Unfortunately, not everyone has the option of working from home these days. With the pandemic’s arrival, many Canadians have been laid off. Or, if they’re frontline employees, they often have no choice but to face the outside world, because public interfacing is a major obligation of their duties.
But there’s a few employees who’ve been able to adapt their workstations to home settings during this time of social-distancing and isolation. Yet, although the notion of working from home instead of an office seems attractive at first glance, this adjustment requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline, structure and reorganization.
Jill Duffy from PC Mag said work-at-home employees should design a schedule and resolve to keep it. Establishing guidelines when work begins and ends will help remote-employees to maintain a work-life balance, according to Duffy.
Yet, Duffy also realized one of the benefits of remote work is flexibility, so the workday could either be extended or broken-up into segments – just as long as employees at home keeps adhering to their routine obligations, which includes meeting deadlines.
Writer Regina Borsellino recommended stay-at-home employees to get dressed before attending the work desk – whether this is situated in the living room, the bedroom or the garage. Although it seems appealing to wear pyjamas all day, changing clothes will serve as a mental indicator, reminding the employee to get out of bed, have a shower, make coffee then start working.
When working at home, people might find it difficult to keep their employment obligations and home lives separate from each other. Borsellino counselled remote employees to create a separate room for a home office. She argued an area designated as a home office would be ideal for boosting productivity then disengaging from work at the day’s end by simply leaving the room.
“It definitely helps if you have a dedicated space for working from home,” said remote worker, Matt Haughey for Time Magazine. The creator of the weblog MetaFilter and the writer for Slack is a definite believer when it comes to maintaining a dedicated workspace at home from personal experience. “I started doing this kind of work sitting at the desk in the middle of my living room of a small San Francisco apartment 20 years ago and it was a pain to stay on task and not get interrupted,” Haughey said.
An in-house workstation should be prearranged in a corner of the home where the remote-located employee won’t sense too many interior or exterior distractions. Borsellino further suggested the workplace at home should have lots of natural light if possible, to maintain a positive inner-balance.
