Our information society leads us to work where the information is, and this shows that the office as we know it is no longer essential, since we can work from our home or from anywhere in the world.
On top of it, the outbreak of Corona Virus and the sanitary emergency that followed it made us face an increasing demand for flexibility, in order to remain productive.
Employment and tasks are what matters, leaving evidence that the physical location doesn’t have the importance that we believed, despite some jobs like craftsmaships, services and bureaucratic processes can’t in many cases take advantage of a remote working style
Although becoming increasingly popular in the course of the last decade, home office is now showing an impact…, on the organizational culture of companies, testing leadership roles, challenging employees profiles, and again demanding flexibility from all the people involved.
How’s the role of the team leaders in teleworking times?
Let’s start with the basics: Don’t assume what your team is doing, but have an assertive and proactive attitude in communicating, setting tasks, preparing single and group follow ups, sharing when your team has achieved goals and objectives.
Empathy, last but not least: leaders have the great challenge of monitoring emotions despite teleworking, and this is even more important if it’s mandatory for security and healthy reasons such as the case of COVID-19. Performing an emotional-individually check-in and promoting working-group-check-out, will positively impact the belonging and responsibility feelings of the team that’s working from home.
How to adapt to the Home Office?
As employees, there are some tips which can be adopted to cope properly:
1- Build a specific workspace. This will depend a lot on your home size, but in any case, organize your workplace in a way that will not affect other activities you do at home.
2- Take off your pajamas! Teleworking is associated with pajamas, when in fact it won’t be your best ally. Getting up, leaving the bedroom, showering, and adopting a dress code will impact your mood, attitude, and work productivity.
3- Plan your tasks and your working routine. In this way you can measure productivity as you carry out the goals you set for yourself, otherwise you can fall into the plot of “I have spare time because I’m at home”
4- Take breaks and pauses away from the computer. This applies to meals as well. There is life after 8 hours even if you are at home doing Home Office (include your breaks to the tip number 3 by the way)
5- Separate your work from your personal life. Review physical exercise routine. Go back to your favorite activities, hobbies or pendings that you could never do like reading, television shows, new projects, plants, testing recipes, or anything that makes you happy and distracts you.
What psychological aspects come into play when working from home during quarantine?
Teleworking and the Coronavirus led us to a scenario of social distancing that has generated a feeling of collective anxiety, possible loneliness and emotional upset.
It may sound like a cliche, but maintaining a positive attitude becomes essential. The social isolation that we are carrying out is a solidarity isolation taken as a preventive behavior.
Managing our thoughts during this situation is essential, therefore, it’s advisable to inform and update only from official sources, to avoid falling into catastrophic or apocalyptic thoughts. Yes, we are plummeting, but sooner rather than later this situation is going to improve and we are going to get through it. Why am I writing this? Because it’s important to distinguish reasonable concerns from meaningless fears in order to handle emotions such as anxiety and fear in a healthy way.
Maintaining the community is essential, we are not alone but we are taking care of each other. Therefore, let’s use virtual tools to continue nurturing our personal ties and stay in touch with the ones we love.
Last but not least, quarantine and remote work are increasing a confinement situation, which can stimulate Domestic Violence situations. Should you be facing with this delicate issue, please contact the helpline in your country to communicate or collaborate if someone is needing your help.
Remote work is neither better nor worse, it is a different working way. Tell me how you are leading your experience by opening debate to enrich each other!
Sources:
- https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-salud-publica/
- http://www.jobing.com.ar/
- http://www.excellentia.com.uy/
- https://www.qualabs.com/blog/post/how-we-organize-remote-work/
- https://interludio.cl/2020/03/16/kit-de-sobrevivencia-psicologica-en-cuarentena/
- Image: https://bit.ly/3duGPsY