokyo worked in the office and the team in Sapporo worked online. And now at PayPay, even though some of us work from rural areas, we are able to keep at it without a hitch.
In the future, once the company rules and systems are in place and the spread of COVID-19 calms down, I would like to try working from overseas with my family, if even only for a short while!
[Editor’s note]
How was “WFA X Life in Hokkaido”?
I could see that Takayuki was conscientious about his work, such as reflecting on his daily tasks to perform them more efficiently, and communicating politely with colleagues so that there would be no friction in interacting with each other.
I hope this article will be a help for those of you who are considering remote work.
Authored by Takayuki Mieno/ Edited by Kona
* The information given is as of the time of the interview.
