CEN FAQs: Working from Home

Salesforce, the largest employer in San Francisco announced most employees will permanently transition to working from home. The employees occupied 1,400,000 sq. ft. of space. While a trend to remote work has been underway for several decades the pandemic has accelerated the transition rapidly. Other companies like Uber, Oracle, Facebook, Yelp, Macy’s, Charles Schwab and others have transitioned many employees to do work at home freeing up millions of sq. ft. of office space.

Working from home when properly organized and planned may create a significant benefit including eliminating commuting time and expenses, low-cost meals and increased flexibility. However, we need to structure our work in a home environment carefully for effective results.

Maintaining a regular starting time and establishing a morning routine is critical. Our employer may establish some core working hours but regardless of company policy we need to establish our own routines. My productivity is better in the morning, so I set an earlier start time. If you work more effectively later in the day, adjust your schedule accordingly. The key is unless we set a specific schedule will have a tendency to drift into starting late.

Establish a clear agreement with your family about your work schedule, and when you may or may not be interrupted. The occasional errand or arranging to let service people in your home will impact your work productivity and needs to be planned accordingly.  Friends and family may easily assume because you are home you are available to chat or take care of children. With many children home during the COVID pandemic separating work from family time may be quite challenging but is critical in maintaining work productivity. Establish and communicate with your family the hours you are working and make sure everyone plans accordingly to support the work effort. You may want to consider picking up a time management app like Rescuetime to help manage time.

Reasonable breaks are important, I schedule 45 minutes for lunch where I take a clean break from my work effort and at least two 15-minute periods where I walk around and do something different. When I plan these breaks, I am more inclined to follow through with the time off and not allowing them to morph into a two-hour errand run.

We all need a dedicated office space for maximum efficiency. During the early days of COVID working from home situations where we used the kitchen table may have worked short term, but we need to find a dedicated workspace longterm. If you don’t have a separate room set your desk up in your living area, or even basement. Using dedicated space will help you psychologically understand when you’re ‘at work’ and ‘not at work’. If using part of a home’s living space, consider purchasing several movable partitions to help seal off the space and eliminate noise.

For some individuals working from home simply doesn’t work and a good option is to contact your local church, or other small business who may be open to renting you a small room for your remote working. In today’s environment the extra income is welcome and is worth exploring if your home environment simply doesn’t work out to working at home.

Many companies have policies of paying for equipment for working at home employees, make sure you understand the benefits and limitations of these programs. Keep in mind you’re likely going to be sitting at your home office many hours a week so invest in a good comfortable chair to protect your back, which will increase your energy and productivity. Further, check with your accountant about the deductibility of home office space which may help reduce your income tax bill at the end of the year.

If you spend time on the telephone with colleagues or customers install a separate number. In most situations you likely should avoid answering your personal phone number during working hours. And, similarly during your off time you don’t want to be answering business calls, unless they are extremely urgent.

Make sure you participate in group meetings. When you’re sitting in an office conference room everyone sees your part of the team but if you’re silent during the online conference you will lose your visibility. Chime in when appropriate and even if you comment briefly at the beginning something like “it’s good to have everybody here”, or “have a great day goodbye”, affirm you’re at the meeting.  Your dress should always be appropriate for business settings, you never know when you’re going to be on zoom call with ‘no notice’ and you may not want to show up in your pajamas.

One of the key benefits of remote working is elimination of commuting time. As part of your working from home decide in advance how you want to spend this extra time. Some may want to allocate part of the time to expand their Bible study, prayer time. Or you may want to improve skills or work productivity. And, others may want to increase family time. You may want to volunteer some additional hours at church.

Paul understood the importance of focus when he wrote, “Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” (1 Corinthians 9:26) 

 

Consider allocating part of your commuter time to becoming a  ReadyChristian, one who is AWARE of our times, and READY physically, spiritually and emotionally to minister to others in and through disasters.