A Few Tips for Working from Home

Some of you are new to working from home, and it shows. I’ve worked remotely for a large portion of my career, starting around the 2008 financial crash. At that time, working from home was less of a perk, and more of a “get out of this office, we are renting your space to improve cash flow” situation. I’ve picked up a few good and not so good habits since, trying to be productive and sane from a studio apartment to a dedicated home office. Please allow me to help you get the hang of this a little faster.

Being an effective employee

We are going to start at the beginning here. The most important thing you can do is get to know whatever technology your work is making available to you. New to video conferences? Try a test with a trusted co-worker! Get to know immediately how to join and host a meeting, mute yourself, and turn your camera on and off. Sharing a screen and messaging within the app are also really key skills to make sure you can master. If you can, try this from multiple devices.

Here are some more specific ideas:

1. MUTE YOURSELF if you are not speaking. This is the number one, golden rule of tele-work. I cannot stress this enough. There is nothing more disruptive to a meeting than the host continually having to pause to say “I think someone needs to go on mute.” If you ignore this, you will either embarrass yourself or everyone will hate you. Maybe both.
2. Try to join via video whenever you can. It helps to see body language. It also helps to mime things like “just one minute” when you are inevitably struggling to turn your mute off. But! Be understanding of those who can’t join via video right now; they may be in a car, have kids in the background, or haven’t been able to even get dressed yet.
3. If you are a host, try to give participants at least a business day head’s up for a meeting request. It is not ok to ask someone to jump on a line 5 minutes out unless it is extremely urgent, or you’ve already messaged about it. Also, give people about 3 minutes to join and work their tech issues out before starting at the beginning of each meeting.
4. If you are just joining a voice conference, introduce yourself when you dial in with a simple, “Hi, this is so and so joining.” Then be quiet. Special case — if you are joining a call with a lot of people, video or not, DO NOT introduce yourself. Hosts can see you if you are on video, or your name pop up on a list. If it is just a voice call, you’ll just be disruptive, and start a terrible waterfall of dozens of people trying to introduce themselves while interrupting each other.
5. Messaging! There is a lot of technology out there folks that is not email or a phone. Please be mindful of others’ time. Everyone is on edge and juggling. Need a quick question answered? Try Slack! Ask your IT department about this if you aren’t set up. Longer context needed? Try email then. Gone back and forth on email more than twice? Now you are ready for a quick one on one phone call, or maybe a scheduled meeting if it concerns a larger group. Do not go directly to calling someone or planning a meeting. You are probably wasting everyone’s time.
6. If you do have to have a meeting, send a communication with an agenda beforehand. Stick to the agenda. Then, send a few bullets afterwards to all participants with a recap, decisions, and next steps. You have a lot of different kinds of learners. It will be helpful to reinforce your work with written and spoken notes. If you can draw a picture, even better.
7. Always have a backup communication path in mind, especially with those you need to work with often. WebEx stop working? Try to shift to a Slack call. Co-workers having trouble with an internet connection? Ok, make sure you have their phone number for a text or call. Otherwise, you will find yourself wasting time and prolonging even simple tasks.

Being a healthy person

You’ve likely already heard about setting boundaries around work schedules, having a dedicated workspace, and taking breaks. Most of this will feel nearly impossible if you are in a cramped space, have kids home, or are deluged with all the meetings your co-workers have suddenly set up. Let me offer a few extra tips.

1. It is ok to decline meetings. IT IS OK TO SAY NO. Be ruthless with your time. You know what you have to do to get work done and take care of life. Don’t let others sabotage you.
2. Outline what you need to get done that day or week each morning and try to stick with it. See above. Others will try to take you off task. Be flexible, but not a doormat.
3. Get dressed every morning. More than that, and I’m going to get a little weird here, make sure you wear shoes every day. Once you don’t even need to put on footwear for a whole day, you will have entered a whole new level of isolation that will be hard to emerge as a whole, healthy person from.
4. Do not work in your bed. This is not a perk to enjoy, it is a dangerous siren call that will destroy your sleep and well-being.
5. Not all messages have to be really formal. Slack is really great for quick, fun, or totally irrelevant messages to your colleagues. Don’t ignore this, this is how you can maintain relationships and sanity.
6. Don’t structure your whole day around meals. If you find yourself starting dinner around 4:30, out of boredom or just a need to get away from work, step away from the microwave. Try to build in some more non-work activities to your day. I’m a mom, so I don’t have hobbies, but I hear things like yoga, FaceTiming friends and family, walks, and reading are pretty good socially distant things you can do.

If you are able to work from home right now, or ever, know that you are incredibly fortunate and lucky. I know I am. Let’s all try to be helpful and understanding with each other right now.