The Background
CALLING ALL VIRTUAL OR REMOTE WORKERS! Work hard, play hard. Sounds simple, right? Sure, except that it often feels like we’re really excelling at exactly half of that equation. So how do you know when to log off? Mute your phone? Resist the impulse to check your email? Take one step further -- what kind of lifestyle maximizes the joy and passion you find in work, and keeps the headaches and frustration to a minimum? The best part is that it’s entirely up to YOU how to manage the 24 hours in a day. Are you rockin’ it? Share your secrets, wise one. We want to hear all about it.
The Problem
Working for a virtual company is productive, liberating and most importantly, flexible. HeroX team members know all of these benefits extremely well as we are entirely a virtual staff! However, along with the benefits there are some drawbacks. The biggest drawback that virtual or remote employees face is finding the right balance between work and personal time.
The work–life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation). Source: Wikipedia
The HeroX team is looking for new ideas on how to best keep balance in this type of environment. So we've decided to turn to YOU, our fellow work-from-home colleagues for inspiration.
The Challenge Breakthrough
Employees of virtual companies and those who work remotely will be happier, healthier and more productive. The HeroX team will be incorporating the winning ideas to improve our own work-life balance goals as well. A follow up competition will be held to see which HeroXer can best implement the winning ideas into their daily activities.
What You Can Do To Cause A Breakthrough
Prize Structure
The challenge will award two prizes totalling $2,000 USD (note: one submission can be eligible for both awards):
Submission Requirements
Detail your strategies or daily routines and activities that demonstrate how you achieve a work-life balance in your virtual job. They can be in the following formats:
Our only restrictions are:
You can also submit as many ideas as you'd like to increase your chances of winning.
Judging Criteria
Each submission will be scored against the below criteria:
| Criteria | Description | Points |
|---|---|---|
|
Relevancy |
How does this activity/routine/strategy demonstrate work life balance? |
15 |
| Implementation | How easy is it to do? Can it easily be incorporated into someone’s schedule? | 15 |
| Adaptability | Is it an activity/routine/strategy that anyone can incorporate into their day? | 10 |
| Engaging/Compelling | How engaging is the presentation of the activity/routine/strategy? Does it inspire you to adopt it into your daily life? | 5 |
| Originality | How novel is the activity/routine/strategy? Or how was it uniquely adapted for the virtual workplace? | 5 |
| Total | 50 |
Additional rules
Who can participate:
The Challenge is open to all individuals or teams who work for virtual companies or work remotely. To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the Challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement.
Selection of Winner:
Based on the winning criteria, two prizes will be awarded for a total of $2,000. In case of a tie, the winner will be selected at the discretion of the Judging Panel.
Voting:
All votes are subject to review. Any competitor using unfair methods to solicit votes will be automatically disqualified from the challenge.
Entries that are eligible for the Voting stage will become viewable to the public. Make sure that if your entry moves on to the Voting stage, that you're OK with anyone seeing it! Depending on the number of entries received, either all or a selected shortlist will move on to the Voting stage.
Registration and Submissions:
All individual and team submissions must be submitted online on or before December 19, 2016 at 2AM PST. No submissions will be accepted after this time. Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. All submissions must be received online, via the Challenge website.
Written proposals are limited to 1 page maximum. Minimum margins are one inch. Font must be minimum 12 pt, double-spaced (any text in tables and figures may be as small as 9 pt)
Proposals must be uploaded as a single unlocked PDF document, 20 MB maximum. Embedded hyperlinks to external content, such as videos or animations (maximum two minutes duration recommended) or anything else that might help the judging panel evaluate the entry, are allowed. However, there is no guarantee that judges will view external content, so the proposal document itself must stand on its own.
Challenge Guidelines are subject to change. Registered competitors will receive notification when changes are made, however, we highly encourage you to visit the Challenge Site often to review updates.
Communication
English is official language for submissions, proposals, presentations, and all communications.
Eligibility
The Challenge is open to all individuals or groups of individuals who are over the age of majority in their province, state, territory or country of residence.
While companies, firms, and individual professionals are welcome and encouraged to participate, the Challenge is an amateur competition. The Challenge is not soliciting expert and/or professional opinions but rather, simply soliciting ideas. Any ideas that may be acted on in the future will first be fully vetted and deemed reasonable by HeroX.
No individual may be a member of more than one team. Participation is void wherever restricted or prohibited by law.
HeroX reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any participant who is (i) found to be tampering with the entry process or with the operation and administration of the Challenge; (ii) acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with the intent to disrupt or undermine the legitimate operation of the Challenge; (iii) or in violation of the Challenge Rules.
Automated entries or votes sent via bots will be disqualified. Automated and/or repetitive electronic submissions (including but not limited to entries made using any script, macro, bot or contest service) will be automatically disqualified and transmissions from these or related accounts may be blocked. HeroX reserves the right to seek damages and other remedies from any such entrant to the fullest extent permitted by law, including but not limited to criminal prosecution.
Participants must comply with these Challenge Rules. Participants will be deemed to have received, understood and agreed to these Challenge Rules through their participation in this Challenge.
No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the competition.
Prize Monies
Individuals and teams are solely responsible for any taxes that they might incur from their prize money.
Licensing and Copyright
Any submission submitted in connection to the Challenge must be an original work created by the participant or the participant team members and the participants must have all necessary rights in and to the submission.
The submission must not infringe upon or violate any laws or any third party rights, including, but not limited to, copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, privacy, publicity or confidentiality rights or other proprietary or contractual rights and must not include material that is libelous, defamatory, or tortious.
Participants must obtain, and make available to HeroX upon HeroX’s request, all necessary permissions, licenses, releases, waivers of moral rights and other approvals from third parties necessary for HeroX to use and exploit the submission, in whole or in part, including without limitation, to reproduce, make derivatives, edit, modify, translate, distribute, transmit, publish, license and broadcast the submission worldwide, by any means.
Participants must assign to all of their rights in the submission and the intellectual property embodied therein, to HeroX.
Participants must keep confidential the data and other information disclosed by HeroX and the contents of participants' submissions, during the Challenge and thereafter, unless HeroX authorizes disclosure of the information or Submission.
To participate in the Challenge participants must agree to these terms and other terms described in the HeroX Intellectual Property Agreement.
Submissions will be retained by HeroX for use by HeroX, its affiliates, licensees and Challenge partners.
Applications will be retained by HeroX; information and data will be accessed only by HeroX and its competition partners and not sold or shared.
Disclaimers
The Challenge Rules are subject to change. Registered participants will receive notification when changes are made. However, participants are encouraged to visit the Challenge Site often to review updates.
HeroX is not responsible or liable for late, lost, incomplete, illegible, misdirected, stolen, delayed, damaged or destroyed entries, notifications, replies or any Challenge Release; for lost, interrupted, inaccessible or unavailable networks, servers, Internet Service Providers, websites or other connection, related to the Challenge; for errors of any kind, including but not limited to human, electronic, mechanical and/or technical in nature; for failure or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer and online systems, servers, computer equipment, software, e-mail, players, or browsers on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, any websites related to the Challenge, including without limitation the Challenge Webpage, or any combination thereof or otherwise; for any injury or damage to participant, participant’s computer, or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating in or downloading material in connection with the Challenge; for incorrect or inaccurate information; and/or for weather conditions, event cancellations, delay or rescheduling or other factors beyond HeroX’s control.
CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS CHALLENGE MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, HeroX RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES OR OTHER REMEDIES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON(S) RESPONSIBLE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
Governing Law
The Challenge is subject to applicable federal, provincial and municipal laws and regulations and is void where prohibited by law. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the Challenge Rules or the rights and obligations as between the entrant and HeroX in connection with the Challenge shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the US/Canada including procedural provisions without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of any other jurisdiction’s laws. The decisions of HeroX with respect to all aspects of the Challenge are final and binding.
