Some thoughts on working from home

Below are excerpts from our internal communication on work from home strategies. Hope it would be useful for the broader LinkedIn community.

Dear colleagues,

It looks like we will be working from home for the next few days, and possibly longer. We had always wanted to explore a work from home policy, and now we are kind of forced in to it! So we might as well make the most of this experience.

First off, please ensure that you are following the lockdown orders diligently. Don’t take it lightly just because you think you are young/fit/immune! Everyone is at risk and if governments are taking such drastic measures, there is a reason behind it. Let us not add to the problem by being careless.

Nobody knows how long this pandemic will last or how much impact it will have on global health and global economy. So its best to stop worrying or thinking about what is not in our control. Instead, let us focus on what is in our hands, and use this unusual opportunity constructively.

I am sharing below some thoughts on how to go about planning your day and week while working from home. Working from home has the advantages of avoiding commute, and unplanned distractions that come with sitting in an office. On the other hand, we can quickly start missing social interaction and team work can become difficult if there isn’t proper coordination. Most importantly - specially for those of you living by yourself without family - the stresses of a hovering pandemic coupled with loneliness and social isolation can lead to depression.

To avoid the pitfalls, its best to plan your WFH strategy upfront. You can divide your day in to three broad categories – getting work done, self care and self development.

 Getting Work Done

Setting up a work station at home is very important. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, it can just be a corner of one room. Make sure its well lighted and ventilated (and presentable in video calls!). Inform your family or roommates that once you are in that work area, you are “in office” and would like not to be disturbed. I personally like to shave, shower and change just like a regular work day first thing in the morning. It brings discipline and mentally sets me up to not think of the day as a holiday.

Always start your day with a team video call – at 9 AM, and no later! It brings the discipline to wake up on time, get ready and in front of the computer at the same time everyday. Use MS Team or Google Hangouts to setup a video call with your immediate team. Insist on everyone switching on their video. Seeing people’s faces is a positive social experience and it also keeps all of us alert on these calls. Don’t cluster together all your meetings in the first half of the day. Instead intersperse them thru the day so you have someone you are talking to every few hours.

Plan your tasks for the day in the morning and stop when you are done. There is no point of counting the hours when you are working from home. Instead just decide what needs to get done, and once its done, end your work day. What and how much you can get done is really for you to decide in these circumstances. In certain teams, like finance and ops, we would have daily measurable goals. But in other teams like tech, you alone can decide what all you can accomplish in the day. So know that the company trusts you to do the right thing and plan accordingly.

Self Development

All of us are saving an hour or more of commute time everyday now, not to mention the stress that goes with it. So lets use that additional hour for learning. Set some learning goals right away and start working on them. TBO Academy has excellent course covering dozens of global destinations. Apart from this, online learning channels like Coursera have wonderful content on technical and non-technical subjects. We are rarely presented such an opportunity so lets make the most use of it. Learning also keeps our brains engaged and creates a sense of accomplishment.

Self Care

Working in isolation is known to take a toll on mental well being. Let us take care of ourselves and our colleagues in these difficult times. My first suggestion is to stop checking news or WhatsApp forwards throughout the day. Keep aside one or two 15-min slots during the day to check news. Beyond that it is just a futile negative exercise and serves no purpose. Secondly, create a home based exercise schedule. Simple Yoga lessons are available on youtube and even beginners can learn. This is also a great time to start learning to meditate. Even just 3 mins of meditation is proven to calm the mind and make your thinking sharper. You can use apps like Headspace to get started.

Most importantly, please keep talking to your friends, family and colleagues every day. It is not enough to just send a chat message. Actually picking up the phone and talking is important. I am requesting all managers as well to reach out to their team members regularly and check on their well being.

In case you are feeling any sense of distress, please immediately reach out to your manager or HR. We are committed to ensuring that everyone at TBO tides thru this crisis safe and in good health.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the entire TBO team. We have found ourselves in very difficult circumstances all of a sudden, without any warnings. Every team within the company has responded with calm and maturity. The operations and accounts teams have been working relentlessly on securing our payments and agent refunds. The IT team has worked very hard to ensure that your work from home experience is as seamless as possible. The tech teams have responded fast to ensure we are reprioritising our work to prepare for the future. All the senior leaders in the company have risen to the occasion and demonstrating true leadership.

I have no doubt that we are well positioned to weather thru this storm and emerge on other side stronger together!

Thanks

Gaurav