The Ultimate Working From Home

The Ultimate Working From Home Guide

The work-from-home job force just got a big push from the current global corona virus pandemic. But even before COVID-19 became a factor, increasing numbers of people have been saying goodbye to their onerous commute to work. Thanks to ever-evolving technologies like Skype, Face time, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, authenticator apps, and cloud computing—not to mention texting and email—it's no longer necessary to be in an office full-time to be a productive member of the team. In fact, many kinds of work can be done just as effectively, if not more so, from a home office.

As appealing as remote work is to employees, it wouldn’t be such a strong trend if employers didn’t also recognize benefits from their side of the desk. Companies with work-from-anywhere policies can boost employee productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs, according to recent research at Harvard Business School telecommuting workers with very complex jobs who don't require a lot of collaboration or social support can perform better than their office-based counterparts, according to another study. Also, in the event of a natural or manmade disaster, a distributed workforce is in a better position to keep operations running, even if some of the group goes offline.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• For employers, working from home can boost productivity; reduce turnout, and lower organizational costs, while employees enjoy perks like flexibility and the lack of a commute.
• To work effectively from home, you'll need to make sure you have the technology you require, a separate workspace, Internet service that meets your need, a workable schedule you can stick to, and ways to connect with others.
• Top fields for remote work include computers and IT, education and training, and healthcare; positions include customer service reps, virtual assistants, data entry and transcription, teachers, and more.
• A variety of top firms, including Amazon, Dell, Humana, Kaplan, and Sales force, offer remote work opportunities, but it's also important to be aware of scams.

How to Work Effectively From Home

 

Whether you’re working remotely one day per week (or more) or full-time—by choice or because of a health situation or weather event—it’s important to ensure that you are set up to be productive. This includes having a designated workspace with the right technology; ways of dealing with kids, pets, and other potential disruptions; and a schedule that allows for the social contact and stimulation that ordinarily comes from being in a workplace with others. Here are strategies and tips to be successful as a remote worker.

Know the ground rules

Does your employer require a nine-to-five schedule, or is there flexibility? Are you allowed to work on public Wi-Fi? Which tech tools might you need, such as Zoom for video conferencing, Slack or Microsoft Teams for group chats, or Trello for project management?

 If you work for someone else, it's important that your employer spells out the ground rules and ensures you have the appropriate equipment, such as a laptop, as well as network access, pass codes, and instructions for remote login, including two-factor authentication. Be sure to do trial runs and work out any problems that might impede your work. If you work for yourself, you may need many of the same tools.

Set up a functional workspace

Not everyone has a designated home office, but it's critical to have a private, quiet space for your work. If you can, separate your work area from your personal spaces and use it just for work, not for other activities.

Get the internet speed you need

If you have kids, their FaceTiming and Xbox habits may slow your connection and download speeds. Moving as close as you can to your Wi-Fi router can help (devices that are distant tend to draw on bandwidth), or you can consider switching to Ethernet. You'll likely need a dongle since laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days, plus an Ethernet cable to connect your computer to your router. Wondering if your most-used website is down?

Use phone apps

If your job involves making long distance and/or international calls, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Skype all let you call over the Internet across the globe on the cheap. And if you and the person you're calling are on the same service, the call will be free.

Minimize distractions

If you have a barking dog or a jack-hammering worker outside your windows, consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones, such as Apple's Air Pod Pros. And if the kids are home and you're without childcare (say, during the summer or a natural emergency), see if you and your spouse (or a neighbour in a similar situation) can take turns with care—which may mean you have to talk to your manager about working evening hours.

Plan extra social interactions

Some folks love the thought of working in solitude, but even the most introverted among us can start feeling a little claustrophobic after a few weeks at home, alone, staring at the same project for long hours. It can get lonely. Be ready for that, and try to schedule some connect-with-the-outside-world time, like a lunch date (even if you take it at 3 PM), a video chat with a friend, or an exercise class.

Pros

You are truly independent. It’s much more than just the benefit of getting to work in your pyjamas. Working from home means you’ll learn to rely on self-motivation, self-discipline, focus, and concentration.

“As you work through your career, those are really critical components for success,” says Fay. “It sounds simple and obvious but the time management and scheduling you have to do is an important skill to have.”

You can get more work done. As long as you’re not sneaking off binge Netflix, you can actually be more productive when working from home.

“For starters, the remote worker isn’t spending hours commuting,” says J.P. Giugliano, partner at talent acquisition firm Winter Wyman. In fact, when Giugliano works remotely, he says it adds three hours of stress-free productivity to his day. Plus, you won’t have the occasional annoyances of office life: interruptions, loud co-workers, chatter, et cetera.

You’ll become a communications expert. When having a quick meeting in the break room isn’t possible, you have to get up to speed on what communication tools are available, says Fay. “From texting, Skyping, emailing, web meetings—out of necessity, you become very savvy in all of those.” 

Cons

You may forget to clock out. While people might think working from home means doing less, the opposite might be true for diligent employees. “When you don’t have that separation of going to and from the office, your workday kind of blurs together into your home life,” says Fay. Feeling like you’re always “at work” could even lead to burnout.

You can feel out of the loop. You might not realize it until you’re not there, but there is a lot of casual collaboration that happens in an office, says Fay. Whether it’s picking up on the best practices of your colleagues or having an impromptu brainstorming session over lunch, it’s hard to replicate that from home.

You might not have full access to technology platforms. For the most part, cloud technology has made it easier than ever for remote workers to work from anywhere. However, Fay notes that there are situations in which data security or consumer protection concerns might prevent telecommuters from having full access.

Co-workers might accuse you of slacking. When you work from home and can’t get to a call or email right away, your co-workers may not give you as much leeway as they might if you were in the office. People might wonder if you’re taking it easy rather than pulling your weight. “Remember,” says Fay, “the onus is on the work-from-home individual to be over communicating what they’re doing and what they’re accomplishing.”

Tips for working from home

Don’t underestimate face time. Be more communicative than usual, if only to boost camaraderie. “There are fewer such opportunities for spontaneous team building when working remotely,” says Giugliano, “so it is important to be proactive in finding ways to engage your co-workers.” 

The next best thing? Pick up the phone to congratulate someone after a job well done, or the completion of a project rather than sending an impersonal email or IM, he adds.

Keep it professional. Even if you don’t have a dedicated office, try to set up a workspace and make it off limits to the rest of your household while you’re working. There’s nothing worse than being on an important work call only to have the doorbell ringing, the dog barking, and the kids screaming in the background, says Fay.

Be responsive. Get in the habit of sending a prompt reply whenever you get an email, even if it’s just to say, “Got it,” or, “I’ll get back to you by noon,” says Giugliano. And, do your best to be available for conference calls or other collaborations, even if you don’t have strict work hours.

Set specific touch points with your team. It’s smart to set a time each day/week for regular check-ins with your manager and/or your colleagues, says Fay. That will not only help you stay accountable, but it will also remind your office counterparts that you’re still an important part of the team.

 Always strive to be a better worker

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, first schools and malls shut down across the country and then businesses started asking employees to Work From Home (WFH) where possible. If you are an office worker, in tech, in tele-calling or customer service or if your entire work is on a computer, then sooner or later, your employer will move you to a WFH status. For those used to working remotely, this is not new. But if you are dealing with the situation for the first time, here’s how to master it.

1. Work area
Your first task is to create a workspace in your house that is conducive for WFH. Ideally you will work in a room by yourself behind a closed door. No roommates, no fridge and no bed to tempt you away. Invest in the right furniture to make it comfortable. A proper desk and ergonomic work chair are better than a backache triggered by working on the sofa with your laptop. Keep your desk clean and tidy. Make sure you have a wall or background that suits a Skype or v ..
2. Get organised
Get your laptop, diary, pen, cell phone and chargers in place. If you are in noisy house, invest in a noise cancellation headphone. Use a mouse for better efficiency. Figure out who will take care of the children and keep them from disturbing you with schools closed. If your spouse is on WFH too, share time slots and children related chores. Organise routines and rules for other disturbances like the maid and doorbell.

3. Block people
The biggest challenge in a WFH routine is the presence of other people at home or from your life. Block out distractions from people by agreeing on ground rules with them. Pretend you are not at home while following rigid work hours. Do not get involved in conversations, personal calls or housework. Use headphones, a hoodie or even tinted glasses to create boundaries.

4 . Calendar control
Remember you are earning a salary in your WFH situation. Stay committed to your timings and deliverables. Avoid home chores or personal appointments during working hours except during scheduled breaks. Don’t abuse WFH by being unavailable or else you will compromise your professional respect and may lose your job when your company cuts costs to deal with Corona-triggered challenges.

5. Reschedule distractions
What were harmless social media distractions at office become deadly productivity killers in a WFH where there is no team to pull you back to work. Remove social media extensions and switch off all notifications both in your laptop browser as well as on your cell phone. Switch off your mobile data and use it only for calls. Keep your coffee flask and snacks available on your desk so that you don’t get up too often.

Balance your life

 Physical boundaries
Establish rules and boundaries to protect your personal life from work that may creep into it. Do not carry work away from your desk and do not interrupt family time or social time to complete pending work. Increase your social interactions with friends to stave off loneliness and to compensate for lack of human contact.

Work in your PJs, avoid the commute, answer emails from a hammock while sipping a pineapple daiquiri—you’ve heard the common benefits of working remotely (and yes, they’re true!). But there are some things that might surprise you about what it’s like when you don’t have to go into the office every day.

1. Your Office Can Be Any Kind

You’ll probably work from home if you work remotely. But that doesn’t mean you have to have fill a corner of your living room with a clunky desk, a huge monitor, and an ugly rolling chair. You can fit your office wherever it fits in your life. I’ve heard about a remote worker who uses her kitchen breakfast bar as a standing desk (all those health benefits with no investment!) and one who converted part of her bedroom closet into a “hidden” office so she can just shut her work away at the end of the day.

2. Your Office Can Be Anywhere—and I Mean Anywhere!

And you’re not tied to your home, either. That doesn’t mean your only other location will be the coffee shop around the corner: You can take care of your job while travelling (passengers only if you’re in the car, please!), enjoying the great outdoors (thanks to long laptop battery life and tethering to your phone), or even listening to your favourite band at a live concert (a tested and true location of a remote customer service manager I know who’s a die-hard country music fan).

3. You’ll save Money

Of course you’ll see an immediate difference in your bank account when you don’t need to bear the costs of commuting. But you’ll also find savings in other areas. You won’t have to force yourself into a suit and polished shoes anymore if that’s not your style—no more separate wardrobes for work and for the rest of your life! And you can also save on food costs since you’ll easily be able to whip up your own lunch and coffee if you work from home.

4. Your Schedule Can Be Your Own

A lot of the work that can be done remotely nowadays can also be done on a flexible schedule. For example, if you’re a web developer or a content creator, you can most likely do your coding or writing whenever it suits you as long as you meet your deadlines. So, night owls, rejoice! You can still put in your eight hours without starting at 8 AM.

If you do need to work specific hours, you’re sure to still have some break time—time you can use however you’d like! Even if you have just 10 minutes, you can do something that just wouldn’t be possible in a traditional office: bust those samba moves, play a few tunes on your guitar, or take a refreshing power nap. You’re guaranteed to come back feeling more refreshed than you would after 10 minutes at your desk surfing Facebook.

5. You Can Learn More and Become More Independent

Because you don’t have colleagues just a few feet away or a tech team one floor down, you’ll find yourself developing the skill of looking for your own answers and becoming more proactive to find what you need on your own. Of course you can still ask questions and get help if you need to. But, a lot of the time, you can do a Google search, download a free guide, or check out your company’s wiki to find the answer yourself just as quickly.

And you’ll also end up with some skills simply because you need them to work well remotely. For example, you’ll probably notice that you’re writing more clear and concise emails and being more sensitive to your team’s different schedules out of necessity once you’ve worked remotely for a while. Not bad things to be good at!

6. You Can Actually Have Enjoyable and Effective Meetings

I bet you don’t know anyone who enjoys meetings. (No amount of free coffee and donuts can make up for having to sit in a stuffy conference room next to the pen-clicking guy from sales!) When you work remotely, you’ll not only be able to choose your breakfast and your seat, but you can also be much more effective. With just a few clicks, you can have 10 people on a video call that’ll probably last just 15 minutes instead of 45. And you can use the chat function in the video call to quickly share docs (forget making copies or having everyone search their emails) or to add important comments without interrupting anyone.

7. You Can Keep in Touch More Easily—and Maybe Have Some Fun Doing It!

Most people are afraid that they’ll be lonely or left out when they work remotely. But the opposite is usually true, as there’s a huge range of communication tools for remote workers available now. Some will even let you have a little fun together with features like emojis, chat room “bots,” or silly effects in video chats. With them, you can celebrate a colleague’s birthday by putting on a virtual top hat and monocle in your Google Hangout instead of suffering through an out-of-tune round of “Happy Birthday” and a grocery store cake!

8. You Can Keep in Touch More Effectively

Because you don’t have everyone physically around you all the time, you become much more aware of the importance of keeping in touch. Instead of just knowing that you can pop around the corner to chat with Rena about the site redesign whenever you like, you know that you need to write her or at least have a video chat. So, either in the process of composing your message or planning the meeting, you’ll refine your thoughts and questions and end up saving time for both of you when you do have that discussion.

9. You Can Stay More Focused

With some willpower and a steady routine, you’ll soon learn to avoid being distracted by the TV or your next load of laundry. And, in fact, you should find yourself getting more done when you work remotely. That’s because you can control your working situation much more—you don’t have to worry about co-workers stopping by to “just ask a quick question” (and 20 minutes later...), obligatory socializing when you grab more coffee, or offending someone by shutting the door to your office. When you’re remote and need to really concentrate, you can just change your status in the group chat to “do not disturb” and buckle down.

10. You Can Avoid Office Politics

There’s the old saying about relatives that “You can’t choose your family,” and the same goes for your co-workers. You might not be best friends with everyone when you work remotely. But, because idle chatting and time just hanging around the break room isn’t possible, remote workers tend to skip the gossiping and posturing that happens in traditional work settings. And that’s a huge bonus for everyone involved, isn’t it?

***************************************************