121
A 121 is short-hand for a casual networking meeting that's held between two people who have met at a larger networking event. The goal is usually to learn about each other's skills to see if any natural collaboration or business opportunities may arise.
2-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authenticity is a digital security measure that asks users to verify their identity through a known, separate communication channel. This is usually achieved via text message to a pre-registered mobile phone, in-app verification, or email to a secondary email address.
A
All-Remote
All-remote is a term for working from home, where the entire team works from home as the default business structure. All-remote teams do not have a fixed office to work from, but may work from third locations including coffee shops and co-working spaces.
Agile
Agile work is an interactive approach that breaks complex projects down into smaller pieces, which lets people find the most appropriate solution for each element of the task. Agile work is a highly-flexible way of working that relies on learning from experience, and continuously adapting the way things are done to achieve the best overall outcome.
Always-On Culture
Pressure to be constantly responsive that can negatively impact work-life balance. Requires boundaries in remote settings.
Annualized Hours
People on annualized hours do all of their work for the year in a shorter amount of time, which allows them to take extended time off each year. People on annualized hours may work 7 days a week for 8 months, then take 4 months off in lieu of their missed weekends.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a virtual world that allows people to interact with digital environments in real-time. Augmented reality may be used to simulate experiences in 3-D, envision future environments, or recreate the in-person office environment online.
Asynchronous Communication (Async Communication)
Asynchronous communication is a style of communication where response times are not required until convenient. This is most often used in teams that span multiple time zones, and for tasks that consolidate input from multiple people.
B
Blended Team
A blended team is another term for a hybrid team. People work from home or a third location some of the time and come into the office for active collaboration some of the time. People decide where they work based on when they work, the tasks they are working on, and which of their colleagues they need to work with each day.
Blogger
Bloggers prepare informational articles for businesses to publish on their blogs, which helps drive traffic to websites. Blogs allow businesses to rank well on Google by showing the business is an industry authority and provide link opportunities to products that can boost the company's online sales.
Brick-and-Mortar Business
A brick-and-mortar business operates out of a functional space where the use of the space is an essential part of the service. Examples of brick-and-mortar businesses include car-repair workshops, grocery shops, art galleries and health spas.
C
Captcha
Captcha is a type of digital authentication where users are asked to prove they are human by selecting the correct squares from a broken image. Bots are unable to complete the puzzle, but oftentimes, humans get them wrong too!
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is a digital storage solution that allows files to be stored online by the software used to create and manage them. This makes files accessible on all of a user's devices, which synchs workflow across multiple devices to create a seamless user experience under a single user account.
Commute
A person's commute is the time, route and means of transport that a person uses to travel to their place of work. Some people commute on foot, while others may drive or use public transport to commute to work.
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that digital, human and technological assets conform to legislation, local regulation, and industry-specific standards. Compliance is usually regulated by third-party policies and is necessary to maintain quality and safety standards for staff, communities, and the environment.
Couchpreneur
Couchpreneur is a slang word used to describe somebody who starts a side-line business in their spare time.
Co-Located Team
In a co-located team, most people in the team always work together from the same place. They choose the same place every day and nearly always work together in person.
Co-Location
A co-location is a place where co-located teams regularly work from. This may be the normal office, and may also be a communal co-working office with hot desk facilities.
Co-Working
Co-working is the process of working together with other people in a shared environment, where the people work independently for separate businesses.
Co-Working Space
A co-working space is a communal workspace where people from different organisations can work independently and together. Co-working spaces may offer a fixed desk or a hot desk. They can often be used on an ad-hoc basis as needed.
Compressed Work Week
People on compressed hours will compress their working week into fewer days to facilitate more time off. The same amount of work and responsibility is performed at a higher intensity. Compressed work weeks are sometimes called 4-day weeks.
Conference Call
A conference call is a digital meeting that's conducted by phone or video, often from multiple locations across different time zones.
Conference Room
A conference room is a physical location that's purpose-built for meetings. Conference rooms frequently have specialist audio-visual equipment, and may be soundproofed for confidentiality.
Creator Economy
The creator economy refers to a collection of creative freelancers who provide the content used in content marketing. Creators may produce anything from social media posts and captions to email newsletters, explainer videos and website content.
CRM
CRM is an acronym for client relationship management. It refers to the process used to keep track of the customer's lifecycle. CRM is often managed collaboratively using specialised software like HubSpot.
D
Deep Work
Deep work is a period of highly-focused work performed without distractions. This can also be described as getting into the zone or finding creative flow.
Dematerialization
Dematerialization refers to the systematic removal of material tools which are instead replaced with digital tools. Paper, pens, conference rooms and account storage boxes are often dematerialised into digital documents with online meetings. In some companies, the office is entirely paper-free.
Digital Nomad
Digital nomads are professionals who travel while working. Digital nomads may stay in a place for a few weeks or months and then move on to somewhere new without changing their job. Many digital nomads work in the creative economy.
Digital Work
Digital work is conducted entirely online, and only requires a computer and an internet connection.
Digital Workplace
A digital workplace is a collection of online platforms that are interconnected to allow for remote collaboration.
Digital Workspace
A digital workspace refers to the digital interface or software used to perform a specific task.
Dispersed Team
A dispersed team is a different way to say a hybrid team. Dispersed teams work from multiple locations, and may collaborate in the office sometimes as needed.
Distance Work
Distance work is another term for remote work. It's conducted from any location and is performed away from the central office.
Distributed Company
A distributed company is another term for an all-remote company. In a distributed company, all workers work remotely and there is no central office or physical premises.
Distributed Team
A distributed team is another way to say a remote team. Distributed teams work from wherever they are located and have no fixed premises or central office space.
Distributed Work
Distributed work is another word for remote work and another term for working from home. Distributed work is conducted away from a central office, and is not reliant on a fixed location.
Distributed Workforce
The distributed workforce is another term for people who work from home.
DuoMe
DuoMe is a hybrid worker coordination platform that helps hybrid teams pick the best days to be in the office.
E
Explicit Communication
Explicit communication is highly-specific. It's used to explain things where there is no margin for error or misinterpretation.
F
Face-to-Face Meeting F2F
A face-to-face meeting is held in person, either on a one-to-one basis or as a group.
Flexi-Time
Flexi-time is a flexible working arrangement where employees are allowed to work whenever it suits them, provided they get all of their work done within a pre-defined timeframe.
Flexible Working Definitions
Flexible working definitions describe a collection of work terminology that's used to describe common terms about flexible working. Companies determine their flexible working definitions to meet individual needs.
FOMO
The fear of missing out!
Freelance Work
Freelance work is a style of working where people work on projects as needed, with no formal contracts and no guarantee of future work. Many digital nomads are freelancers, and many freelancers work in the creative economy.
Freelancer
A freelancer is somebody who works on one-off projects as needed, without formal employment.
Free-range Worker
A free-range worker is another term for a remote worker. Free-range workers work from anywhere and will often decide where they will work on a whim.
Future of Work
The future of work is a term used to describe the trends and mood of the HR industry. It predicts how employment will look tomorrow, and reflects on what people want from their employment to help employers create desirable offers for their people of tomorrow.
G
Garden Office
A garden office or office shed is a stand-alone structure in a private garden that's used as a home office. Roald Dahl famously used a garden office to write his most-popular books!
Gig Economy
The gig economy refers to performance-style freelancing where performers work on a contractual or ad-hoc basis. Those in the gig economy may work in theatres, play in music venues, pose as art models or run pop-up workshops.
Global Employer
A global employer employs all-remote workers from various destinations around the world. Employees are often selected for their geographic relevance to the task, or for specialist skills that are unique to a country or place.
H
Home Office
A home office is an area in a person's private home that's dedicated to working from home. Home offices can take many shapes and forms ranging from a regular spot at the kitchen counter to a specialist room used exclusively as a home office.
Homeworking
Homeworking is another word for working remotely. It means working from home instead of going to the office.
Hot Desk
Hot desks are permanent desks that are used temporarily by different people each day. To hot desk means to choose your desk based on what's available on the day. Some organisations like to hot desk permanent staff to rotate people's seating arrangements. This is most common on sales floors where some desks are more valuable than others.
Hybrid Company
A hybrid company is another term for a blended company. In hybrid companies, some employees work from home or another remote location, while others work from the office. Hybrid companies create a hybrid schedule to suit requirements.
Hybrid Meetings
A hybrid meeting is a meeting where participants are both physically in the room and others are virtually present via video calls.
Hybrid Teams
Hybrid teams are groups of employees who work on the same projects or within the same department in a hybrid format. Some team members work remotely or work from home, while others work from the office. In a hybrid team, the whole team may also work remotely for some of the time, and from the office for some of the time, so that the whole team is always in the office at the same time, some of the time.
Hybrid Remote
Hybrid remote refers to people who work remotely for most of their time, with the opportunity to work from the office occasionally. Hybrid remote can also refer to companies where the majority of employees always work remotely, with a smaller core team who always work from the office.
Hybrid Scheduling Tools
Hybrid scheduling tools are interactive calendars made by DuoMe. They facilitate complex scheduling for hybrid teams by coordinating where people work, where they work from, and which tasks they're working on each day. This lets hybrid employees in large companies collaborate effectively without confusion.
I
Implicit Communication
Implicit communication is a complex style of communication that implies a hidden meaning.
Independent Contractor
Independent contractors work alongside companies as part of the team, but are not recognised as employees and instead work as freelancers on a contractual basis.
In-person Meeting
An in-person meeting is held face-to-face by two or more people. In-person meetings may be in a dedicated conference room or at another location at the office, and may also be held at a third location such as a local coffee shop or a co-working facility.
Instant Message
Instant messages are short text messages sent via phone or computer using specialist instant messaging apps. Instant messages usually show read reports, and the expectation is that replies will be quick and simple.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things refers to a person or company's digital ecosystem, where multiple devices are connected via the internet.
IRL
IRL is an acronym for 'in real life.' IRL is often used as shorthand, particularly in instant messages, and is most often applied when arranging in-person meetings.
K
Knowledge Worker
Knowledge workers work with knowledge and information to create strategies that are based on data and understanding.
L
Live Receptionist
A live receptionist is a real person who answers phone calls for multiple businesses in a virtual capacity. People who use a virtual office often have a live receptionist included in their package, which makes a small business look like a brick-and-mortar business when the owner is a solopreneur.
Location-Independent
Location-independent tasks can be performed from anywhere, and are not location-specific. A person who can do their work from anywhere is said to be location-independent.
N
Networking
Networking is the process of actively growing personal and professional connections to establish a network of people who you may like to do business with in the future.
O
Off-site Meeting
An off-site meeting is conducted away from the office in a sociable setting on neutral ground. Off-site meetings are sometimes held over lunch, which is common practice for meetings about new opportunities or to reward good performance.
Office Environment
The office environment is created by company culture. It refers to the pace, tone, and general atmosphere. The office environment is shaped by the phrase, "this is how we do things here."
Office Workers
Office workers work from a permanent, fixed location which is provided by the company they work for.
Offshoring
Offshoring is the process of allocating specific duties to people located beyond country borders, where the work is location-specific. Offshoring is most common in situations where local knowledge or specialist skill is paramount to a project's success.
On-site Meeting
On-site meetings are held either at the office or at the location where work on a project is taking place. On-site meetings are common at building sites and at places where the location has a direct impact on the success of the project.
Online Password Vaults
Online password vaults are secure password management tools that store users' passwords behind a single access point. This allows people to create unique, complex passwords without needing to remember them.
Online Storage
Online storage refers to collections of data and files that are held by service providers such as a website host or online software provider. If the user's online account is closed, the files stored on the provider's server are generally removed.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of hiring somebody to do specific tasks, usually on a freelance basis or via an independent contractor.
Overcommunication
Intentionally increasing communication to compensate for lack of in-person interactions. Helps prevent misalignments.
P
Playbook
Playbooks are another term for standard operating procedures. They define the standard way of doing things for every situation, which lets people work consistently without reinventing the wheel each time a task is repeated.
Presence Indicators
Features in remote work tools that show a user's availability and status. Helps avoid unnecessary interruptions.
R
Real-Time Communication Apps
Real-time communication apps are another term for instant messaging apps. They allow people to communicate instantly over the internet using text, voice or video.
Remote Work Challenges
Remote work challenges is a general term that covers all of the daily nuances and quirks faced by remote workers that can make working from home more difficult than working from the office.
Remote Desktop
Remote desktops are the online workspaces that remote workers use to do their jobs. This may be specialist online software like Canva or InDesign, and may also be an in-house system that facilitates remote work online.
Remote Employee
A remote employee works from anywhere but the office. Remote employees may work from home, a hotel, a library, a co-working space or a local coffee shop, and may not always work from the same location every day.
Remote Hiring
Remote hiring is when recruitment is conducted remotely, without a face-to-face interview. Remote hiring may take place via video conferencing, instant messaging, a phone call or a series of emails online.
Remote Work Myths
Remote work myths are the common misconceptions people hold about working from home.
Remote OK
Remote OK is a short-hand way of letting people know that a hiring company is remote-friendly and open to requests for working from home.
Remote Onboarding
The process of integrating new employees into the organization remotely.
Remote Work
Remote work is a term for working from home.
Remote Worker
A remote worker is somebody who works from home and does not have a fixed office location. Remote workers sometimes work from a co-working office or a third location, such as a coffee shop.
Remote-First
Remote-first is a term used to describe a company that prefers employees to work from home.
Remote-Friendly
Remote-friendly employers are open to requests for homeworking. Employees at remote-friendly organisations can usually choose if they would prefer to be office workers or remote workers.
Retreat
Retreats are company gatherings held at an off-site location which are usually used for team-building exercises or to reward excellent work. Company retreats are often held in desirable holiday destinations, and invitations to retreats may be used as an incentive to motivate employees.
S
Satellite Office
A satellite office is a secondary office in a different location away from a company's head office.
Scrum Meeting
Scrum meetings are held when teams gather to collaborate on projects using intensive, short bursts of effort.
Single Source of Truth (SSoT)
The Single Source of Truth (SSoT) is another term for the Standard Operating Procedures document. SSoTs are playbooks that are created to define how things are done and how people should handle various scenarios in the future.
SMART Goals
SMART Goals is a term used to describe goals that are simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Services (SaaS) refers to a type of business where custom-built software solves a core problem for its customers.
Solopreneur
Solopreneurs are people who run their own businesses with no other employees.
Sprint
A sprint is a project that's performed as a quick block of work, usually over a period of 1-4 weeks. Sprint projects are often used in the build-up to launches. Sprints are also used during developments where long-term projects are broken into smaller sub-projects that are completed in phases.
Startup
Startups are new business ventures that are grown into larger organisations over time, often through third-party investment.
Staying in the Loop
Staying in the loop is a slang term used to describe the process of intentionally keeping people informed as a formality.
Synchronous Communication
Synchronous communication is a style of communication where instant responses create back-and-forth communication in real-time.
T
Team Retreat
A team retreat is an off-site gathering that's usually held at a desirable location over multiple days. Team retreats are used to strengthen relationships, build team spirit, and enhance performance through positive rewards.
Telecommuting
Telecommuting is another term for working remotely. People who telecommute work from home, and commute to work by logging into their digital ecosystems.
Telesales
Telesales is a term used to describe sales made remotely.
Third Location (or Third Space)
A third location or third space is a work location that is neither at home nor at the office. People who work from a third location may work from a coffee shop, a casual co-working desk or the local park.
Thought Leader
Thought leaders are authority figures with specialist knowledge in their particular industry. Thought leaders provide commentary and opinions that can shape progression within their field of knowledge.
Time Management Apps
Time management apps help people stay organised by consolidating calendars, keeping track of deadlines and breaking large projects into manageable tasks.
U
Unplug
Unplug is a term used by remote workers to describe their shift from work to personal life at the end of the work day.
V
Video Chat
Video chat is a virtual meeting where participants can see and hear each other in real-time from any location.
Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant is a remote personal assistant. Virtual assistants are often freelancers. They perform tasks as needed and may help with a variety of marketing, admin or accounting tasks throughout the month.
Virtual Meeting
Virtual meetings are conducted remotely using online video software like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
Virtual Office
A virtual office is a subscription service that gives small businesses access to a registered address. Some virtual offices may also include a post-handling service or a live receptionist who answers calls on your behalf.
Virtual Phone System
Virtual phone systems use internet networks to make and receive calls instead of traditional phone lines.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Virtual private networks are mobile private networks that allow users to send confidential data through public networks from their own devices as though they're connected directly to their private network.
Virtual Receptionist
A virtual receptionist is another term for a live receptionist. Virtual receptionists answer calls and handle basic reception duties for all-remote businesses that don't have an office facility. Virtual receptionists are often included in virtual office subscriptions.
VoIP
VoIP is an acronym for voice-over-internet protocol. It's used when calls are made through the internet.
W
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a wireless communication network that connects digital devices to the internet.
Work from Home
Work from home is another way to say remote work. People who work from home conduct their business activities from home instead of a usual office location.
Work Management Software
Work management software is specialist software that creates an efficient workflow across all levels of an organisation. Work management software allows employees to collaborate on projects remotely.
Work Terminology
Work terminology is a collection of flexible working definitions and terms used to describe remote or hybrid work. Work terminology also refers to terms used to describe homeworking and office work.
Workcation (work from holiday)
Workcation is a term used to describe a working holiday, or working while on holiday. Workcations are sometimes used to facilitate fresh perspective or to focus on a specific task away from distractions.
Z
Zoom
Zoom is another term for a video call or an online conference call.
Zoom Fatigue
Feeling drained from excessive video calls. Suggests need for breaks, async and non-video communication.
