Make WFH Work for You

This week will mark my fourteenth week working from home, along with many other Americans.* The COVID-19 pandemic forced reluctant employers and uninterested employees alike to embrace remote work, jump-starting a national experiment of “Will It or Won’t It Work?” 

For most of us, it has definitely worked - but not without some hiccups. 

There have been growing pains, from figuring out that your kid streaming Beck Bro Jack videos is impacting your internet speed to realizing it’s really quite hard to reach 10,000 steps when you are not even leaving the house. It seems like every media outlet from NPR to Vogue has offered up its shortlist of tips for #WFH success. “Have a designated working space!” “Use your commute time as exercise time!” “Maintain social connections by hosting video-happy hours!”

One fundamental thing was missing from these lists: specificity. 

I did not figure out what was bugging me about these broad stroked lists until I stumbled upon Remote Aid 2020, an online event back in April. Remote Aid 2020 was a response to COVID-19 impacting the realities of many employers, who were tackling the challenges of supporting a workforce that needed to be 100% remote, 100% productive, all practically overnight. The free online event was a slate of speakers addressing specific challenges, offering a variety of practical solutions. This was more than telework consulting: Remote Aid 2020 was a step-by-step toolkit on how to be successful in a wonderfully pragmatic way. Speakers covered topics like legal compliance when hiring remote workers and protecting your mental health while working from home.

I expect another set of great content at this week’s Running Remote conference, which will take place June 17-18, 2020. If you’re like me, you’ll jump in and out of sessions depending on your tasks for the day, then revisit specific sessions once the recordings are posted. But if you’re still on the fence as to whether this whole #WFH thing is here to stay, I suggest you watch this video of Chris Herd, Founder and CEO of Firstbase, who makes the case that companies that embrace remote work will replace those that do not. 

Let’s Get Specific

Since I railed against the lists of generic tips that filled our social media feeds in March, I wanted to offer a few very specific recommendations in the categories of home office setup, exercise, and socializing. 

“Have a designated working space!” 

It is simply not enough to say “this is the place where I work” and think that you have fulfilled the recipe for #WFH success. Think about the setup that you’re offered at your IRL office: separate computer monitors with crisp displays, desk space to take notes on a day planner during calls, beautiful real estate to just spread out and get organized. Just the thought of it all brings me joy!

I tricked myself into thinking that the 45” x 14” built-in desk/nook in my apartment was going to cut it. After week #10, enough was enough. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that others had come to their senses much sooner than I did, indicated by the “currently unavailable” and “out of stock” labels that haunted me during my online shopping. I finally made a decision and ordered this 51" W x 19.7" D x 28.3" H corner desk, which has drastically improved my quality of life (kid not included).

“Use your commute time as exercise time!”

Seeing as the average commute time in the U.S. is 26 minutes, repurposing our time on the road to time in the gym would definitely result in more than the 150 minutes of moderate exercise that is recommended per week. I fully support this tidbit of advice, since doing so would transform our nation and some pretty shocking statistics on obesity. But with gyms closed or at partial capacity, how do people get started?

If you live in an area where you feel safe, walking or biking is a great way to introduce low-impact exercise into your life. If you’re more of a homebody, I recommend turning to YouTube to find your perfect fitness instructor. No contracts to sign, and no one has to see you stumble as you seek to accomplish the perfect squat. I recommend checking out MadFit, a channel regularly updated with short workout routines by Maddie Lymburner. Her sunny videos make me feel like I’m in a dance class with a non-judgmental friend who is just living her best life. 

“Maintain social connections by hosting video-happy hours!”

To this advice, I can only say: no. Just no. I cannot abide one more cameras-on web meeting after a full week’s worth of them, even if it is with a drink in hand. I would like to give everyone permission to just say no to virtual happy hours and forced merriment of any kind.

To recharge my batteries, I am seeking out solitude in any form I can get it: longer-than-normal showers, volunteering to take out the trash, the wonderful solace of a closed door. Please forgive me if I make a hard pass on the invitation to meetup; this is truly a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I offer everyone a rain check and the wish that they can come to know the joy of off(line) time, too. 

*Special note: I fully appreciate that not all jobs and not all people are suited for remote work. That being said, Global Workplace Analytics estimates that 56% of the non-self-employed workforce could work from home. Read more about how they reached that conclusion here.