Adapting to Home Working
I just “celebrated” my 14th year of continual, 100% home working and previously mentioned some of the research around the subject here..
Previously, I worked in busy sales-driven offices for 8 years and there were some major adaptions I had to make!
With millions of employees suddenly having to change to working 100% of their time from a home office, here are some tips of what to expect and how to make a success of home-working!
The Big Changes include:
- No more commuting, or the stress and cost that goes with it! This is good news.
- No commuting also means more time to spend on your work. An extra 2 hours a day, 10 hours a day saved by not commuting makes a massive difference in productivity
- At first it can feel quiet and lonely! Especially for those used to the office sounds of other colleagues
- Much less person-to-person physical contact – how will this impact your mental health?
- You will no longer learn from those around you working from home as you will be isolated.
- The office trash can / bin has now to be emptied by you! OK, this is a small change, but a real one!
Tips for Success:
- Separate business from pleasure. Pick a home-working area separate to where you live your personal life. A spare room, garden-office, where you feel you are “at work” rather than “at home”
- Don’t accept or make more personal calls than usual. It was surprising how some people think they can call you for a personal chat as you are “working from home”
- Keep Facebook and personal social media to a minimum
- Working from home can provide so many non- work related distractions. The gardening, laundry, cleaning, social media, personal calls, shopping. Avoid them.
- Maintain positive mental-health! Exercise at home, go for a walk if possible, talk to others
- It is important to speak, message or zoom regularly with others
- If the silence gets to you, turn on the radio for some backgroud noise or pick up the phone and talk to someone in your business contacts
- Write a business to do-list every day and make sure you complete it. This maintains focus.
- Keep learning. This is a great opportunity for self-learning and development or you may become stale
In conclusion, I would say immense self-discipline and focus is key to make a continued success of working from home. Collaboration is key, luckily we have the ability to use video calls, instant messaging and other mediums to stay in frequent contact with other business contacts.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus is set to be a game-changer. This will result in surging numbers of home-working employees in the SaaS industry. Are we prepared?
Please add your comments or feedback and feel free to contact me here for any questions around Executive Search in the B2B SaaS industry.
Further reading:
New SaaS Salary Report