Don’t Panic: Working from Home During Coronavirus
With COVID-19 affecting people around the world, many have moved to remote work for the foreseeable future. As a full-time remote worker myself, I have some experience that could help you maintain communication with your team, stay focused and on task, and be extremely comfortable (it is casual Friday every day, and it is amazing).
1. First things first: PAJAMAS.
All the time. Nobody sees your legs in a video call (unless you’re doing something wrong), so you might as well be comfortable. Just please actually wear pants. Just because they shouldn’t be able to see your legs doesn’t mean they won’t. You may need to stand up during a meeting for some reason, so best to keep it PG.
2. Set a schedule, and stick to it.
Since you won’t have to drive anywhere in the mornings, you might think it’ll give you some more time to sleep. While this could still be true for some of you commuters out there, I would suggest that you try to get up around the same time as normal and use the extra time to relax and fully wake up. Personally, I get up an hour before work (at the not-so-bright, but still early hour of 6:00 AM), get ready for work, then spend the remaining half hour or so watching something on one of my various streaming subscriptions or messing around on my phone to help my brain turn on (at least partway) before I start work. If you’re one of those magical people that wakes up fully functional and ready to go, you could use that time to do something a bit more productive. Make your lunch, take your dog on a short walk, wash those dishes you left in the sink last night; whatever helps make the rest of your day easier.
3. Keep your desk space tidy and free of distractions.
Since I work at my dining room table, I have my computer set up where I am facing away from the living room — so my good friend, the TV, isn’t taunting me all day. If you’re working from your personal computer, you may want to make a separate login for your work stuff. This way you can more easily avoid getting sucked into a YouTube rabbit hole or whatever insanity Twitter and Reddit have to offer by simply not logging in to those accounts on your work profile.
4. Take your breaks!
You may be relaxed and comfy working in your pajamas, but this does not make you any less entitled to whatever breaks you would normally have at work. Take some time to step away from the computer and rest your eyes every once in a while.
5. You have new coworkers (and they're adorable).
My personal favorite perk about working from home (other than the pajamas and the lack of traffic or commute) is that I get to hang out with my cat all day. Keep your pets around while you work. If your work is stressful, they’ll help to keep you calm. If your work is mind-numbingly monotonous, every half hour or so, take a second and talk to your pet. Tell them how annoying it is to copy and paste things all day, or how they’re a good dog (or cat or chicken or whatever). Your pets will help keep you sane. Until they do that thing where they bolt back and forth across the house, shredding up the carpet and crashing into things. But that’s fine.
The author’s personal assistant, Rory:
6. Check your tech.
Make sure you know how to use whatever video call app or website your company is using for meetings. Most of them are pretty straightforward. The main issues you will likely come across are connection/lag issues, microphone/webcam shenanigans (if you’re using a headset, there can be some weird feedback issues), and the classic “I pushed the wrong button and accidentally left the call”. Here at Swash, we use Google Meet. It is very easy to use, but like anything else on the internet, it’s also very easy for things to go wrong.
Hopefully this will help you get through the next few months as the world goes into quarantine. Stay safe, stay sane, and wash your hands.
Oh, and please leave some toilet paper for everyone else.