WFH has become such a buzzword since the outbreak of COVID-19 that several companies that had never practiced it before, grappled and permitted the staff to stay back at home and work. The more futuristic ones, which anyway had such flexible arrangements in place, found it easier to adapt and allow them to WFH. The long and short of this is that people are less likely to catch the virus, there is less congestion on roads and less pollution, but does this also mean that less work gets done? No! Here are some good WFH practices for you to adopt and remain productive.
01. Be Contactable
Answer your phone. It is that simple. If you were away in the bathroom, return the call no sooner you return. Just as you would when you return to your seat in office after taking a break. Irrespective of whether it is a colleague, customer or superior that is trying to reach you, do answer the phone/ return the call immediately. Similarly, respond to text messages and WhatsApp messages. Different companies have their own ways of communicating with staff – some use an internal chat system, others use WhatsApp, so keep all those relevant channels open and active. Respond to all of them as you would do on a normal office day.
02. Align Your Schedule to Your Team’s Schedule
When working from home, you have the flexibility of working at times that are convenient for you. However, this should not affect the schedule of the company, your team or your customer. Before the outbreak, whenever I used to work from home, my chosen method was to work late in to the night on the previous day and sleep till late, but I would be available at a decent hour to talk to my colleagues who needed input and to sort out matters for external stakeholders. When it comes to a prolong WFH stint, you need to be more adaptive – your schedule should more or less match the schedule of your team/ your company. Keeping track, communicating, conducting conference calls or event getting a simple answer can be a nightmare otherwise.
03. Respond to Emails
I feel this is a Sri Lankan thing, probably even a South Asian thing, but people here seem to need to be nudged to respond to an email. After sending a mail, the sender is expected to swing by and say ‘hey, I sent you an email, please reply to it’ or at least, pick the phone up and say the same thing. Get away from the bad habit of needing such a nudge and when WFH, ensure that you constantly check and promptly respond to emails. Imagine the frustration of those who want a reply!
04. Share Your Work Status
Keep your superior updated on the work you do, the tasks you complete and allow him/her to assign or prioritize other tasks as needed. Since I have to work from home, due to the current situation, I opened a spreadsheet on Google Drive, created a table with the date, tasks, sub tasks and statuses of each and shared it with my MD so that he can easily see what I am working on. I update it each day or twice a day and that makes it easy for both of us to keep a track of what is going on. It is not only me – there are hundreds of others and each of us has to keep a track of our own teams; ‘who is doing what’ and ‘when what will be ready’, so this just makes it simpler. If you happen to carry out tasks that can be tracked through the company’s ‘workflow system’, you don’t have to worry about it. If your job is like mine and has unique or strategic sort of tasks that cannot be tracked by such a system or if your company is yet to invest in such a system, then this should be a good method.
05. Keep the Family Tuned
Have a chat with your family and make them understand that you have a certain set of responsibilities which need to be fulfilled while you sit at the breakfast table or on the couch. Make sure they keep the noise to low decibels while you work and while you are on calls. Also, don’t let them distract you from your job and your goals. After all, who will pay the bills and keep the house running if you don’t get the job done?
What you need to understand is that, working from home does effectively mean that you are working. It is not a holiday, but a change of location only. Stay focused, keep working, remain productive and accessible. Don’t let a location change hamper your career. Make WFH a success and help companies to build confidence in the concept of WFH and help keep COVID-19 at bay!
Till I return with ‘Full of Etiquette’ next week, stay safe!
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Praveeni Jayasekera is the Founder and Editor of fullofetiquette.com; she is a regular advocate on the subject. She is an ACMA, CGMA; holds a BSc. Economics and Management; PG in IT and Diploma in Social Sciences. She is employed full time in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer at CL Synergy (Private) Limited; a Sri Lankan freight forwarding company. She is an ardent fan of the written word and has compiled content for numerous websites for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, corporate profiles and blogs. She has experience in training corporate professionals on customer service and business etiquette. She conducts coaching sessions on etiquette for school children every now and then.
