• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

WFH - Tips? Advice?

thestrangebrew1

thestrangebrew1

Diamond Member
I'm officially WFH now, and initially I was pumped and started cranking out emails and some other tedious stuff I normally do when I start my work day. I'm still ready to get going on the projects I've been assigned, but it's a weird feeling being home and working on "work stuff". So throughout the day, I'll be checking in to see how you guys are handling WFH, tips and advice. I can actually hear birds chirping in my "office". Kinda weird haha.
 
Try not to fap TOO many times a day. Keep a decent pause period inbetween.

And definitely don't have your webcam up on a meeting during any.
 
Also it is a good idea to have the keg machine moved closer to the desk that way you dont have to walk over to it to pour a brewski!!
 
It sucks, honestly. Six days in, and I can't believe this is ever something that I wanted to do. Even as an introvert, I miss the office.

My biggest issues are 1) distractions and 2) snacking. I have been trying to listen to music or something in between calls, otherwise I find myself wandering to the pantry every 15 minutes.
 
Big one for me: If you use the same machine for work and home like I do, set up a dual boot for your machine. I have a "work" OS and a "play" OS. Otherwise I get the itch to fire up a game of overwatch or something during the day.. OR launch slack or email after hours. This helps when I don't have true separation like driving or transiting to somewhere.
 
Find time to get some stretching\exercise. At least for me there was more movement at work. Walking down to someone's office. Walking farther to a bathroom. Walking to the meeting room. At home? Everything is close by and its easy to get sedentary.

Make a mental break between home and work. It gets easier to blur the lines when working from home for a while

If routine\structure is important to you then make sure you have one at home

Please don't have your kids\pets join EVERY SINGLE conference call.

Please remember to mute your microphone
 
Exterous said:
Find time to get some stretching\exercise. At least for me there was more movement at work. Walking down to someone's office. Walking farther to a bathroom. Walking to the meeting room. At home? Everything is close by and its easy to get sedentary.

Make a mental break between home and work. It gets easier to blur the lines when working from home for a while

If routine\structure is important to you then make sure you have one at home

Please don't have your kids\pets join EVERY SINGLE conference call.

Please remember to mute your microphone
Click to expand...


I'll echo a lot of stuff here because my job is 100% work from home unless presenting infront of big dollar client....

Put shit on your calendar. Block off 30 minutes to each lunch. Block off another 30 minutes for an afternoon walk. What you would have spent walking to the bathroom, walking to another office, etc.. at the office is you sitting on your butt at home.
Definitely work in a closed off room. Lock the door during meetings unless you want to risk looking stupid in front of others.
Like Exterous said, mute your mic unless talking.
 
I've been at 60% or high WFH for the past +decade so this isn't new to me at all. In fact, way back in 2005 I was a staunch advocate of getting rid of a lot of congregated forms of tasks and activities in which they could be more easily conducted distance approaches with the right infrastructure involved. Being that 20 years ago I was support broadband networks on the edge and core, county schools systems could have converted easily by redirecting the money toward data networks and not new schools. And if I was able to WFH as a network engineer since 2005 then there is no reason a lot of companies could not have done the same in a great many jobs. But the decision-makers are old farts that love to fuck with the lower monkeys. So, the fucking continued.
 
Compartmentalize your job from your life as much as possible. Work in a place where you can where you can shut the door once work is done and not think about it. Get up every hour or so and walk around a bit.
 
I've been doing it for about 1.5 years now, here are my tips/experiences (some may not be applicable to you):
  • Keep a routine pre- and post-work. For me, I shower and eat breakfast before signing on, as if I was still going to the office, and I try to turn off my computer around the same time every day
  • Have a good work space: I have a proper desk with 2 monitors for work stuff; the desk and monitors are shared with my personal machine. I also have a USB switch, so I only need 1 keyboard/mouse for both computers
  • Take care of yourself: it's easy to forget to take breaks, eat, and drink water when you're sitting in your own home. Take time to take care of yourself. I have a dog that I have to occasionally take outside, that helps me with taking breaks
  • If you need to, a Bluetooth speaker is a nice way to provide some ambient music while you work to break the silence
  • If you're on calls a lot, a USB headset can be kind of nice - it's a lot better than the cheaper headphones you might attach to your phone
  • If you work off a common server a lot, it can be a pain when working remotely - for that I keep a lot of stuff locally to avoid having to constantly search through our shared server for files; then I only copy files over when something needs to be updated on the server
  • Initiate some general chit-chat with coworkers. Since you aren't face-to-face anymore, hit people up on Skype (or whatever) just to shoot the shit
 
rcpratt said:
My biggest issues are 1) distractions and 2) snacking. I have been trying to listen to music or something in between calls, otherwise I find myself wandering to the pantry every 15 minutes.
Click to expand...
Try to keep only healthy snacks within arm's reach; put the unhealthy ones down the hall or something so you have to get up to get one.

Of course, this is easier said than done because some healthy snacks require refrigeration. 🙁
 
Well yesterday wasn't so bad but I wasn't able to get a lot of stuff done. I will say that using our remote system was pretty snappy. I was expecting some serious lag logging on to our network and accessing files etc. But it was pretty seamless, like being in the office.

But I didn't get a lot of work done because people were constantly calling and texting me keeping me up to date on the stuff going on in our office and what other departments were doing. It was chaos in that sense. The rest of my team will start WFH next week, so things should get better.

I appreciate everyone's tips so far, even the fapping ones haha. It's going to be a big change. I don't have an office or a place I can clear out to make a cubicle, and the wife who is a teacher is off. She'll be instructing our daughter while school is out. I might have to start cleaning out the garage and get a desk and start working out of there. Actually not a bad idea if I get good wifi in there.
 
One of the WFH tip:
Coaching: For the freelancers who enjoy helping people achieve their goals, coaching is a wonderful career path. Coaching is a form of guidance or development of the client in a specific area of life done by their ‘coach’. With the aggressive development of today’s technology, the landscape of coaching has changed massively. Individuals are no longer restricted to just career coaching or life coaching, now they have the option to work from home in a variety of fields. Multiple people resort to coaching about topics like weight loss, time management, etc.
 
One of the strange things I've noticed while working from home every day is the drop in work email. Usually I'm allowed three days each week to telecommute and I've done this for about eight years now and got to know what the norm was for email volume from work, but now it is like 1/5 of less of that norm. Just goes to show that those in management above me are abusing their 24x7 telecommute time.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
One of the strange things I've noticed while working from home every day is the drop in work email. Usually I'm allowed three days each week to telecommute and I've done this for about eight years now and got to know what the norm was for email volume from work, but now it is like 1/5 of less of that norm. Just goes to show that those in management above me are abusing their 24x7 telecommute time.
Click to expand...

I've been tasked with trying to figure out how to let the public submit applications and make payments electronically as quickly as possible since we closed tot he public Monday. Because of this, I've been going non-stop between emails, calls and IMs from staff and our different departments. Been so busy it's hard to get into a routine right now. I've got a plan in place and we're implementing it as of last night so we'll see how it goes.
 
The sudden evolving network at my workplace has me working Friday and Saturday nights again. I'm going 12 on, 2 off right now. I can handle it, but its starting to seem like I'm working from a home-style prison. LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top