Leadership

Remote Work, Resilience, and the Power of Friendship

Navigate remote work during personal crisis with grace—discover how trust, overcommunication, and genuine friendship create psychological safety that enables productivity through pain

This is Part 5 of 7 in the Life in Porto Alegre series.

This has been one of the most emotionally intense seasons of my life.

In July, my mother suffered a major stroke. We spent a full month by her side in the ICU. The stroke took more than her speech or mobility — it took memories, like the fact that my father has passed away years ago. Watching her battle through confusion, silence, and pain was something I’ll never forget. My wife and I had to decide quickly: move back to Natal-RN and support her recovery while continuing to work remotely.

It’s been hard. But also full of love, learning, and support.

Team support moments

A Plan to Stay Close

For the next 8 months, I’ll be spending two weeks each month in Natal, working remotely while being present for her physical therapy and daily recovery routines. The other half of the month, I’ll return to Porto Alegre and Dell’s office when possible.

Thanks to my manager Eduardo Mathias, to Cadu and Ulisses, and to my incredible friends — Corso, Henrique, Deco, Marcel Schmidt, and Pablo — this change has been not only possible, but embraced.

My wife has been nothing short of a hero — managing logistics, coordinating care, and keeping our home and plans running while I split my attention between work and family.

Collaborative work and planning

Remote-First by Necessity

Working remotely wasn’t new to me in theory. But doing it while emotionally drained, far from the team, and in hospitals or rehab centers forced me to level up fast. Here’s what helped:

  • Overcommunication: I proactively shared availability, blockers, and emotional state with my team.
  • Clear priorities: Together with Mathias, we focused on high-impact, well-scoped tasks I could tackle even in short focus windows.
  • Asynchronous work: I pushed for clarity in tickets, docs, and code reviews to minimize meetings and maximize autonomy.
  • Reliable rituals: Daily async standups, end-of-day check-ins, and weekly sprint calls created rhythm.
# Daily check-in template (sent on Slack)
👨‍💻 Today: finish OSB mappings
🧠 Blockers: ICU hours may reduce my availability
📦 Support needed: review PR #321 by tomorrow?

Strength in Trust

The psychological safety created by my leads made all the difference. I never felt I had to “prove” I was working — the outcomes spoke for themselves. When people trust you, you work better. You take initiative. You show up, even in pain.

Team celebrations and special moments

// A reminder from our codebase
if (deployment.isReady() && team.isAligned()) {
    return "Ship it with confidence";
}

Friendship Carries Weight

On days I felt like falling apart, I had friends who held me up. Sometimes through a simple message. Sometimes just sitting on a call while I wrote code. Sometimes distracting me with tech banter or shared nostalgia from our early coding days.

These bonds are rare. I don’t take them for granted.

Collaboration and teamwork

Looking Forward

This post is a reminder: our jobs are deeply human. Productivity isn’t just tasks delivered. It’s people supported. Leaders like Mathias, engineers like Cadu, and friends like Corso and Henrique — they showed me what that looks like.

We’re still on this journey. But I’ve never felt more certain: remote work, done right, can be deeply powerful.

Thanks to everyone walking beside us.

Until next update.

Life in Porto Alegre Series:

Complete series: Life in Porto Alegre Series