Once again we have awesome content from ViAGO International. Today’s content is written by ViAGO team member Tim Wilson:
Thanks to COVID-19, a lot of us have had a crash introduction to what working from home is like. Even without that, though, for many people, the idea of working from home has a lot going for it. The commute is a lot easier; you have more flexibility about how you structure your day, and it can be easier to focus too. Unfortunately, all of these things can be disadvantages too.
You don’t have to commute to work… so you don’t have that time to change mindset and switch focus for work.
You have more flexibility about how you structure your day… so it gets hard to draw a boundary between your work life and your home life.
You’re not distracted by co-workers walking past every few minutes… so you miss out on the face-to-face interactions and conversations that can spark better relationships and ideas.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the issues you might encounter in these environments, and how to overcome them.
Issues Working from Home
Productivity
One of the main reasons to work from home is that it can be more productive. You can work in an environment better suited to you, there are fewer interruptions, and of course, there’s less commuting stress too.
However, although you don’t have the same interruptions, there are others. If you have kids, or pets, or even an attractively-stocked refrigerator, there’s a learning curve for how to overcome these distractions.
Some people find that they need to be rigorous about shutting the door and ignoring the phone while they’re working. Thick curtains or some wall hangings can make your workspace quieter too. If you have a partner who’s also home, you might be able to get them to look after any kids or pets while you’re busy. Others might need to put a kiddy latch on the fridge to prevent grazing from it every time they pass, or make sure there’s not a TV near them, or they can’t see the garden (and be reminded about the chores they’ve been putting off!).
In any case, working from home requires an ability to focus despite everything else you have there. Which brings me to the next issue…
Flexibility
Most people can overcome the distractions of working from home and even be more productive than being in the office. That often comes at a cost, however: it can be very easy for work to take over your home life. Without the clear distinction between being at work and being at home, some people find it tempting to answer just one more email, close off just one more ticket, or spend just a bit longer on a document. And of course, a bit longer gets a bit longer again, and one ticket turns into three, and one email turns into a whole conversation with co-workers in different time zones. Before you know it, work is taking over your entire home.
Just like with productivity, it’s important to put boundaries on things. Yes, it’s important to stay in communication, and yes, it’s important to take advantage of the flexibility working from home gives you. But, burning out because the distinction between work and home gets blurred won’t be any good for anyone. Take a deep breath and remember to “clock out”.
Management
Looking at things from a different perspective for a moment, many managers feel uneasy about people working from home. They can’t just look over someone’s shoulder and see what they’re doing, and although instant messaging and phones exist they’re not the same as having a quick chat to find out how things are going. This lack of visibility can be quite unsettling for managers and may feel like they’re losing control.
It’s natural to feel uneasy about things you can’t directly see, but this is also a situation where you can improve your skills as a manager. Make sure tasks are broken down appropriately and that task handovers are adequate, and you may be surprised how smoothly things go. Most importantly, even if you think people may be binging Netflix or checking in on Facebook… so what? People being active isn’t the same as them being productive. If things are flowing smoothly and tasks are getting ticked off, some idle time for people who aren’t bottlenecks is a good thing, because it means there’s some spare capacity if a new challenge appears. Don’t give in to the temptation to keep on releasing tasks: shoving work in doesn’t make it come out, and all you’ll do is increase the number of half-finished tasks sitting around.
The bottom line is to trust people to perform until they prove otherwise. People want to do well – as a manager, it’s your job to enable that.
In the second part, we will discuss the issues surrounding working from the office!
Tim Wilson joined ViAGO International in 2018, and quickly found a home for his skills in logic and language. He uses these skills and ViAGO’s processes to analyse business and design solutions for them, taking them “from Chaos to Calm”.