By: Liz Queen
Nestled within the hunkered down at home workforce is a cadre of you who aren’t at all dismayed. In fact, you’ve been silently and not so silently hoping and even advocating for your moment to make this move.
You mourn the pandemic-induced cause of this sudden surge to working remotely, but you’re enamored by the effect. You feel at home – literally – working at home.
Not everyone likes it like you do. You respectfully acknowledge the angst of those longing not to languish for long with kids at home, partners at home, pets at home, no workspace at home, feeling isolated at home, and chaos at home as the consequences of working at home.
The company guidelines that allow you to work virtually only as a policy exception are still in the pile of paperwork pending in your abruptly abandoned office. Could this be the opportunity to circumvent those rules on a regular basis?
Your biggest challenge to this coup may be those coworkers who are consciously consulting the calendar wondering when they can gleefully re-occupy your locked-up buildings. But the pervasive uncertainty of when that will be may allow time to make the current environment an acceptable option for those who do want to try to demonstrate its viability.
The shock has begun to subside now from the sudden surreal transition to a forced work-from-anywhere situation. Now the unexpected is being replaced by the unknown. We’re gradually accepting the sobering sense that our work practices will never quite be the same. From what we’ve experienced so far, consider these preliminary “do and don’t” thoughts on how to influence from your home office vantage point whether this will become a permanent view:
DO – Maintain the virtues of virtual meetings
It’s actually somewhat comforting to know that as much as things have changed, there are some things that can stay the same; most notably, the foundation of effective meetings:
A virtual meeting is still a meeting.
A meeting should still have a purpose. If there’s no purpose for the meeting you don’t need to schedule it.
The meeting purpose should be reflected in an agenda.
The meeting should begin at a certain time.
(Let’s say you’re someone who used to like to leave your office, stop and refill your coffee, go to the restroom, chat with two people you ran into along the way, and run back to your office to get something you forgot. That means you should have been on your way to the meeting at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start time. If the start time was 10:00 a.m., you wouldn’t expect the meeting to start at 10:10 to wait for people who are still arriving.
The same is true with a virtual meeting. If you anticipate you’ll encounter issues with connectivity “on the way the meeting,” log on ahead of time. If you’re the meeting organizer you shouldn’t have to wait to start a 10 o’clock meeting at 10:10 virtually, just as you wouldn’t do so in person.
The meeting should end at a certain time, too – as soon as practical, please. We’ve moved beyond our fascination with the virtual dynamics, so we no longer need to be distracted by
staring at each other and nervously adjusting the camera so we look our best when others stare back at us.
“Touch base” meetings can be fine, too, if there’s a reason for touching base. Otherwise, remember, extroverts, that one reason some of your coworkers feel more productive virtually is that it limits the lengthy “how ya doin’” touch bases and drop-ins encountered when you’re all in the office.
DON’T – get lax in your leadership
If during your normal routine you never discerned the difference between supervision, management, and leadership, now would be a great time to make this distinction.
It will take supervisors and managers to handle the tasks needed to pull organizations through this make-or-break business life cycle season.
But it will take leaders to instill the vision and move forward with the gentle tenacity needed to guide with certainty to a new uncertain place.
Those of us you have leadership titles must not squander this responsibility with the types of limitations that may seem to be part of your new virtual paradigm. To the contrary, technology offers a no-barriers, no-excuses way to reach out even to those who aren’t part of your inner circle or those you won’t just happen to run into in the hallway anymore. Those of you who are true leaders will find ways to lead regardless of the circumstances.
DON’T make us be(a)ware of your pet (and other household distractions)
Your phone call may be more productive if you’re lounging on your deck instead of lounging at your desk, but not if we can hear static from the wind howling or the whirring of neighborhood landscapers.
And someone has to say it, so here goes – not everyone is a pet person.
Others may have grown to respect the love you have for your pet. They likely know your pet provides you with loyalty, companionship, protection, exercise, and lessons for your life. They know you must have lovingly labored over what you named your Kibbles, your Caveman, your Muffin, your Bongo.
If they wonder (which they may do), if the quality of your pet interaction surpasses your human interaction (which it might), they do so privately so they don’t offend you (which it probably would).
But now you’re virtually bringing your pet into their homes.
So they’ve patiently enduring having the meeting start with the meeting organizer taking the time to quiet Patriot the Pup. They’ve been wholeheartedly good-humored when the presence of one pooch inspires others to go retrieve their retrievers as well. They’ve been tolerant of when the screen focuses on Smiley smiling, or into the lens of Lovey licking your lips, or when they have to pause to acknowledge that PooPoo’s, well, pooping. This is now not a one-time whoops vs. a pattern they respectfully ask you to stop now that the novelty has worn off.
And in exchange they should promise they won’t let their kids sing their ABCs during your presentation or interrupt when they’re having their own home schooling technology issues. Your kids are dreadfully cute – they really are – and we know you’d like to send them back to school as soon as it’s safe to. We would too. But in the meantime, we know it strains their tolerance to play in their rooms along with Rodney the Retriever or Cocoa the cat until the meeting ends. So what a great incentive for you to shorten the agenda so they (and you and the other meeting attendees) won’t get agitated. An efficient, productive meeting is a win-win for all.
DO stay focused – productivity is persuasive!
And yes, finally, there’s power in productivity! The bottom line is the bottom line. Finish your projects Start new ones. Participate in meetings. Meet your goals. Stay in touch with your colleagues. Manage your time. Be positive. Be innovative and thoughtful.
If your job or your personal circumstances don’t lend themselves to making this virtual shift a permanent part of your lifestyle, then we join you in hoping the ultimate resolution for you will be satisfactory and as swift as is safe. But for those of us who believe in what before seemed unbelievable, now’s the time to demonstrate with results that will result in the long-lasting home office we’ve long envisioned.
In other words, don’t act like you’re working from home. Instead, show that you’re at home, working.