Have 9-5's been officially cancelled by Covid?

In a world where a 9-5 desk job was once the norm, adapting to working from home during Covid has not been easy, to say the least. Not only have we all been adjusting to a lack of freedom in our everyday lives, our work days have completely changed too. Personally as a creature of habit, this really threw me off balance. However, instead of allowing myself to panic and become overwhelmed with all of this change, I began researching into how I could change what I considered negatives, into positives.

The standard 9-5 work day, with an allocated lunch break and maximum limit on coffee breaks no longer worked for me or other members of my team. I'd had an epiphany, the answer was so obvious to me now but being so set in my ways, indoctrinated to think that 9-5 was the only way to work, my mindset was flawed.

Some of us live alone, some of us have families, some of us live in shared accommodation. Whatever our situation... we all had distractions! Kids, partners, builders, neighbours, wifi issues, too many meetings, not enough meetings, communication issues, parcel deliveries, fire alarms, life! All of these problems we'd never had to context switch for in the safety of our office bubble.

What I learnt was that remote culture is rooted in?transparency,?respect, and?trust?among teammates.

While there are various ways to make remote-work more engaging, fulfilling and productive, whilst embracing "non-linear workdays” we can foster our imagination with endless possibilities, the idea is to break free from boredom and conventional definition of routine to adopt an asynchronous work-day.

Non-linear allows us to take charge of our routines and make "work", work for us. The idea is that you can work at anytime during the day whilst making time for errands, self care, exercise or spending time with your family. It completely abolishes the notion that we should be sat at our desks for 8 hours straight with no distractions.

Here is my Non-linear, asynchronous work from home wellness guideline to get you started!

Non-linear Asynchronous WFH Wellness Guidelines

We will endeavor to have meeting/camera free days.?

This day should be agreed within your team and everyone within the team should agree that no meetings should be scheduled on that day. Exceptions to that though are important meetings with other teams and emergencies where everyone will be expected to be present.?This is a fantastic way to take the pressure off someone and reduce zoom fatigue.

All team members should ensure that their work calendar has working hours set.

?Employees should be encouraged to work as and when suits them and their lives, as long as they're about during your team's "core hours".

If you work additional hours, make sure you take that time back.

Sometimes working through lunch or working additional hours is unavoidable. However if you are overworking, please ensure that you get those hours back, some ways to do this are for example, scheduling a longer lunch or leaving earlier the following day. Also, make sure you block those hours out in your calendar for reasons below!

Using DNS (Do not schedule) placeholder meetings to stop people scheduling meetings out of office hours or during lunchtime and focus hours is encouraged.

For example:?John has a DNS placeholder 8pm - 9am and a lunch DNS placeholder 1-2pm to enforce a calendar “boundary” to those in other time zones and other team members who are scheduling meetings.

It's really important that we switch off and allow ourselves distinctions between work/home and allow for breaks throughout the day where we detach ourselves from our workspace like we would in the office, especially for our mental health and to reduce the risk of burnout.?Encouraging folks to schedule these allows them to take back control of their day and really hone in on their productivity.

Everyone should share at least one kudos a week, if you can.?

Use a trello board or channel to share "kudos" once a week. These are to uplift and make your colleagues smile, it doesn’t have to be big wins, if someone made a joke which you enjoyed or recommended a film that you loved, even something that you admire about someone’s personality, along with thanking your colleagues for their help or congratulating them for smashing their last presentation. If its a personal win for someone, having a team that recognizes their efforts creates a new level of support for them.

Commit to not scheduling meetings during colleagues’ blocked time:?

When employees block time, whether for meetings, self-care, or other obligations, it’s important to respect people’s time. Thinking beyond our immediate team, it’s important to also respect our colleagues across the world and their work/life balance.

We do not expect you to respond immediately on slack.

For all non-urgent communications, the expectation is that employees will respond within their work hours, when they are able. If you send a message outside of someone’s work hours, an immediate response is not expected.?

Please make an effort to engage in Daily topical Threads.

Daily topical threads are messages sent to the team channel daily that contain a question, the content of the questions depend on the team, such as favourite foods or recommended books etc. These are there to encourage team building and bonding. The idea is that the more you respond the more others will get to know 'the real you' and you them. This is a really simple yet powerful way to break the monotony of small talk and introduce more meaningful conversations. We really want to create connections and support that may be missed in meetings.

Take holidays regularly!?

Studies have shown that you need to take time off every 4 months to avoid burnout. Don’t leave all your holidays till December or next year! Take time off to recharge and disconnect.

?Slack/IM and Emails are banned during off time.

Turn off (or uninstall) Slack from your phone and mute emails during holidays. When leaving for holiday, make sure you write a comprehensive status to explain why you’re not replying and mark it in your calendar.

Covid has impacted us all in so many ways but with a mindset change, hopefully remote working will change the world (and our lives) for the better!