PowerWright, having been a paperless company for several years, had an easy transition as employees went from working at the office to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PowerWright engineers and supporting staff have all the necessary tools needed to perform their duties just as they would at the office and here are some tips for working from home:
1. Get ready as usual. Wake up and get ready as though you’re going into the office, this will put you in the state of mind for work and keep your routine. Not only does getting ready in the morning make you feel better the rest of the day, it will make the transition back to work less painful. Plus, if you have videoconferencing capabilities, you won’t look as though you just got out of bed.
2. Designate a workspace. If you’re used to going into the office every day, the separation between work and home is physical and you want to recreate that as much as possible. Getting into your workspace will put your mind into “work mode” and help you keep your routine. If you live in small apartment, designate a small corner in the dining area or somewhere where you don’t normally go during your down time. Pick a spot with no distractions and if you use videoconferencing, check your background to ensure it’s free of clutter.
3. Keep your working hours. Just as you define and separate your work space, you should also be clear about when you are working. You’re most likely to get your best work done and have an easy transition back to the office if you stick with your regular work hours. Just make sure to set an alarm to remind yourself to get up and take a break so that you’re not sitting for a long period of time.
4. Check your bandwidth. If you have children at home streaming and eating up bandwidth, set some ground rules about when they can be online. If you have a video call scheduled, try shutting down other programs to decrease the load on your connection. The last thing you want in the middle of a videoconference with your boss is poor video quality or a dropped call.
5. Keep in touch. Most companies have instant messaging tools such as Microsoft Teams to keep employees in touch with each other. Although you no longer walk past your coworkers in the hallways or see them in the break room, this should not prevent you from reaching out to them. Send them a message to check in on them just to say “hi” and ask them how they are doing.