The essential guide to remote working

By Sophie Ribton

For little over a year now I have been working predominantly from home, coming into the office at least one day each week. I always pictured graduating from university and heading straight into a 7-7 job, with very little flexibility for a social life outside of work. Never did I imagine I would be working from home for most of my weeks, when I want, how I want with the luxury of designing my own work schedule to suit my needs.

Whether you are working from a spare bedroom, kitchen table, home office or the comforts of your own bed, there is a lot that goes into successfully working from home. It’s not as easy as it seems. For a start, you must be disciplined. Disciplined with how you allocate your time, disciplined with separating work from personal activities, and disciplined with your routine – so if anything, try to stick to it.

Keep things separate

Since working remotely, my commute is now only a few steps from the bedroom to the office. There’s no travel time to signal that work is beginning and ending. Sometimes that means it can be hard to switch in and out of work mode, so getting into a daily routine has never felt so necessary. My routine now is fairly straightforward. I try to work the same hours each day so that at 8am I am into work mode and by 4pm I’m offline – contactable but no longer working. I may be a little over-protective of my time, but this ensures my work and personal activities rarely intertwine and I am able to enjoy a healthy work-life balance.

Don’t stop the chitchat

Communicate, communicate, and maybe communicate some more. With less office banter and over the desk conversations, I’ve realised it’s even more important now that our communication efforts are clear, responsive and adaptive - even if they’re not always on topic. Its incredibly easy to feel isolated at home so even if its not work related, I’m never too afraid to sing out for a quick chat, this keeps everyone in the loop.

Leaving micro-management behind in 2020

Micromanagement is never a good thing and it really doesn’t work in a remote environment – in fact it fails the moment you are unable to trust the person on the other end of your communication channel to get the work done. Working remotely requires a significant level of trust from your employer. Managing a virtual team draws on several different challenges so there must be a degree of trust from your employer that you can continue the same level of productivity at home as you would in the office. Every business environment is different and I don’t think there is a one size fits all approach to getting this right but what I have learnt is that being transparent about your work load, vocal about any challenges you are facing, and open to continuous feedback encourages a positive work environment for everyone.