If Einstein was working from home in the 1900’s, when the flu pandemic hit, and discovered gravity imagine what great things will be discovered during the Covid-19 pandemic with employees working from home…….
Thought provoking isn’t!
Up until now flexible and remote working has been for the fair few. Perhaps for those in a certain industry such as IT and Gaming. However, when Covid-19 outbreak continued to rise Microsoft Office crashed with the amount of people logging on and working from home. Microsoft Office had to upscale its server farms to solve the issue. Infrastructures have been tested as well as internal procedures evolved and software being adopted to all for new ways of working. Could this be the start to more home and remote working?
Here at Situations, we have been thinking about the way we work and changing these to adapt to the continuous change in the environment we are living and working within. We have implemented split teams with half working from home and half in the office which is rotated weekly after an office deep clean to ensure the virus does not spread on our island. To ensure our team does not feel isolated we have downloaded MicrosoftTeam and set up a Whatsapp group to stay in touch and hold weekly meetings. This has meant we have had our systems tested first taking staff away from their day jobs to ensure they won’t be affected later when working from home. Many companies will be like us and not automatically set up for home working.
Working from home has lots of positives, no commuting, no interruptions, focused mindset and increased productivity. However, there are also negatives such as the obligation to get the household chores done which will impact productivity. It can also negatively impact by making employees feel isolated.
Practicalities of working at home with children as schools across the UK and Guernsey closed is another hurdle to jump for employees and for organisations to adjust to. School packs have been sent home to assist parents however many parents already feel the stress of having to work 7.5 hours in the day let alone to become a teacher too. And for companies, it will affect staffing and productivity.
Here are some tips for making family home working work; get some structure in your day, regularly review the plan you have made, mix up the activities each day for children and get them helping with household chores, keep talking as a family and stay connected with others. One idea in the team is similar to MicrosoftTeam meetings where children can have virtual playdates with friends on facetime. Many companies seem to be taking their businesses online at a time like this in an effort to stay afloat but also adjust to the community staying at home. We have seen personal trainers, baby sensory, music classes all take to virtual interaction with their clients.
How will you and your business adjust to the foreseeable future of home working? One thing is for certain whatever plan you do make it will need to be one that is flexible.
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