☕️ (R)emote Expresso #25

Hi (R)emotes,

☕️ (R)emote Expresso is your weekly dose of creator insights on remote collaboration designed to fuel your day - Once a week in your inbox 💌

Hey Remote Rebels and Digital Daydreamers,

Here’s the unfiltered truth:

Remote work didn’t remove the emotional labor - it multiplied it.

It just got sneakier. Softer. More asynchronous. And a lot harder to name out loud.

Instead of managing eye rolls in real-time, we manage vibes through emoji diplomacy.

Instead of watercooler convos, we draft DMs like UN peacekeepers.

Instead of saying “That hurt,” we close the tab.

This week, we’re talking about what it really costs to show up emotionally in remote spaces - and how we start designing something better.

😵‍💫 THE EMOTIONAL LABOR YOU’RE PROBABLY DOING (Whether You Know It or Not)

You’re not imagining it : the slight anxiety before hitting “send,” the ghosting of that thoughtful message, the extra energy it takes to read the room — when there’s no room. Remote work has subtly shifted emotional labor onto individuals, and most of us are doing more of it than we realize.

1. Tone-checking everything

You re-read that message three times. Then added an emoji. Then backspaced the emoji. Then added a different one.

Because heaven forbid someone misreads your “Let’s circle back.”

2. Managing micro-silences

Your thoughtful post? No response.

A teammate’s “I like turtles” meme? 18 reacts.

Now you’re spiraling. (It’s not you. It’s the algorithm. And the culture.)

3. Translating across time zones

You’re the one stitching together context, noticing what wasn’t said, sensing when someone’s off.

You’re emotionally triangulating - across continents. That’s real labor.

4. Being the default ‘safe space’

You’re the one teammates open up to when they’re burned out or frustrated. That’s beautiful.

But who’s holding you?

🧠 WHY THIS MATTERS

Remote work outsources emotional fluency to the individual.

There’s no hallway energy to read. No body language. No informal “Hey, you good?”

And so the most emotionally attuned among us - the sensitive, thoughtful, relational glue-humans - get overloaded.

This is disproportionately falling on women, neurodivergent folx, and people of color.

💡 LET’S REDISIGN THE SYSTEM (Not Just Ourselves)

Emotional resilience shouldn’t be another solo performance. Here are some real things teams can do:

🌀 Build Collective Emotional Norms

Example: One team uses a shared “Mood Radar” Miro board — emojis + one-word status updates at the start of each week. It’s optional. But powerful.

🪩 Host a ‘Burnout Bouncer’ Check-in

Create a monthly 15-min call that isn’t about tasks - it’s about how you’re feeling. Borrow from mental health first aid. No advice. Just reflection.

📚 Document the Unseen

Emotional labor is labor. Add it to your retrospectives. Who soothed tensions? Who onboarded the intern behind the scenes? Give credit.

🎙 Give Language to the Invisible

Start calling it what it is. “Emotional labor” isn’t woo-woo - it’s infrastructure. Let’s normalize saying: “This is draining. How can we shift it?”

✨ YOUR TURN

What kind of emotional labor are you carrying that no one on your team sees?

Hit reply to share your story. All replies will be treated as anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

We’re collecting real experiences for a future community spotlight - because naming it helps us change it. 💜

🎁 Bonus Resources :

• The Emotional Cost of Remote Work : How Isolation is Changing Employee Well-Being

• Atlas of Emotions (created with the Dalai Lama)

• Emotional Labor and Remote Work Burnout : Set Healthy Limits

✨ Next Event : There Is an AI for That

Hosted by Boris Petrovitch Njegosh
Guest : Eduardo Ordax, Principal GenAI GTM Lead @ AWS

📅 Thursday, May 15 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CET

Overwhelmed by AI buzzwords? Not sure where to start?

This beginner-friendly workshop is your fast-track into practical, applied Generative AI. Eduardo will take you behind the scenes of AWS’ AI innovation playbook—showing how companies of all sizes are using GenAI to unlock real business value.

Whether you’re in design, product, tech, or marketing, you’ll walk away with clarity, confidence, and a new mindset for navigating the AI-powered future.

Build real skills to future-proof your role (no code, no jargon required)

What you’ll leave with:

🧠 How leading organizations are using GenAI right now

🔍 How to evaluate which AI tools are actually useful

⚠️ What common traps and hype cycles to avoid

⚡ How to shift from reactive to AI-ready

🥷 Meet Your Speaker

Eduardo Ordax helps organizations across EMEA scale their GenAI strategy at Amazon Web Services (AWS). With over 15 years of experience—from Vodafone to cloud-native startups—he bridges deep tech and business outcomes.

His superpower? Explaining the real potential of AI without the hype. Expect energy, clarity, and real-world relevance.

🎟️ Join the Session, spots are limited, so save yours now!

🫶 ONE LAST SIP

Being emotionally tuned in isn’t weakness - it’s wisdom.

But if we keep treating emotional labor as a personality trait instead of a shared team responsibility, we’re setting up remote work to fail the people who care most.

Let’s do better. Together. With empathy !

See you next week for another round of remote truth and gentle chaos. 💜

👨‍💻 Big Desk Energy : Our biggest startup insights & stories

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👩‍🎤 Customer Success Jobs : Our remote high-paying jobs for you

🔴 Creator Spotlight : Our favorite inspiration for world class creators journeys

R GENERATION is a dynamic global community where remote professionals, creators, and digital nomads come together to reimagine the future of work. We bridge cultures, time zones, and creative frontiers, uniting around a shared passion for innovation and meaningful connection.

Through engaging events, hands-on workshops, and exclusive access to cutting-edge AI tools, we’re transforming remote work into a space for bold experimentation, open knowledge-sharing, and limitless growth.

Join us in a collaborative and empowering environment where your ideas spark innovation, your curiosity fuels lifelong learning, and your ambition shapes the future of remote collaboration.

Go forth and stir the pot - lovingly, rebelliously, spectacularly. ⚡️