Working from Home: A Veteran Telecommuter’s Insight into Survival
I am a telecommuter. I have been for ten years. I had not realised until this week that I have been working this way for so long. To begin with, the idea of people needing “support” to work from the comfort of their own abode struck me as absurd. Until today.
Introduction
The current virus situation has reached “that” point. The decision has been made by many companies to instruct its staff — at least, those that practically can — to work from the relative safety of their own homes, in a bid to limit the impact of the latest test to humanity. There are many who don’t have the luxury of being able to stay indoors to limit their exposure; having to venture out to keep essential services and supply chains running — and to those people the rest of us owe our unequivocal gratitude.
But for those of us that are now working from home, adjusting to the deviation in the accepted norms of life, what does it mean? From the very first mention that this could be the situation many people find themselves in, I have heard different perspectives. Some like the idea of not having to face the daily commute, others — most, surprisingly — seemed uncomfortable with the idea. Initiatives and systems to provide support for workers in isolation have quickly become a focus for many businesses.
Yeah, OK? You sound like The News, tell us something we don’t know?!
I attended a “daily check-in” conference call, where I work — one of the processes my employer has put in place to support its, now remote, workforce — and I heard someone confess that after less than two weeks they were “going a bit stir crazy”. It was not so much the turn of phrase, one I am sure we are all familiar with, but rather the cadence with which it was delivered. I was suddenly very aware that while this was all very amusing to me — as frankly nothing has changed from my point of view — the psychological impact of this change in daily dynamics for most people is huge.
This minor epiphany led me to thinking about when I first made the transition. From the daily routine of getting up and travelling to a place of work, interacting with my cohort, watching the clock until that euphoric moment the minute hand hit the six: ‘Yes! Home time!’; to — quite literally overnight — standing frozen in the bathroom at 08:50, staring at myself in the mirror with a knot of panic in my gut, feeling I was late and should not be there intensely examining the pillow creases on my face, but rather in the car on my way to work.
At this point, with the realisation that this week a significant percentage of our population had a moment like this, I stopped finding the situation absurd.
It became apparent that while I am certainly no expert, nor would I propose to be, I do have a wealth of experience in this particular niche. So in an attempt to help in my own small way, I decided to impart some insight. If it helps even one person get through the first few days, weeks or even the duration, then it will have been time well spent.
24/7 within the same four walls. How will I cope?
The fact of it is: we are all different. Some will find the experience freeing or far less stressful than the busy fast-paced environment of an office. Others will find it something akin to what most of us can only imagine to be a similar experience to incarceration. In reality, it is likely that most will go through phases of feeling both — I have, and still do.
Now, after ten years of ‘isolated’ working, you may be picturing me as looking something like Tom Hanks in the film Castaway. A gaunt, unkempt and frail zombie-like creature dragging around some form of egg-shaped sports-ball on a shoe lace as my lone companion, ‘Gilbert’. Well, I am sorry to shatter the illusion, but that is simply not the case — and it won’t be for you, either. And please don’t ask; I am not going to divulge information about the relationship Gilbert and I share — he’s a very private sports-ball.
Challenges
During my tenure I have experienced a whole range of emotions associated with the social disconnect of lone working. I’ll outline the most prominent ones here, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list. I do this not in some morbid attempt to amuse myself by scaring the giblets out of you, but instead to make it clear that what you may (or may not) be feeling is perfectly normal for the situation, and you are certainly not alone in feeling this way:
Loneliness
Probably the most obvious of the list — text chat and video conferencing are good, but they are no substitute for real social interaction. Unfortunately, it is probably the hardest one to deal with in any meaningful way. Be sure to leverage opportunities to interact with people via phone and the internet. You will adjust, eventually.
Boredom
This one creeps up on you. You do not realise it immediately. It stems from the lack of variety in available external stimuli. During a normal day at the office, you experience and take in much more than you are consciously aware of. Just the journey to the office, for example; advertising, the colours of clothes people wear and the brief but important interaction with the barista during your habitual stop for that precious morning caffeine hit. At home, you receive none of that, conscious or otherwise, which results in your mind craving something.
Restlessness
As best as I can tell, this is the likely product of varying degrees of the first two things. Having no one to talk to and nothing for your mind to process tends to lead to a subconscious desire to seek out something to process. This ‘twitchy’ feeling, unfortunately, tends to completely derail any and all focus you may have had.
Anxiety
This one is not at all obvious. I struggled with it terribly when I first started telecommuting and it took me a fair while to actually pinpoint, firstly what the tiny knot in pit of my stomach actually was, and even longer to ascertain why it was there at all.
Eventually, I worked out it came down to ‘justification’. I had this ever-present feeling that I needed to prove I was working. The strange notion that my boss can’t see me, so they must think I am spending my time watching TV, taking a nap or some other form of slacking off. While it is not an easy one to resolve, it pays to keep in mind that ultimately we are all really measured by the product of our work. Merely sitting at your desk in the office is not enough, despite the impressive length of the paperclip chain you may have spent all of Tuesday constructing, you have to actually do whatever it is you do. It is no different being at home. Bottom line; as long as the work gets done, the boss will be happy.
The compelling urge to argue with the walls
OK, I have never really experienced this. Honestly. If you do it would be fair to say you are outside the scope of this article. You should probably talk to someone. Or forget work, it’s the least of your problems. ;)
Solutions
OK, You might be right, I think I am feeling some of those things. So what is the secret to survival?
The truth of the matter, is that we humans are creatures of habit. The primary reason we struggle with the concept of telecommuting is the shock to our system that is the break from the habits we have been indoctrinated into accepting from a young age. We watch our parents go off to work, we ourselves go off to school, knowing that eventually we will grow up, get a job and go off into the big wide world to make our attempt at becoming functional, productive members of society. We did exactly that, and we have continued happily doing it daily ever since.
Now suddenly everything is different.
The trick to surviving this shock, is to form new habits. That is, set yourself a new routine. Try to follow it. Just as you usually get up at a set time, visit the bathroom and get dressed before heading to the office. Follow a pattern at home, and above all, make sure that pattern is a balanced one.
The immediate temptation is just to work. To sit and furiously hammer at the keyboard until you eventually fall asleep. We have to prove we are working, right? With no distraction, we can get so much more done, no? We are working from home, so while we are at home, we are working, correct? If we focus on the work, we will forget that we are isolated and we will get through this! Won’t we?
No. Just stop for a second and take a breath. That way lies madness.
I have come to understand, that the more relaxed you are, the more productive you will be. Because you are enjoying it. Trying to force yourself to be productive, because you have to work, is counter-intuitive, and only serves to make you less so. This is where routine comes in. It will remove the pressure to perform. By following it to the next cup of coffee — or tea / non-caffeinated beverage if you are that way inclined — lunch break or other milestone you will get to the end of the day and find you have been productive without realising it.
The routine you choose is of course entirely up to you. But to help, here is a list of the more important things I have found to be key to staying sane while working at home. Some of these I personally treat as rules. Others are just things that I have come to see as beneficial day-to-day things. Whether you want to adopt them or not is entirely up to you, you do not have to listen to the guy who made friends with a Rugby ball.
Always Get Dressed
This is my first rule. It is certainly tempting to sit on the sofa, in your pyjamas because it is comfortable. No one knows, right? Well, you do. You need to form a mental line between working and not. That line used to be the front door, clear and simple. If you do not have to use the door, that line becomes blurred. Save the PJs for chilling in the evening or at the weekend. Stick to that routine of getting ready for work. Form that mental threshold.
Learn to Distract Yourself
Yes. The managers among you may not like the idea of this one on the face of it, but bear with me. We, as humans, cannot focus efficiently on one task for a long time. We become fatigued quicker the longer we continue a single task.
In an office environment, we are constantly distracted by people moving about, phone conversations that are going on, the inevitable drama of ‘that’ printer once again chewing up huge swathes of paper stock. All that is fine. It is part of working in an office and those little distractions give us the time to mentally reset, and allow us to maintain a decent level of focus on the task at hand. At home, there are no phone calls, no ravenous paper-munching printers or co-workers asking if we are up-to-date with StrictlyIceComeBakeOff. (No, I don’t watch much TV. Sorry.)
In the absence of these distractions, we attempt to focus on what we are doing until we are simply unable to do it. Many times I’ve attempted to complete a task or solve a problem for several hours because “I have to get this done” and ultimately failed, only to have a Eureka! moment minutes after going to take in a package and making coffee while I was up. Learning to distract yourself is an important trick to being productive.
Keep in mind that you are not a machine, and it’s OK — even necessary — to stop what you are doing in favour of something else for a few minutes.
I should add the caveat here that I am in no way suggesting that you spend the day lost in the catacombs of YouTube, or twenty eight links deep in Wikipedia. That won’t help. Everything in moderation, as the saying goes. Learning to give yourself those fleeting moments of variety and balance them is by no means easy, but it is important.
Take Regular Breaks
You can view this as an extension of Learning to distract yourself, or at least a starting point for it. But it is important for focus, so it gets its own mention.
This one may seem obvious and in fact health and safety dictates you should be taking 5–10 mins after every hour of screen and keyboard work, which in reality most of us are bad at doing. Go and make a drink, let the dog — or cat if you are one of those strange types that prefer cats — out or even just to stretch. Look out of the window. Check the post. Just move away from your work area.
Whatever it is — and it does not have to be long each time — just get up and do something. Don’t sit in the same position all day. This is a big factor in preventing restlessness. Keep providing the back of your mind something to mull over while you are focusing on the work at hand.
Finish Work
The other thing I consider a rule. Again, this obvious right? Possibly, but perhaps I don’t mean what you think I mean. Sure, we need to get our work done. But more importantly, we need to be done with work. This is the other bookend to the Always Get Dressed rule. Remember that mental threshold I talked about? It is just as important that your routine has an end. Set an alarm, a calendar reminder or something similar to prod you to say “Hey, Home Time”.
I’m still terrible at this — too many days I’ve looked up only to realise it’s 21:00 and Gilbert is mad at me for spending the entire day working. Don’t be like me. It’s fine to push past the end of the day occasionally if you are close to completing something. That way tomorrow you can move on to the next task — it feels good. But do not let this become a habit, this is not something that you should allow to be part of your routine.
Again, form that mental threshold between being at ‘work’ and being at home.
Conclusion — in short?
Productive telecommuting is all about mental state. Your mental state self-regulates when you move about from one environment to another. Interacting with different people. Dealing with the aforementioned wood-pulp-salivating office hardware. At home, alone, you have to actively manage it yourself.
Driving yourself hard in an attempt to make yourself productive, I can tell you from experience, only leads to you not meeting your own self-set high expectations. The effect this will have will be spending the evening feeling rubbish about it, and as a result you will not sleep well. Which is not setting you up to succeed the next day. Far from it — trust me, I’ve been there. It will quickly become a mental spiral dive you will struggle to pull out of. By focusing on setting yourself up for maintaining a good mental state, the productivity comes free which will have the positive result of feeling good for being productive. Win-win.
Do not force productivity to be happy. Drive being happy to gain productivity.
You keep talking about Gilbert the ball, as a person. Has 10 years of telecommuting made you slightly mad?
No?
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