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Eric Warner is an IT compliance analyst for Kaplan, Inc, who currently lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin, a small city on the Mississippi River at the Minnesota border. Although he worked in the office in the past, his direct team was not in his local office but rather based all over the place, where there would sometimes be people in conference rooms meeting with people in other offices, including home offices. So, when everyone started working remotely, his direct team members were accustomed to working from different locations across several time zones. He speaks about how his supervisor trusts him to do his job and manages in a way that still offers a good degree of autonomy. This helps him to feel like he can find ways to connect with coworkers as well as keep a firm stop time, regardless of being done with work.

Although Eric works with IT folks, his background is actually quite diverse. He originally traveled quite a bit and served in the United States Coast Guard and eventually ended up with a history degree and then a law degree and worked as an attorney in different capacities for a while. He's taught at his local community college as well, and the combination of his experience helped him transition into his current role with Kaplan, where he's been for the past 7 years. He has grown college-age children and recently remarried so is looking at embracing some of the flexibility that remote work can offer such as the possibility of international travel in the future since his wife also works from home.

In this episode, Eric shares some of his tips for remote work including incorporating natural light into the workspace. He's an avid bird watcher and enjoys being able to see out his window while working. He feels that it's important for people to set up their home workspace in a way that is pleasant so that they don't mind being there for an 8-hour workday. Eric and his wife work on separate floors of their home but have been able to establish a routine where they are often able to step away for a walk or even take a nap during a lunch break, and they feel that they've been able to balance their degree of conversation and productivity throughout the day with little breaks here and there.

Eric can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-warner-b2b43253