Is working from home really working in Sri Lanka?
We’re head over heels. We’re living and breathing in what is probably one of the most intense and uncertain circumstances to be experienced by the human race. And here we’re trying to get some work done.
You’re not working from home; you are at home during a crisis trying to work. There is a distinction.
It’s difficult, but for those of us who do have work, be grateful that you do. Most people have lost their jobs and their income methods, so given the options, we’d work from home over not having a job any day. While all the fitness influencers and SEO marketing gurus are telling us to keep working and making progress, we all go through phases of feeling unproductive and demotivated, and that’s okay.
Here’s a cute picture of how you can look at this:
While being compelled to close their co-working space, Hatch switched all their events and conferences online and virtually so that they can still offer their service to members. EatMe Global pivoted its business model to facilitate the delivery of essential goods. Most tech companies and startups are used to working from home and have placed working protocols to ensure that teams work in tandem but there are instances when companies, even if they work backend, are unable to shift all their operations to remote working, especially when various servers and networks have only limited access.
What’s so great about working from home?
“I discovered a balance between everything I had to do; from short-term internal decision making to all programmes going virtual and doing the best I can to help other initiatives respond to the situation unfolding, although it all multiplied with the lockdown. I used to dedicate chunks of my day into different topics and people so that everything gets its due attention. But with this pandemic, the pace and nature of everything external changed and I made my schedule more open and flexible. I’m also trying to establish a good working relationship with the wildlife around my home especially the squirrels who seem to have the loudest conversations right when I get on zoom calls. Yet to crack the code on that! says Randhula CEO of Hatch and Programme Director of Good Life Accelerator.
“None of us saw this coming. This pandemic is beyond just you or me. We have to make the best of this situation and keep chugging on,” — Randhula De Silva
More time for everything!
Many of us are spending time home with our loved ones, learning new hobbies such as painting or cooking, catching up on our reading list, self-reflecting and working out. We’re spending less and contributing less to pollution because we’re no longer travelling back and forth from work.
“At first, it was tough to adapt because I started to miss the gang and the ritual of going to the office, but soon I realised I had more time to do things I loved doing but never had any time to. I actually like it,” says Razia Esufally, Mentor & Partnership Associate at Hatch Works.
Cost-effective
Enosh Praveen, Co-Founder of ReadMe Sri Lanka says “It’s not a new concept to us. As a bootstrapped startup, our clients weren’t growing at the same pace we were, so we wanted to explore ways of keeping costs down and encouraged our writers to work from home whenever required, and use the office space only as a meeting place, which actually helped us save on time and transport. It was a slow transition that rose out of logical necessity but it has worked wonders for us.”
More productive and efficient
Mayun Kaluthathri from the Very Bad Wizards said “We were already remote working with some of our clients before the pandemic. We usually work on “sprints”, a design thinking concept that compresses weeks of work into several days. (Read ‘The Sprint’ Invented at Google by Jake Knapp to learn more) We also use a project management tool called Basecamp.”
Having a more flexible workweek helped the team at Very Bad Wizards have a better work-life balance because they could still be productive and get work done and not miss out on life.
Challenges of working from home in Sri Lanka
Work-life balance
“It was difficult for me at first because I couldn’t find a good rhythm. Waking up and switching to work in the same room was making me lethargic and unproductive. I needed to distinguish between work and personal life and to use my time wisely. Managed to find peace in meditation as well,” says Amaar Adamaly, Community Events Associate at Hatch Works. Sticking to a strict schedule, working in a different room than where you usually rest, switching into a different “office” outfit and having a checklist of things to do for the day are tricks that you can do to stay focusses.
Difficult to “read” people virtually
Not going to an office limits people to communicating online which gets in the way of fostering meaningful relationships with teammates. There is a lot of room for miscommunication when people can’t detect non-verbal cues and body language, so it’s important really make the effort to listen and be heard.
Feeling lost
Not seeing your colleagues on the regular might have you feeling left out. A study revealed that the lack of contact affects trust, connection and mutual purpose. Motivation and passion are difficult (but not impossible) to carry out when everything is digital.
Resources to work from home better in Sri Lanka
We found a very useful guide on ‘Remote Workplace’ done by Monica H. Kang where she goes through aspects of communicating online, to managing group projects and team meetings, to networking and building relationships online including tools that you can use to make the process simpler and far more efficient.
If you’re like us, who do events and conferences, this list helps your business transition to offering your services online and remotely.
We found it interesting to know how Zapier, a company with over 300 remote employees in 17 different zones across 28 countries is able to work based on their guide on “Remote Work”. Here is probably all the research you need to get started on a work from home culture or improve on your existing one. We’re also adding a master list of tools by CollaborationSuperpower that you can use to communicate, collaborate, meetings, team building, HR concerns and so much more.
Finally
The capacity in all of us to take any given scenario and work on it to gain the maximum out of it defines us as a species. Inner strength, resilience, making informed decisions, patience, and hope are some more characteristics that define us. However, everything is easy said than done.
There are times when we don’t feel 100% and not our best selves, and that’s completely okay. We all have bad days. We can always choose to see the brighter side of things, make informed decisions, not worry too much and hope for the best.
