Make work from home work for you
6 tips to stay on track while working remotely
Working remotely isn’t a new concept for a team of digital professionals, but for the first time, everyone at Scotiabank Digital Factory is working from home. While our incredible customer service colleagues offer support in call centres and branches, we’ve been working to provide digital solutions to help our customers navigate these uncertain times — from home, but not alone.
It’s been all quiet on the social front while we’ve been working to get financial relief solutions online for our customers — check out Scotia Support here — taking on new projects, and adjusting to new ways of working. That includes adapting our new “office spaces,” otherwise known as our kitchen counters, couches, or dining room tables. Now that we’re back, we asked our colleagues to reflect on how their work life has changed, and what’s helped them succeed over the last five weeks. Read on to find out what they had to say.
1. Give yourself a break
At the beginning, it was really hard to disconnect during the day. I would work through lunch without even realizing it. As the weeks went on, I started closing my laptop and would watch 30 minutes of Netflix while I had lunch. It allowed me to disconnect and recharge before diving back into the afternoon.
In addition, before logging off on Friday evenings, I spend an hour organizing the following week. This has helped reduce anxiety and start the week right. I try my best to only book half-hour meetings, with a half-hour buffer in between. This gives me a chance to reflect and work on the action items from the meeting or give my ears a break from the headphones.
— Eduardo Alarcon, Director, Global Digital Design Systems
2. Add a little flair
Working from home has taken on a new meaning, especially in the last few weeks. I’m a manager on the Digital Marketing team, but being a parent, I have now been given the job of homeschool teacher.
Juggling both jobs is no small feat (kudos to every parent out there doing the same). Thankfully, my daughters’ school schedule is fairly flexible, which allows my wife and I to structure their day between our meetings. Some days school doesn’t end til 5 or 6 pm but we balance it out with later start times, long recesses, and even longer lunches.
We’ve all had to adapt these last five weeks, including our kids — so let them add a little flair that may not be feasible at school. Let them wear onesies or dresses all day. Let their 30 minutes of Phys Ed be playing Just Dance. Be creative, think outside the box, and have some fun. Work, school, and home life balance are all possible and dare I say, beneficial for the household!
— Jay Rosales, Manager, Digital Sales and Operations
3. Spacing out
My partner and I share the dining table in our living room, that’s our main office. We have two satellite offices: the kitchen and the master bedroom.
She’s a full-time student and I work full time. Both of us have several calls and meetings during the day, and of course, these often (always) overlap. The challenge was to create a space where we can both study, work, or talk freely without affecting each other. We found that if we share our planned activities each morning before we start our day, we’re able to set our expectations, and organizing our space and tasks accordingly.
— Jose Valdez Genit, Design Strategist
4. Show and tell
Working remotely is not new to me, but working remote for this extended period of time is. It has its challenges, but to avoid conflicts or miscommunication, here are a few steps I found to be helpful:
- Share as much as possible! It’s easy to duplicate work when we’re working in different places. Talk with your team. Show them what you’re doing. It might be useful for them too.
- Take video game breaks together. Yes, you read that right. Since we can’t interact face to face anymore, some developers on my team have been gaming together to keep our relationships active and strong.
- You wouldn’t work till 9 pm in the office, so don’t work till 9 pm at home. Know when to stop.
— Kaan Ersan, Sr. Software Engineer, iOS Development
5. Get moving
All work and no exercise make for a very stiff body. After one week of working from home, I knew something needed to change.
Colleagues started a few different physical activity challenges on Slack channels to keep us motivated. These challenges encouraged me to dust off the treadmill that hadn’t been used in months and now I take a half-hour break every day to run. I spend my Wednesday lunches doing yoga with colleagues and purchased a stand-up desk so I feel like I’m back in the office.
Before we started working remotely, my daily form of activity was walking to different meeting rooms throughout the day. This situation has actually helped me become healthier and more physically active.
— Aamir Iqbal, Sr. Development Manager
6. Post your feelings
Living with a roommate has its pros and cons. Sure, I have someone to have dinner with every night or debate if Carol Baskin really killed her husband, but when it comes to the workday, we have overlapping calls and (sometimes) can get on each other’s nerves.
Don’t ask us why, but we have a lifetime supply of Post-its in the apartment. Using those, we developed a simple but helpful system that we use every morning.
First, we express how we’re feeling that day by choosing an emotion sticker from a pile of individually hand-drawn Post-its.
Second, we mark all our meetings for the day and if there’s any overlap, we discuss where we will take these calls.
Both systems are on large posters visible to both of us. It has become a great tool to check-in with each other about work and how we’re feeling during this unique time.
— Samantha Lew, Service Designer
