Working from Home

Moving to a new set of living and working practice is daunting.

When I retired from my chief officer role, often working in excess of 50 hours a week, I had to adapt to a new set of living and working practice.

Although this doesn’t compare with the current directives to work from home and self-isolation, there are a few pieces of advice I can offer from my experiences.

One of my concerns at the outset moving from a flat out mix of proactive and reactive working to consultancy and working with universities was “what will I wear”? Although family and friends nodded in agreement, I know they were inwardly smiling at this nonsense. It wasn’t nonsense though. I’ve always believed in dressing for the occasion - going to the football is different than going to church and that’s different than going out to work in a professional setting.

I was concerned that wearing weekend ‘house’ casual, baggy clothing every day could lead to casual, baggy and sloppy thinking.

So, here’s my advice to those working from home who don’t have additional family responsibilities, my advice to those juggling working from home with children will be shared later:

1. Get up every morning at ‘normal’ work time. Use commute time for leisurely shower, breakfast / reading news etc. I did my daily mile as soon as awoke. I found this a good start to the ‘working’ day. After these activities, dress in something you’d be happy to open the door to greet any clients/ manager/ partners. You know they’re not coming but you’ll be ready and in the right frame of mind for work.

2. I even have a few pairs of different coloured pumps that I call my house shoes - no need to clump about home in heels but slippers? No! Sometimes, if I’m teaching or meeting online, I actually put on heels if I think this makes me feel more in command of my brief.

3. Try to set aside or create a work area. Ideally this should be separate from your sleeping area, as it helps us get into work mode, and makes it easier to switch off at the end of the working day. You don’t need a home office to do this, a small desk set up in a corner of the room, or a laptop at the end of the kitchen table can do the trick. Try to avoid sitting on the couch - it won’t be comfortable to be hunched over a keyboard for long periods of time and you’ll feel less productive. There are ideas online if you google this and you’ll even get a few laughs at some set ups.

4. Before you begin work each day, set a working schedule and keep to it. This should include breaks away from your workspace. For those of you with children or young people at home, I understand that having set work times can be a challenge - more on that in our next blog. Breaks are when you get a coffee or better still water. Avoid snacking at your desk.

5. Breaks are important and lunch is a luxury - embrace it and include in your schedule. Get up and away from the work area and eat lunch elsewhere. Use the time for relaxation / reflection - this will be important if this situation continues for any length of time. I avoid day time TV at all costs.

6. Almost all of your work at home will be online or involve working on your PC or laptop. Be disciplined and don’t stray onto social media or worse look up one thing on Wikipedia only to ‘come to’ and find more than an hour has been lost as you gaily hit on links etc. There is a place for social media - see below.

7. Fresh air and exercise are important for those working from home. So, make sure you build in time for some physical activity, whether this is indoors or outdoors. You are limited in this because of COVID19 but if you have outdoor space - a garden or a balcony - use this at break and lunch time. If you can, take a walk each day for some fresh air. This might be getting active in your garden, or a short walk within current guidelines. You could use this activity to separate out the work day for the ‘evening / leisure’ time. Change / dress down and get out either alone or with household members. Fresh air and exercise are vital for your mind just as much as your body.

8. If you have no outdoor space you too can get the benefits of physical activity. You can build your muscle strength and boost your resilience and energy. Create or use an existing exercise routine - there are loads and loads of these. Find the one that suits you - or just get the old hits on and dance around like no one is watching and enjoy! You should have seen me yesterday sloshing away to “Is this way to Amarillo?” 😊

9. Keep in touch. When I retired I worked at retaining contacts and friendships as well as building significant and important new ones. Keeping in touch is even more important in this enforced working from home and social distancing time. I have heard it said that a better phrase would have been physical distancing. It’s not the ‘contact’ that has be managed but the space between. So, use social media to keep in touch with workmates, family and friends. Send some ‘how are you’ emails to colleagues. Use social media to send and receive encouraging messages. Use social media to join in communion with others in a shared activity - I have a group of friends who ‘meet’ each evening at 8pm and pray together. I am a member of a book club and we have decided to continue and to zoom.  This sense of belonging is part of what makes us human. I have added a number of new routines during this lockdown period. I use zoom (other online meeting spaces are available) to see friends and family. Words are great but to see faces is even more encouraging.  Staying connected will help us all through the coming challenging weeks.

Finally, working from home is difficult but if you get a routine you could enjoy it. However, here’s a plea to mangers and leaders- the tasks for this working from home have to be meaningful and productive. If colleagues feel they are being asked to do things just for the sake of it because they are getting paid you are not taking the opportunity available to you to build a positive work culture or environment. There will be more on that in a future blog.