"Oasis or Blur?" Is your remote working experience an oasis of calm or a blur of competing work/life priorities?

If we answered Fr. Damo's question "Oasis or Blur?" with regards to our remote working experiences since Covid-19, many of us might answer just as Fr. Dougal did. "Blur. Oasis - I mean Oasis!" - as the first weeks of adapting (which were a blur!) have hopefully evolved into a new pattern of work/life balance. For some, the new world of work is working well but remains a real challenge for many others. A recent survey related to remote working highlights the top struggles of remote working, which are shown below. In this article, I'm suggesting approaches to deal with each of these issues, in order to allow home to remain an oasis where you can still work productively and switch off, instead of a blur where work commitments are always "on" and in conflict with home life.

1) Collaboration and Communication

Effective collaboration and communication require an appropriate set of technologies and processes, used in a consistent way. Email is not an effective communication tool! It is likely that the 20% who listed collaboration & communication as their biggest struggle would likely also have circled the following questionnaire with (C)

A good barometer of the state of your processes and systems is to count the number of emails you receive per day. The higher the number, the more likely that there is either an absence of process/system, (and/or a low-trust culture!). Technologies such as Microsoft Teams or Slack, coupled with effective training, adoption and governance, can transform communication while reducing down the dreaded Inbox.

2) Loneliness

One of the ironies of our always-connected world is that, pre-Covid-19, many people had felt more isolated than ever. There is a beautiful video called "The Great Realisation" that addresses the awakenings from the current crisis - and the lessons we should all take from it.

For those living with families, the lock-down has offered closer connections for some. For those living alone, the lock-down preventing socializing in-person with friends/family and meeting with colleagues is bound to cause loneliness, but this situation will pass. In essence, the answer is for us to be thinking of others - and to make the time and effort to stay in contact. As the late Bob Hoskins said in the BT ad: "It's good to talk". Now that communication is free, there's really no excuse. Remember, we are all interdependent. Reach out.

3) Not being able to unplug

Put very simply, you must give yourself permission to switch off. The senior management at a company can set the tone for others to follow, by agreeing not to send emails at the week-ends or late at night; by fostering an understanding that e-mails are by their nature not meant for urgent communications, and that there is an expectation that employees will switch off email notifications on their smartphones and avail of features such as "quiet times" on technologies such as MS Teams. It requires discipline to not constantly check a smartphone, so switching off as many notifications as you can will help. And if you take one tip from this article - leave the smartphones outside the bedroom!

4) Distractions at Home

It is unfair to describe many of these occurrences at home as "distractions". Currently, there are many parents who are working from home, looking after children and home-schooling while creches and schools are closed. Covid-19 has produced the perfect storm for parents, which will abate somewhat when schools and creches re-open. As a father of two small children, I quickly realized after commencing remote working that I needed to adapt my work schedule at home to better align with my family priorities. How do you tell a 2-year old that you are too busy to play with her the whole day, even though you are home? For context, you wouldn't come home from work and sit in front of a laptop ignoring your children all evening.

My own solution has been to spread work out across the waking day and creating a schedule that allows me to focus on work for 2 hour slots and take a break of 2 hours. This allows me to spend quality time with my children and focus on work at dedicated times (albeit starting very early and re-convening late into the evening). The power of technology has helped to multi-task - e.g. to join a Teams call via the Teams smartphone App while pushing a buggy of two sleeping children in the park. It is also important to remember that when working at home you are not experiencing the levels of interruptions you might in an office environment, often allowing you to complete tasks quicker. So, cut yourself some slack!

5) Being in a different time-zone to team-mates

This is an issue that is common to office workers as well as remote workers. One great way to keep everyone up-to-date and clear on their tasks is by the effective use of a CRM System. At Mainstream, we use Dynamics 365 CE for Case Management, allowing us to manage all cases through to completion 24/7, assigning cases to available team members who are in different regions globally. A colleague in Dublin may open a case at 7pm and log in the next day to find it was already resolved for them by someone in Santiago, Chile. A Case Management system front-ended by a portal and/or team email address, is very effective in streamlining what would otherwise become unmanageable Inboxes.

6) Staying Motivated

If you're having difficulty staying motivated, now is the perfect time for reflection. If you were fulfilled by the work that you do and it is aligned to your personal goals, it isn't difficult to stay motivated. Are you actually in the job/career that you really want to be in? If your motivation previously to get things done was having a micro-manager checking on you, then you should be looking to make a change. If work is unfulfilling, ask yourself what you would rather be doing, and take some time out for learning something new - e.g. sign up for a free trial of LinkedIn Learning. Look for ways to automate drudgery in your work (reach out to your IT function) and look to share your knowledge within the team - the best way to get promoted / do more fulfilling work is to find a way to replace yourself.

7) Taking Vacation Time

This is exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, in that we all see little point in taking vacation when you can't travel anywhere! Taking vacation is essential, not just to re-charge the batteries but to awaken our creativity - how many of us get our best ideas on vacation? In preparing for time off, this is where good teamwork and effective use of systems/processes come into their own. An effective CRM system, used consistently, is a great way to ensure that all team-members are up-to-date on what cases/tasks are open, what opportunities need to be progressed - and to ensure that they are assigned and progressed during your absence. Complement this with a user-friendly and complete knowledge base and you can probably leave your smartphone on silent during that vacation.

8) Finding Reliable Wi-Fi

This is a particular challenge depending on where you live and has long been a challenge here in Ireland in rural areas, with hope it will be addressed by the national broadband plan. For those suffering with poor or no broadband, an interim solution is to move to an unlimited smartphone data plan and tether it to the laptop. In Germany, the Greens are calling for a right to fast broadband to be enshrined in law, alongside the labour minister's right to home-working proposals. Estate agents in Ireland have recently been theorizing on the changes to the property market that Covid-19 will bring, in terms of a newfound appeal for country piles, but one question that will certainly be posed with greater importance by potential buyers will be the availability of high-speed broadband in a particular area. I wonder how much interest Arranmore has garnered, following their feature in Three's Ad.

The Zero Commute is here to stay - establish your Oasis.

With a considered approach personally and with company backing, long-term remote working can provide for a better work/life balance and personal well-being. Large-scale "zero-commuting" can be a powerful factor in tackling the climate crisis, improving the quality of air (and life) in car-clogged cities and improving the mental-well-being of those previously forced to commute long distances to their offices five days a week, so what's not to like?

Forward-thinking companies are planning for a "return to a new normal" after Covid-19, engaging with employees on how the future work environment should look. Companies can benefit in the long-term from reduced office costs, employee retention, productivity and by being able to open up their recruitment net far wider than before. For employees, it is important to take charge of your remote working situation and speak up with your employer on what works best for you. Only through achieving this mutual understanding can you achieve your "oasis" of work/life balance within home working. The question of large-scale "zero commuting" is therefore no longer, to quote Father Ted, an ecumenical matter. It's time for clarity - not blur.