As always, we know that you have a wealth of relevant experience and masses of good ideas on this subject too, and we would love to share them to benefit the whole Holles Connect community, so please do get in touch by emailing: alumnae@lehs.org.uk. To some of you, the ideas here might feel like teaching your granny to suck eggs, but for others this will be a novel situation and hopefully there is something here of interest.

Anyone who can work from home is being urged to do so according to the latest Government advice. Remote working can be challenging though, particularly in small spaces, or when you are also caring for others. Technology has made it possible in theory, but it doesn’t always function as you expect.

Keep communicating
Coronavirus or not, the key to working from home is clear communications with and from your boss – and knowing what is expected of you.

It’s helpful to start the day with a 10-minute call/video conference to kick off the day and wrap it up to replace those casual chats, which are so easy in close proximity. It also helps provide a bit of structure and avoids that sense of isolation, which can be a challenge otherwise. 

And if you’ve set up a group chat on one of the internal messaging and team collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams or even WhatsApp, do make regular use of it, just to check in and keep the communication lines open and maintain a semblance of normal office interaction and camaraderie. It’s still important to celebrate things like birthdays or give praise for a job well done.

Treat it like a real job
Just because you can lounge around in your PJs, doesn’t mean you actually should! If you do not have a home office, do as much as you can to create an ad hoc working area.  This also acts as an important signal to those who live with you that you’re ‘at work’. Create boundaries within your home that your family members understand and let them know in advance when you are going to need time alone to concentrate on work.

It’s also important to book end the day, as one of the most often cited working from home complaints is the inability to unplug after work. If you can’t commute, or enter and leave a physical office, try ‘psychological segues’ that can help put you in the right mind-set: like a 20 minute coffee in the morning and then an exercise session right after work, to open and close the day.

If you find yourself at the laptop at 9pm answering emails, having started the day at 9am, it is time to step away.  Turn off the laptop, silence email notifications on your smartphone and have some well-earned downtime. If something truly disastrous happens, they’ll probably ring you anyway!

Is your broadband up to it?
Is your internet access robust enough to allow you to video conference? If your bandwidth is low and you’re on a video call, try shutting down other applications to lighten the load on your connection. If your connection is really choppy, you can often shut off the video portion of the call and participate with audio only, which defeats the purpose of seeing your team, but will still allow you to participate in the conversation. If your connection isn’t robust, set some ground rules about when your kids can’t be online because you are on a conference call, or stagger your video meetings with other family members.

Manage expectations
It’s wise to have a discussion with your manager about what can actually be accomplished from home. Ask them to clarify what your priorities are, and discuss how tasks will get done, especially if you have children at home or other family members needing your attention. It might not be possible to stick to your usual hours if you need to watch the kids – so discuss your options. This should be an ongoing conversation – keep communication channels open.

Check in with your household
It seems likely that we are going to need to make this work for a few weeks at the very least, so at the end of each day for the first week or so, check with your partner and children to see what worked or what needs to be changed. ‘Was it useful to take a lunch break at the same time?’  ‘What is OK that I came over and looked at what you were doing?’

Once you fine-tune your routine, keep it consistent. Structure and routine during a time when everyone feels unmoored is critical to your mental and physical health and to keeping relationships steady. With kids in the mix, anchoring your new routine in what existed before is even more important. If possible, try to recreate their school schedule.

Alone together
To avoid family time overload, build in some daily alone time for each person, if they need it. Sometimes a solo walk is important for all kinds of reasons, to be out of the house, to keep up some exercise and to have some time for your own thoughts.

Further reading

From Leapers, the organisation that supports the mental health of freelancers and the self-employed, comes this excellent guide to working from home during Coronavirus.  Click here to read it.

From Buffer, a company specialising in social media planning, who have been routinely remote working for nearly 10 years, here’s a full list of all of their resources on remote work.

Zapier is a global remote company that allows end users to integrate the web applications they use, with over 300 remote employees in 17 time zones and 28 countries. They offer their tips that will help you thrive here.

Many companies are "going remote"​ without a plan; here are five tips and resources to help you navigate the shift from Paul Millerd, who runs the Reimagine Work podcast.

If you work in marketing, this is a rather helpful guide, from the Marketing Essentials Lab, setting out 17 activities that could be at the bottom of your To Do list, but you might actually now have the chance to tackle, such as workflows and email automation.  Click here to read it.