To those people on HN, I ask: How are you coping with remote work, especially if you started doing more remote work in 2020, and do you have any tips or tricks to share with others who might share your plight?
I'd say there are far _less_ phone calls as a remote employee than in office because there is an expectation in my remote employment that work is conducted asynchronously so Slack, E-mail, and written documentation is highly prioritized.
When I worked in-office stakeholders called me all the time, because they expected me to be at a desk and accessible by phone. It wasn't like they were going to come over from another floor or office complex just to talk with me. In remote, those kinds of phone where expected to be a Slack message or an e-mail.
These days, I pretty much expect 0 spontaneous phone calls in a work day. Phone calls are scheduled in advance, with agendas, plenty of time to plan out what I'm going to say. There's a high bar to pass to force everyone involved into a synchronous timeline and yank them out of whatever work they're in the middle of.
1 Write down the issues you need to convey / discuss as bullet points.
2 Metaphorically put your self into a role and play it.
Longer term if you want a long term career you need to get more comfortable speaking in front of a group both FTF and Over the phone / online.
Try Public speaking (when that is a thing ) I know some people rate them.
Oh and buy (or have an employer ) a decent webcam, head phone / mic set up.
No $9.99 cheap as chips headsets (I am looking at you microsoft)
Having the video on helps a ton, also rely on text chat a lot and try to go into a call prepared on the topics that need to be discussed.