By: Kunal Bhatia

The Stay at Home order which went into effect on March 24^th is beginning to show some signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Many states – including Michigan – have started to relax on a few restrictions and while we still have a ways to go before we are back to a real sense of ‘normal’, it appears we are headed in the right direction. With that said, by order of the Governor of the State of Michigan, a majority of the non-essential workforce still has at least two (2) weeks left of Stay at Home requirements. After six weeks of working remotely, for most a first time experience, settling in for another 14 days can seem like a never ending battle of freedom vs. convenience. Many have been able to ‘make do’, others have had to make some serious changes to their work-life balance in order to accommodate the situation. For the latter group I wanted to offer some help, by offering some advice based on my own experience as a full-time remote worker.

As detailed below, I will share tips and strategies which still benefit me today. My hope is that this document serves as a guide for all of us as we continue to work from the comfort and security of our homes.

If you are use to working at an office surrounded by coworkers, then it’s hard to deal with working at home. Personally, I relate with you given that I always preferred being onsite. I can also agree that for many employees and management alike remote working might seem new and overwhelming. But let me assure you that we are not the only people going thru this. Millions of people have been asked to remote work across the country and certainly all over the world. Secondly and very important point – remote working is not a new concept as it was introduced more than 40 years ago. 

Back in 1979, IBM was the first company to implement remote working policies, not just IT but for all departments including marketing & sales. IBM even invested plenty of resources and money in its policies by for instance installing remote terminals at staffers homes. For IBM it was a novel initiative which attained tremendous success. By 2009, 40% of its nearly 400,000 employees were working remotely and all across the globe.

The most essential advice I can give you is to talk often with your supervisor on their expectations with regards to timings, work, schedule etc. As you establish an understanding of their needs set your own expectations with them. For example, with my current job I have a mutual agreement with my manager that I will work from 8 am till 6 pm and I will most likely be unavailable from 11:15 to 1 pm due to family commitments. Setting expectations help establish boundaries which are vital for our managers. Unfortunately, many of the tools and visual indicators that managers used to rely on while at the office are ineffective now that everyone is working from home. Thus, when you take an initiative to establish rules you get two benefits – one your supervisor will appreciate you taking the first steps to help him/her and secondly because you reach out first you may get the leverage over what works for you and can negotiate mutually agreeable and reasonable expectations.

Second tip is to set clear expectations as well as a structure with your family at home, or roommates if that is the case. Personally, it’s a bit difficult to achieve this with family & kids but nevertheless absolutely necessary. All this revolves around the basic concept of protecting your work life balance – work when you’re supposed to work, enjoy time with family during breaks. This means reducing distractions that impact your productivity while working, such as TV and use of phones/devices.

While working on your tasks, the best advice I can part with you is to over-communicate and share your work progress openly. Be intentional when sharing with your boss & coworkers and do this often. This seems counter-intuitive to when working at the office but to be honest it actually makes sense. When we are working at the office its painfully obvious what we are doing – we are completing our tasks for the day and any passerby can see that including your supervisor. However, when working from home all these visual cues are absent. Therefore, it pays to work loud and pull people into your work. This is also a good opportunity to build strong rapport with your boss & coworkers – let them know often that you are getting things done for them.

One final thought is that we need to create a dedicated workspace in our home where we can get our work done comfortably for hours on end. For some it’s a kitchen table and chair, for others it’s having a home office. To attain such a dedicated space, first try out places at your home and ask yourself where you feel calm & more productive. You can also have multiple spaces for different types of tasks. The key is finding a space that works for you & then sticking to it.

So, to summarize, there is a clearing in sight for us to emerge from Stay at Home, but we are not out of the woods yet. We have a couple more weeks until we will likely have some options to go back to work – physically. Until then hopefully the suggestions above provide some new insight on how to make the best of the situation. Remote working is not new and has been adopted by millions of employees worldwide. In fact, if you follow some of the tips detailed in this article such as setting expectations with your boss, sharing your work progress openly & often as well as creating a dedicated workspace then you too can work efficiently from home & enjoy this experience – while it lasts.

Kunal Bhatia is a Full Stack Developer with over 15 years’ software development experience in diverse projects that include building distributed applications, voice/IVR systems, mobile apps & web services. Currently working as a technology consultant for RMC and proud to be part of its family. If anyone would like to contact Kunal, please feel free to email him at [email protected]