TL;DR about Working from Home? Here is a curated version for you!

Warning: there's a twist at the end!!

Over the last few weeks, we've see a plethora of articles being shared by almost ever single person on the planet with something to share on the subject of Working from Home during (and after) #COVID-19 #crisis. A lot of it has become repetitive, but that could simply be my impression, because I read a lot of it.

But closer to home, among others, Georgie Hubbard shared in her post the following advice:

"I have worked from home for the past year and made many mistakes in the beginning. I wanted to share what I did to help me stay productive and energised throughout the day. I hope these tips help. 

• Maintain a healthy work-life balance by setting time limits.
• Create a separate office or workspace, if possible
• Set an alarm to move around every hour, and go outside once a day.
• Keep connected to colleagues/ manager and speak with them multiple time's a day to stay connected.
• Plan your day the night before. Including when you will start, take lunch and finish.
• Get ready daily as if you’re going to the office - Stick to a morning and evening routine.

Finally, show yourself some compassion. These are challenging times and we are all doing the best we can."

I'm not a well-being expert but a veteran of WFH, this definitely resonates clearly with me. It's clear, it's to the point and it works!

I would like to share some more posts on the subject, with a quick "editorial", as an attempt to curate some of the information for you. Remember, there's a twist at the end.

Employers

From an "employer" perspective, it's good to balance things out a little. So here goes:

How managers can support remote employees, by HBR.

In short, staff are trying to reach managers, who themselves are trying to reach many employees. It's not as easy as a quick 5 min chat at the office water cooler. Let's not forget, these managers are also trying to get in touch with their bosses too. So the advice is to implement 6 strategies "to augment availability to employees when working remotely": 1) check in frequently, call, IM, whatever; 2) Surgery time during office hours using digital tools again; 3) consistent rituals, like a morning team #voffee while #frooming (if you don't know what #frooming is, and expression coined by Avon Collis, click here); 4)As Georgie eluded to, set clear boundaries, but also with your colleagues and boss. In the office it's easy to see from body language or other. In a virtual world, set your "active" or "away" status to indicate your presence. It is important though to communicate your boundaries, not have people guess them; 5) collaborate on new solutions. This is NOT the time to "top-down" manager at all; 6) feedback and rewards, make sure you communicate verbally what is otherwise in the office non-verbally shared. Link here.

A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers, by HBR

The article discusses lack of face-to-face supervision, which is basically about trust and being able to "monitor output"; lack of access to information which describes the sharing of documents but also not being able to contextualise people's responses; social isolation and distractions at home. But the important part is how managers can support remote workers by establishing structure daily check-ins and provide all the technical solutions to remain in touch (i.e. video conferencing, work drives, etc...). An important one is setting up the rules of engagement about timing & frequency of contact, expectations, etc... Another one is the provision for social interactions, either during structure meetings or enable a culture for people to interact socially. Some colleagues will have already done that but it's important to "manage" the less extroverts of the bunch and keep them engaged. Lastly, offer encouragement and emotional support. In short, you're a leader, act like it!

CFOs Plan To Permanently Shift Significant Numbers Of Employees To Work Remotely — Survey

CFO's are waking up to the fact that employees can still deliver while not occupying expensive real estate. WFH is no longer restricted to senior execs or "special" hires. It has been democratised and now a good reason to cut cost! I personally expect office space will be largely reduced and replaced with hot desks for those who come in sporadically to the office. Click here. I wonder what that would do to all the businesses that rely on employees $$ spending during office hours.

The incredibly simple reason working from home could be here to stay

"Companies are finally investing in the remote work technology that they didn’t think they needed before." So you guessed it!! Now that companies have invested in getting its employees connected during COVID-19, there are any technical reasons why it cannot be prolonged indefinitely, technical capability wise, not the pandemic! Read it here.

2 weeks in: what we’ve learned about remote work, from Microsoft.

This one is actually quite reasonable and to the point, addressing in my opinion employers. 1) Treat WFH as if you were onboarding a new employee; 2) manage back to back meetings (I had 9 video conferences on Monday with little to no breaks, and it was gruesome); 3) create space for people to disconnect; 4) continue driving team culture (but adapt) and lastly 5) practice key management skills, or as I would call it, good leadership through coaching, NOT MICROMANAGING!

Workers: We do more at home

This article is written with the employee in mind. But I'm putting it here because I'd like to challenge employers to really look at the research that says employees do "more" working from home, not less.

"Although some employers have trust issues when it comes to employees working remotely, new research suggests most workers are just as — or even more — productive working from home. Some 70% of the 5,000 workers surveyed by Citrix say their productivity has stayed the same or improved since the large-scale shift brought on by the coronavirus. Many point out they use the time they would otherwise wile away on their commute for work. Still, skeptics linger: one University of Sydney academic argues some workers will struggle without supervision." - Andrew Murfett, Editor at LinkedIn. Read it here.

Employees

This is more from the perspective of the employee, either new at WFH or someone that has done it sporadically during their career:

5 Hacks To Increase Your Working From Home Productivity

"Adjusting to working from home can be difficult. It starts out fun, crawling from bed a minute before the business day opens without having to worry about a commute, running late, or even pants. But then as the comfort fails to vacate your work station/bedroom desk set up, something more dangerous creeps in: idle fu*kery." Caution: it's NSFW! Link here.

We’re witnessing a working-from-home revolution, but is Australia ready?

Consultancy Access Economics predicted this could save $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion a year – about $1.27 billion of that being the time and cost savings of avoided travel. Click here.

Navigating The New Normal: Addressing Employee Experience During COVID-19

EX may not be on everyone’s top priority list now, but it should be. All these people who have been let go will in all likelihood flock to Social Media platforms, or Glassdoor and vent. Even if today’s #COVID19 #crisis was not thrust upon us, it is essential that companies ensure that EX objectives are maintained, even when delivering the worst news possible. Click here.

Struggling to Thrive as a Large Team Working Remotely? This Exec Has the Field Guide You Need

Best talent isn't always close to home or the company's HQ. Virtual teams allow you to hire valuable talent wherever they may reside.

Remote work doesn’t require any special sauce. It’s about having high intent as a leader and then pushing your team to relentlessly — and consistently — take small steps toward your North Star, trusting them all along the way.

She also goes on to say that detractors find excuses because they want to hide the fact they don't know how to manage distributed teams. I tend to agree on that too. As you can imagine, strong teams are built on communications and trust, just like in the real world. There are some very helpful tips here, like setting a "North Star", so click on the link to read further.

Going Digital

Another home based article and exhaustive list comes from Deloitte Digital Australia, shared by Joel White. It even includes aspect of "cybersecurity", something none of the other articles actually touch upon.

"For some people, rapidly "going digital" has been an absolute whirlwind and a complete change to ways of working, whereas for others, digital is just the way we do things all of the time. Some of our team at Deloitte Digital Australia have put together this useful set of tips and pointers for "going digital" which covers: - How to Make it Work - Top 10 Tips for Working Remotely - How to Be a (Remote) Team Player - The Case for Remote Working - What you should know - The Virtual Meeting Checklist - Staying Secure - We’re in this together It's not absolutely everything, but it is super handy. https://lnkd.in/gdqmWYM"

Remote work requires a new outlook

We need to adjust our view on working from home. The "forever" online with presence status "active" is just impossible. Those who are new to WFH are concerned that they may be perceived as not being productive if their status shows as "away" for a while. But why is that? Physical presence in an office can be offset by constant day dreaming anyway? So relax everyone, take a deep breath. Time away from the computer is "creative" time, it's problem solving time, it's healthy and recommended. I sat 13 hours changing passwords because I got hacked. I felt terrible afterwards.

I personally disconnect from WiFi when I need to concentrate or deliver a report.

Yes, I disconnect from WiFi!!!!So inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, read this!

Employees & Parents

A Guide for Working (From Home) Parents

For those of us, like me, who have to manage both a professional output with the most important output, parenting, it becomes infinitely more complicated. The pressure on us parents to share out time is a challenge that will play havoc on the mental well-being of remote workers. So beware! Read these articles and make sure you put in place something that works for you.

A Guide for Working (From Home) Parents

An important message is to create routines and maintain them. That requires disciplines and cooperating kids, which as we know, isn't always the case. But waking up times, breakfast, lunch, dinner, brain breaks, exercise, home schooling, etc... maintain these as a matter of course. Create modified routines where you share the work hours of the day with your partners, for example, 2 or 4 hour slots where one works, the other cares for the kids. Adapt the planning and R&R (roles and responsibilities). Make sure you plan your video conferences accordingly, or vice versa. Adapt to new ways of doing things, like virtual playdates. It's as important for kids to socialise as it is for us parents. Click here for more details.

Tips on working from home with children

An honest review about working from home and setting your own expectations about your kids' home schooling and work delivery/outcome. Between close quarter living 24/7 with partners, kids, pets and the constant intrusion of "COVID-19 breaking news", be it a new stimulus package, or reports of millions of people applying for unemployment allowances, or the inevitable recession (hopefully not a depression) we are entering, its get a little too much. Read more here.

It's OK If You Suck At Working From Home Right Now

A bit of American candor, from this author who basically says this:

“Working from home” is not the same as “working from home during a pandemic.”

So it's ok if we don't look polished in our video conferences, it's ok if every stream gives you a glimpse of the inner sanctums of your colleagues and team members, it's ok if we are interrupted by our kids mid-presentation. We have all seen Professor Robert Kelly on the BBC, right? If you have been living under a rock since 2017, check out the clip here. It was huge news back then. Now, it happens all the time. Virtual backgrounds help, but only to a certain degree.

So a bad hair day, or #frooming is ok. Check out the article here.

For a definition of #frooming, click here :)

Benefits

Thirdly, some of the "financial" benefits of WFH, like reduced fuel cost, reduced wear & tear on your vehicle of choice, reduced environmental impacts which is indirectly translated in your tax bill.

And speaking of your taxes, here's one for you from the AFR. Link here. in short, you can deduct your expenses, such as housing cost, internet, electricity, water, etc...

Risks

Like with everything, there is a lot of risk involved in bringing your work home. Other than the mixing of the two could spell disaster for a relationship, even under normal cir

In many countries, working from home seems to mean working longer hours

You guessed it! Blurring the lines even further than what laptops and smartphones have done, COVID-19 forced remote working conditions risks merging further work and pleasure. Now don't get me wrong, I personally absolutely love being able to set my own hours because I'm OUTCOME focused instead of "bottom on seat" time. But when does it start and when does it end? Research is already showing people are working longer hours. So be careful and be disciplined. Click here. Another great HBR article from a time management coach on the subject of transitioning between work time and personal time can be found here. In short, have a starting work routine, make a plan, prioritise your communication, & set a wrap up time.

How to Get People to Actually Participate in Virtual Meetings

Generally speaking, one of the risks of remote meetings (which never stopped anyone physically in the same room as the presenter) is to drift away in our own thoughts, or to get distracted by our laptops, incoming emails, smartphones, smart watches, our colleagues across the table, or even like school kids, notes being passed under the table. Here are 5 rules to employ during meetings to keep people engaged so that they can listen and absorb the information being presented. One of them does include NOT killing your audience with too many .pptx slides. Yay! Click here.

Conclusion

Finally, the twist. Either it was quite a journey getting to this point, which I hope you have enjoyed by reading all of these articles, OR, you exercised your thumb (smartphone) or index finger (scroll wheel) and got here the fast/easy way. Regardless, he is my advice.

In the old days of offices, there were these outdated extremely troubling things called DOORS. People could go into their offices and just close the door, disconnect from the rest and have a moment to themselves. Now, with communication technologies existing in almost every aspect of our lives, even I, a techie nerd, must admit that it is good sometimes to not be connected, or "equipped", or "strapped" to my American friends. Going "bare bone" for a walk without your smartphone to count your steps or to answer a quick email on the fly, etc... is actually good for you!!

Just do it. Don't feel guilty. Don't feel bad. You need it!

(Cover image credit: ABC.net.au)