Making working from home sustainable

Last month I shared some of my reflections on working from home that I’ve found helpful since lockdown began. Since then, I’ve been overwhelmed with not only the positive feedback and conversation about this subject internally, but the comments and additional tips that the LinkedIn community have shared in response to my post - and it’s made me reflect even more on my working practices. I have also personally felt and received feedback that now we are another month into the COVID crisis, people are feeling the need to get the balance back from too many VCs per day!

As a result, I took the decision recently to communicate to my leadership team about changes I’m making to my own working routine to encourage others to do the same and ensure our ways of working remain sustainable. There can be an assumption that you should ask for permission to make changes and now more than ever, flexibility and empathy are the foundation for working productively while keeping our wellbeing as a top priority. As a leader, I want to demonstrate the changes I’m making and set the tone from the top in the hope that my colleagues and teams will feel empowered to do the same.

Here’s some of the changes I’m making going forwards:

o  Instead of the usual 30 or 60 minute meetings, I’m reducing these to 25 or 50 minutes – having a short window in between meetings is so valuable and something I’ve missed in recent weeks. Whether it’s to stretch my legs, get a cup of tea, go and say hi to the family, respond to emails or even just time to sit back and think! For our own mental health, it’s not sustainable to be working back-to-back all day, every day.

o  Avoid any meetings on Fridays that are outside working hours in Asia or start before 8am on Monday for the Americas – particularly for leaders, it’s important to set the tone about encroaching into people’s personal or family time. And obviously ensure we are fully respecting Friday weekends in the Middle East. Working in a global company, we need to be even more considerate than normal of time zones and not ask our colleagues and teams to be working longer days just to suit us.

o  I will no longer set up any meetings after 6pm other than by exception – I’m regularly guilty of post-6pm meetings. Often it’s a case of squeezing everything into the working day but we must remember, we have been working under unusual circumstances which have come with additional pressures and challenges in the last few months. We all need a cut-off point to make sure we are able to switch off and enjoy some time to relax and reflect.

o  Protecting a few hours of my week and ideally per day as non-Zoom time – Zoom is fantastic for keeping us all connected but by Friday evening I think most of us will agree we have Zoom fatigue! I’m going to set aside a few hours a week where I’m not on video calls, whether it’s having a good old fashioned phone call instead so I can walk around the house or just catching up on emails.

o  Taking time off – while we can’t get away on proper holidays at the moment, it’s important to take personal days off. These challenging times are testing on our mental strength and sometimes we just need to hold our hands up and admit we need a break. For me, I’ll take more individual days off to spend with the family. For others it may be taking a week off to re-cooperate at home away from the computer screen.

o  Touching base on an individual basis with key team members more regularly and getting off Zoom and back on to the phone or mobile VC from the garden.

And maybe most importantly we need to recognise that different people will want different working arrangements, and the “next normal” post-COVID will be an opportunity for us to increase the flexibility we offer teams – we need to proactively define and shape that future of flexible working and ensure teams are fully engaged in the discussion now. At this time, it’s more important than ever to remain flexible and ensure our colleagues and teams are empowered to make decisions that suit their needs. By doing this, we support them through balancing the pressures of work and family life, and show how much we value their dedication through this challenging period.