Working from "home"?...just enjoy it :)
Lots of talk right now about the pros, cons, the dos, don'ts, the worry and the excitement of working from home. I am fortunate that I get to work from home relatively regularly and for me, it's just business as usual. Like going into work, there are pros and cons however, for those who don't get to work from home that often, here are a couple of thoughts.
Enjoy it
If this is a rare occasion for you then just enjoy it while it lasts and be grateful that you work for an organisation or are in a role that supports this type of working. There are many, and I mean MANY, in the NHS, emergency services etc that won't get this luxury right now :(
So enjoy the things you may not get to do that often. Exercise before work, walking the kids to school, having lunch with your family, being at home for dinner time, receiving your Amazon parcels (instead of them going to your neighbours), not having to spend time commuting...and the list goes on.
Got FOMO?
...then virtual collaboration has never been easier
We utilise lots of great collaboration tools for both internal meetings and external meetings with clients. Its never been easier, more accessible and more fun to collaborate virtually. It may take some getting used to but look on the bright side, you can't catch a cold through a virtual meeting...can you?
Some of the tools we use that you could check out are:
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Zoom
- Trello
If you're a smaller firm or contractor and these cost too much (there are free versions available for some of them) then there are lots of free options out there also.
- Whereby.com - video conferencing, sharing screens etc
- Google hangouts - collaboration, messaging, video calls
- Whats app - collaboration, messaging, video calls
- FaceTime - video calls
- The list could keep going
Lastly, remember that you don't have to be seen to be believed
Some people have anxiety about not being seen and they feel they need to be clung to their laptop 24/7. To you, there is a maxim that says something like, if they didn't trust you, they likely wouldn't have hired you.
For me, working from home causes me to group my time into more accelerated, intense chunks of time and just as I have conversations with my colleagues in the office, I don't feel guilty for having conversations with my family or taking a walk around the block as I would do at work.
There are lots of other things I could add but the key thing is to not worry and just enjoy it. You will learn lots of new skills and like me, probably learn that your virtual communications skills require some work.
I'd love to hear your working from home hacks :)