Health, Fitness and Community

Posted on by richardbingham

This article considers a few well-being type impacts of being isolated and ways to get the most out of this situation.

Health. One positive aspect of working from home is the reduction in picking up colds and other infectious illnesses from co-workers. It’s well know how air conditioning/HVAC systems spread germs around a building and communing together is always going to spread infection. There is, of course, a counter argument that isolation can reduce tolerance built up by exposure to small amount of disease.

Fitness. Personally, and I think it is fair to say generally it’s easier to get exercise when working from home. You can fit in a run, a class, or a gym visit based on your schedule and because you’re usually closer to the facilities. While this might seem self-indulgent (‘I wouldn’t suddenly disappear if I was in the office’), if done with good-conscience you’ll be more productive and happier because of it. In countenance, many office locations have onsite (or nearby) fitness facilities too – so it depends on every situation of course.

Social. Many people make friends (and romantic relations) with people they meet through work, and when you rarely meet or see this group of people this becomes hard to achieve to the same degree. Certainly in this age of virtual-relationships (i.e. without a physical presence) it can still exist, but all the subtle factors involved in social (vs professional) interactions are inhibited. Indeed attempts at establishing social relationships are often frowned upon – just this week I noticed some initial social chit-chat interactions on a conference call went passed an invisible ‘line’, frustrating others on the call.

Visually Present. One lesson I got from an amazing manager I had in the past is to always use video calling. The facial and body-language communication enrich interactions substantially, and it goes a long way to prove you’re attentive and engaged.

Get Out. As opportunities for close social interactions at work fade, it is down to the individual to seek them out elsewhere, and avoid the lazy option of becoming a social hermit. Get an interest that takes you out of the house and – most importantly – commit to it. If you want to maintain happy and effective full-time working from home, this is an essential.

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This Week: Adding ‘Control Gaps’ to your Calendar

Posted on by richardbingham

This week … I had one day where I had almost continuous tasks and meetings booked in my diary. As usual trepidation flavored the first hour of the day, however in an entire fluke there was a gap of about 30 minutes between each Calendar entry. On reflection, I found this made the day ‘logistic-stress’ free, and give me just enough flexibility to get to different places, record outcomes, and be mentally prepared for the next thing. I know some people create 45 minute meetings inside hour slots to add such a cushion, however I think this suggests either not willing to go over, or alternatively you end up back-to-back anyway. So when I am controlling the schedule I will try ensure 30 minute ‘control gaps’ exist in my diary on busy days.

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Disconnected: Out-of-the-loop

Posted on by richardbingham

Unless you are part of a team where the majority of people are in unique locations, ‘information isolation’ can be a challenge, for example:

What’s Going On? – do others regularly seem better-informed than you? Perhaps on the status of ongoing tasks or about rumors of things coming. It’s pretty frustrating to have to repeatedly ask ‘What’s the latest with …‘.

How Do I? – observation is a key method of cognition, proven with the recent discovery of Mirror Neurons that fire even when just watching a task being completed. Missing out on this is exacerbated when process and procedures change … remote workers get left-out and supporting documentation is usually hard to find.

Email distribution lists and newsletters help, and modern collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack can help. To be successful however they must be (a) updated as the primary communication method (b) easy to digest, and (c) actually get read. As such the following are tips for success:

If communication seems poor, hard to use, or updates are infrequent, use the intended tools to ask. It’s likely others are struggling too and just asking for info/updates helps hold the gatekeepers to account.

Devote time to consume the information available:

Each morning allot 15 minutes to scan all unread messages/updates. Make this easy to do, setting up filters and views that show important items quickly.

In my experience regular discussion with team members is a good solution too, and individuals should be encouraged to bring pieces of information up for comment.

In weekly calls have a standing ‘news’ item on the agenda. Recognize those who contribute to it.

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The Pros:Cons Index

Posted on by richardbingham

The following is a summary of the areas you might wish to consider before (and during) working from home. Specific articles will dig into each of these in depth and use these as tags to group similar content. I’ll add links to them so this becomes an overall site index.

PROSCONS
No CommuteDisconnected
ProductivityLoss of Community & Culture
Flexible DayReduced Visibility
Less UniformMaintaining Equipment
Location Independent Disrupted Home
Distractions! Distractions!

Let me know through comments if I’ve missed something.

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Your Internet Service – History and Tips

Posted on by richardbingham

Back in 2002 when I started home working home internet was via a 14400 bits-per-second dial-up modem. Your computer would tell your modem to dial right into the company network via a special secret phone number and login. You’d cross your fingers every time as it was fragile, slow (forget anything beyond text or icons) and resulted in high call charges for every minute of connection. Monthly I’d get big bills! It also meant it tied up the phone line totally, before filters separate voice and data. As such, with mobile phone call charges similarly high cost at that point, many people had a second phone line just for the internet (DSL was too expensive to consider).

Then we got VPN from the general internet. Use your normal ISP phone number and then use a VPN client program to connect to your company network. Even then, ISPs would disconnect you every two hours to limit bandwidth use, and after a few months of pain, you prepared so you didn’t loose too much data. Now every minute was charged as a ‘local’ phone call which was much cheaper, and some people got their company to pay the second line fixed fees and the call charges.

Next came broadband (around 2007) and while the speed jumped it became impossible to differentiate work from personal use and so most companies stopped paying. Admittedly without any call charges the cost was much lower but early broadband was still not cheap.

Instability was still an occasional inconvenience – probably once a week early broadband dropped out for an hour or so, and roughly once every three months you’d have a day without any internet. For a while you could revert back to dial-up, but that option quickly closed. Usually you’d pack-up and either drive to the office or a friend/relatives house.

So with the history lesson over here are some considerations about successfully working from home through the internet today … as not all internet is the same and you usage profile can be important.

  • Speed: video calls and working with large files requires significant bandwidth to be usable. Fiber broadband is generally available and should be fine.
  • Use: Even now some cheaper packages have monthly usage limits, meaning that you’ll either loose connectivity, get a drop in speed, or be charged.
  • Sharing: usually the rest of the household will use the same internet connection, as such if multiple people are watching movies when you’re trying to work, you might get a speed drop. Annoying if you’re on a video call. Some routers allow you to set Access Controls (restrict/allow certain devices) or Quality of Service rules which cap bandwidth by usage type or device.
  • Wifi vs Wired: Unless you’re regularly moving around you’ll ideally want a wired connection into your router for speed and reliability. This might need an electrician to run a cable, but it’s worth it (especially if sharing the connection). Wifi boosters I found not especially good (cheap ones anyway) but am impressed with pass-through adapters as good alternative to a direct wire.
  • Backup: Sometimes things go wrong and depending on what you do an internet contingency can be useful. I use a mobile internet dongle, from a different service provider to my mobile phone. It’s really easy to use, reliable, fairly low cost, and has enough capacity for plenty of text-based work. It’s great for doing meetings away from the house/office, and is my home internet backup too.
  • Keep Updated: As my internet service contract comes to an end, I commonly ask for either a better deal or the latest router. I am actually reluctant to swap providers as they’re reliable and I don’t need the disruption, however they don’t know this and it’s a good way of getting a better service, better equipment, or both.

Any more tips … leave a comment.

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