Iceland has achieved the holy grail for working stiffs: same pay for shorter hours.Results from two trials of reduced hours showed no productivity loss or decline in service levels, while employees reported less stress and an improved work-life balance, researchers at U.K.-based think tank Autonomy and Iceland’s Association for Sustainable Democracy said in a report.
Achieving shorter hours with sustained productivity and service levels involved rethinking how tasks were completed, according to the report. That included shortening meetings or replacing them with emails, cutting out unnecessary tasks, and rearranging shifts.
The trials, conducted from 2015 to 2019, cut hours to about 35 a week from 40 with no reduction in pay. Involving about 2,500 workers, equivalent to more than 1% of the Nordic country’s working population, results showed their “wellbeing dramatically increased,” the researchers said. Since then, 86% of Iceland’s entire working population have either moved to shorter hours or can negotiate to do so.
In Nordic peer Finland, Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 35, has suggested a four-day work week is worth looking into, saying employees deserve some of the trickle-down benefits of improved productivity. Even so, her government is currently not working on such policy.
Workers went from a 40-hour weekly schedule to 35- or 36-hour weekly schedules without a reduction in pay. The trials were launched after agitation from labor unions and grassroots organizations that pointed to Iceland’s low rankings among its Nordic neighbors when it comes to work-life balance.
Workers across a variety of public- and private-sector jobs participated in the trials. They included people working in day cares, assisted living facilities, hospitals, museums, police stations and Reykjavik government offices.
Participants reported back on how they reduced their hours. A common approach was to make meetings shorter and more focused. One workplace decided that meetings could be scheduled only before 3 p.m. Others replaced them altogether with email or other electronic correspondence.
Some workers started their shifts earlier or later, depending on demand. For example, at a day care, staff took turns leaving early as children went home. Offices with regular business hours shortened those hours, while some services were moved online.
Some coffee breaks were shortened or eliminated. The promise of a shorter workweek led people to organize their time and delegate tasks more efficiently, the study found.
Working fewer hours resulted in people feeling more energized and less stressed. They spent more time exercising and seeing friends, which then had a positive effect on their work, they said.
Many countries regulate the work week by law, such as stipulating minimum daily rest periods, annual holidays, and a maximum number of working hours per week. Working time may vary from person to person, often depending on economic conditions, location, culture, lifestyle choice, and the profitability of the individual’s livelihood.
For example, someone who is supporting children and paying a large mortgage might need to work more hours to meet basic costs of living than someone of the same earning power with lower housing costs. In developed countries like the United Kingdom, some workers are part-time because they are unable to find full-time work, but many choose reduced work hours to care for children or other family; some choose it simply to increase leisure time.
Standard working hours (or normal working hours) refers to the legislation to limit the working hours per day, per week, per month or per year. The employer pays higher rates for overtime hours as required in the law. Standard working hours of countries worldwide are around 40 to 44 hours per week (but not everywhere: from 35 hours per week in France to up to 112 hours per week in North Korean labor camps) and the additional overtime payments are around 25% to 50% above the normal hourly payments. Maximum working hours refers to the maximum working hours of an employee. The employee cannot work more than the level specified in the maximum working hours law.
Cohen, Yehudi (1974). Man in Adaptation: the cultural present. Aldine Transaction. pp. 94–95. ISBN0-202-01109-7. In all, the adults of the Dobe camp worked about two and a half days a week. Because the average working day was about six hours long, the fact emerges that !Kung Bushmen of Dobe, despite their harsh environment, devote from twelve to nineteen hours a week to getting food. Even the hardest working individual in the camp, a man named =oma who went out hunting on sixteen of the 28 days, spent a maximum of 32 hours a week in the food quest.
Laura Hancock started practising yoga when she worked for a charity. It was a job that involved long hours and caused a lot of anxiety. Yoga was her counterbalance. “It saved my life, in a way,” she says.
Yoga brought her a sense of peace and started her journey of self-inquiry; eventually, she decided to bring those benefits to others by becoming a yoga teacher. She studied for more than eight years before qualifying. That was about 10 years ago; since then, she has been teaching in Oxford, her home town.
At first, the work felt like a privilege, even though she was working a lot and not earning much. “There was a sense that, if you gave it your all and you did it with integrity and love and all those things, then it would eventually work out for you.”
But recently she had a moment of realisation. “I can’t afford my rent, I have no savings, I have no partner, I have no family. I’m 38 and most of my friends have families; they’re buying houses,” she says. “There is a lot of grief around that. I feel like I’ve just landed on Earth, like a hard crash on to the ground, and am looking around and feeling quite lonely.”
Hancock is one of the many people in recent years to recognise that they have devoted themselves to their work and neglected everything else that might give their life meaning. For workers across many sectors, long, irregular hours, emotional demands and sometimes low rates of pay mean it is increasingly hard to have a life outside of work – and particularly hard to sustain relationships.
Long before Covid locked us all in our homes, alone or otherwise, the evidence was pointing out repeatedly that loneliness and singledom are endemic in this phase of capitalism. Fewer people are marrying and those who are are doing so later; we are having less sex. A 2018 study found that 2.4 million adults in Britain “suffer from chronic loneliness”. Another projection found that nearly one in seven people in the UK could be living alone by 2039 and that those living alone are less financially secure.
For Hancock, turning her yoga practice into her career meant giving up much of her social life. She was “knackered” at the end of a long day of practice and teaching – and the expectation that she would continue her education through pricey retreats meant, at times, that she was spending more than she was making. It was at the end of a four-hour workshop in a local church in 2018 that the penny dropped. A student came up to her and said: “You are not well. We need to go to the doctor.”
Her GP found infections in her ear and her chest. She spent seven weeks recovering in bed, which gave her a lot of time, alone at home, to reconsider her career and face the reality of exactly how vulnerable she was.
Lauren Smith*, 34, a teacher in the west of England, was given a warning by a colleague before she applied for her postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE). “It’s going to be the most intense year of your life,” they said. At the time, she thought she was ready for it, but it took its toll on her relationship. “I remember coming home and just … not even being able to talk to him.”
Things did not improve when she started working as a teacher. “There’s this culture in education where it’s almost competitive about how much you work,” she says. The social relationships at school become almost a substitute for a personal life; she briefly dated another teacher. However, apart from “the odd fling here or there”, she says, “in terms of actually dating, I find that my enthusiasm or my energy for it …” She trails off.
The strain on their personal lives has made Smith and Hancock look much more closely at the sustainability of their working lives. Hancock is one of the founding members of the new yoga teachers’ union, a branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), the union representing gig economy workers and those in traditionally non-unionised workplaces. Smith is active in the National Education Union, but is considering a career change. “The demands on teachers have just increased so much and, with the funding cuts, I’m now doing the job of three people,” she says.
“Everything else you love about your job has been pushed to the wayside and it’s all about those exam results,” says Smith. The number one thing she would like “would be more planning time in my job. Maybe I could have one less class, which is 30 kids’ worth of data that I don’t have to do and it means I can put my mental energy into the students themselves and have the time and the headspace to do other things.”
It is not that she is hanging everything on the hope of a romantic relationship – and she does not want children – but nevertheless Smith longs for time and energy to devote to the people she cares about, rather than her job. “In the nine years that I have been a teacher, it has got harder and harder. If things don’t change, I can’t see myself staying in this job beyond two years from now.”
If work is getting in the way of our relationships, it is not an equally distributed problem. The decline in marriage rates “is a class-based affair”, say the law professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, the authors of the book Marriage Markets: How Inequality Is Remaking the American Family. The well-off are more likely to marry and have more stable families – and the advantages of this family structure are conferred on their offspring. For those in a more precarious financial situation, it can often be easier to stay single.
Economic stability provides “a better foundation for loyalty, one based on relationship satisfaction and happiness rather than economic dependency or need”, found the academics Pilar Gonalons-Pons and David Calnitsky when they studied the impact of an experiment with universal basic income in Canada. If we were not so worried about paying the bills, perhaps we would have the time and mental space for better relationships.
In an increasingly atomised world, being in a couple is how most people have access to care and love. The status of being partnerless, or, as the writer Caleb Luna has put it, being “singled” – an active process that means single people are denied affection or care because they are reserved for people in couples – can leave many people without life-sustaining care. As Luna writes, the culture of “self-love”, in which we are encouraged to love, support and sustain ourselves, leaves out those for whom this is not a choice.
Care is overwhelmingly still provided by partners in a romantic couple or other family members: in the UK, 6.5 million people – one in eight adults – provide care for a sick or disabled family member or partner. The charity Carers UK estimates that, during the pandemic in 2020, 13.6 million people were carers. What happens to those, however, without partners or family members to provide care? It becomes someone’s job – a job that can end up placing enormous stress on the personal life of whoever is doing it.
Care is often outsourced to paid workers – many of whom are immigrants – some of whom have left their own partners and children behind in order to go elsewhere for work, says Prof Laura Briggs, of the women, gender and sexuality studies department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The harsh crackdowns on migration to the US and the UK have left these workers in a uniquely vulnerable position. They would “work for almost any wage, no matter how low, to support family and household members back home, without the entanglements that come with dependents who are physically present, such as being late to work after a child’s doctor’s appointment, say, or the sick days that children or elders have so many of,” wrote Briggs in her 2017 book How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics. In other words, with their family far away, the worker is free to devote all their time – and their care – to their employer.
It is not just care work that is blending the boundaries between people’s work lives and personal lives. In many sectors, offices have been designed to look, feel and act like a home, to keep employees there for longer – with free food available 24/7, areas to rest and play with Lego, office pets, informal dress codes and even showers to create a feeling that work is a “family”.
When I met Karn Bianco while I was researching my book on how work is increasingly taking over our lives, he was a freelance computer game programmer who had tired of the long hours. “Your life became just work,” he said. “You would go in at 9am and would work through until 10 or 11 at night sometimes – you could get an evening meal there.” It was fine for a while, he said. “When I was an intern, I was single, I knew I was only in that desk for a year. I had no responsibilities, no dependents.”
But as Bianco, who is now 31 and living in Glasgow, got older and entered into a relationship, it became impossible to deal with. “I even tried to start coups of sorts,” he said, trying to convince his colleagues to walk out en masse at 5pm on the dot. But it did not take, so he was stuck trying to improve his own conditions, going home at 5pm on his own – something that was possible, he noted, only because he had worked his way up the ladder. Eventually, Bianco went freelance, then left the industry entirely.
Bianco is one of the founding members of the gaming industry branch of the IWGB, which is fighting the long hours in the sector. Traditionally, there was a crunch time, when, just before a product launch, programmers were expected to put in 100-hour weeks with no extra pay. Now, as games are connected to the internet and consumers expect constant updates, crunch time is pretty much all the time. “They try to instil that feeling of: ‘You have to do this for the family [company],’ rather than: ‘This is a transaction. You pay me and I work,’” said Austin Kelmore, 40, when I met him along with Bianco.
But what happens when the “family” is gone and the workers are left on their own? Layoffs are common in the games industry – so common that one observer created a website to track them. (In 2020, there were an estimated 2,090 job losses as part of mass redundancies in the gaming industry.) When Kelmore was laid off, his partner’s income was a lifesaver, but it made him think: ‘Do I want to do games any more?’ He is still in the industry and active in the union working against what he says is a systematic issue with work-life balance. “Without unions, we had no idea what our rights were,” Bianco says. “We were working illegal hours and didn’t even know it. Most of my time at home during some of those weeks was just sleeping.”
The pandemic, of course, has made many people face up to loneliness in a way they would not have done in the pre-lockdown world. One-third of women and one-fifth of men report feeling lonely or isolated in this period.
Ruth Jones* trained as a librarian in Canada and moved around from job to job – nearly once a year for 14 years. “Finding work, and especially having to take whatever work I can get, has definitely been a factor in why I haven’t dated much at 31,” she says via email. “How do you date someone wholeheartedly knowing that, at some point in a year, max, you’re going to have to make a decision about someone taking or not taking a job, being split up, doing long distance?”
A chronic illness means that, recently, she has been out of the workplace, stuck at home. She has realised the way in which our obsession with work is entangled with our romantic relationships. On dating apps and sites, “most people identify strongly with their jobs”, she says. Where does this leave someone who is unable to work long-term? “At a minimum, I am supposed to feel guilty for being unproductive, useless – and live a frugal, monk-like life,” she says.
She does not mind that she might not be able physically to do the same things as a potential partner, but she often finds that they do, especially as the apps are designed to pass judgment on people immediately. All of this means it feels impossible to find someone with whom to connect. “I feel like I’m not looking for a unicorn, I’m looking for a gold Pegasus.”
The apps often feel like another job to take on, says Smith. She will click on the dating site, flick through some profiles, maybe match with someone and exchange a couple of messages. Then a week of teaching goes by in a blur and, she says: “You have a look and you’ve missed the boat.” She often ends up deciding to spend her spare time with friends, or catching up on rest. “It just feels like another admin task: ‘Ugh, I’ve got to reply to another email now. I’ve got to put some data into a form.’” And, of course, those dating apps are big business, profiting from workers being kept single by their jobs. In 2021, the founder of the dating app Bumble was lauded as the “world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire”.
Hancock, who works in a deeply solitary industry, has found the process of organising with her union enormously helpful. “I remember being in this room and hearing so many different people from different industries talking and realising that we shared so much,” she says. “I wasn’t alone.”
It is through the union that she hopes to be able to change not just her own situation, but also the industry. After all, as the games workers learned, going home early by yourself – or leaving the industry – might be a temporary solution, but the real challenge is ending the culture of overwork. Perhaps it is time to revisit the original wants of International Workers’ Day, which called for the day to be split into eight-hour chunks: for work, for rest and time for “what we will”, whether that is romance, family, friends or otherwise.
I started five businesses from scratch, and I can tell you the quality of talent that I was able to recruit early on made all the difference in whether I succeeded or stumbled.
What I’ve learned over the years is that recruiting the best and brightest isn’t just about cushy office furniture or amenities like free coffee, a stocked fridge or a downstairs gym. Today’s talent are seeking employers who offer a child care education fund or even a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) account to help pay for family support services.
I see a small number of big businesses, such as Starbucks and Best Buy, incorporating child care into their list of employee perks. But, smaller businesses can also up their perks game by offering child care as a benefit. This creates a working environment where parents feel supported and encouraged to advance in their careers.
Lifting the constant financial and emotional burden of working parents will no doubt raise the bar on the caliber of employees you attract and retain.
Family benefits not only foster loyalty, but these pro-family policies can also be profitable by boosting productivity. The availability of paid child care plays a key role in allowing parents with children to remain in the labor force. In each year from 2016 to 2018, more than 2 million parents of children age 5 and younger had to quit a job, not take a job, or change their job because of child care challenges — disproportionately affecting women. American businesses, meanwhile, lose an estimated $12.7 billion annually because of their employees’ child care challenges. Nationally, the cost of lost earnings, productivity, and revenue due to the child care crisis is estimated at $57 billion annually.
Lack of child care is also one of the primary factors that prevent us from creating an equitable workforce and eliminating the wage and gender gap. Just take a look at the millions of mothers who have lost or left their jobs due to child care burdens caused by the pandemic.
Since March 2020, Black and Latina moms have stopped working, either voluntarily or due to layoffs, at higher rates than white moms. Many are single moms who need child care but haven’t been able to access it during the pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, single moms had higher rates of unemployment than their childless counterparts in the second and third quarters of 2020.
Experts forecast that loss of skills, tenure and income among women of color will shape the future U.S. economy. One reason is that insufficient child care could impact their ability to re-enter the workforce, their wages, their long-term economic outcomes and the overall economic recovery.
Like many single mom of color, I also struggled with chasing the “American Dream” due to child care challenges. In fact, my success as a C-level executive was slowed due to lack of adequate child care for my son. In 2004, for example, I was passed for a vice president of sales position because I couldn’t make it to work at the required 6:30 a.m. time due to lack of before-school care for my son. I struggled throughout much of my career with this challenge, especially being in technology, a primarily male-dominted industry.
In an era where women are projected to make up 60% of the workforce in the next five years, employers can leverage existing technology to provide fully managed child care benefits, giving their workforce the flexibility and family support needed to gain employee productivity and increase ROI.
As entrepreneurs and company leaders, we can do better. We have the power to completely change the course of child care in the US while dramatically transforming our company cultures by redesigning the workplace to be more family friendly. This is the future of work.
Work–family balance in the United States refers to the specific issues that arise when men and women in the United States attempt to balance their occupational lives with their family lives. This differs from work–life balance in the United States: while work–life balance may refer to the health and living issues that arise from work, work–family balance refers specifically to how work and families intersect and influence each other. Work–family balance in the U.S. differs significantly for families of different social class.
Middle-class family issues center on dual-earner spouses and parents while lower class issues center on problems that arise due to single parenting. Work–family balance issues also differ by class, since middle class occupations provide more benefits and family support while low-wage jobs are less flexible with benefits. Solutions for helping individuals manage work–family balance in the U.S. include legislation, workplace policies, and the marketization of care work.
References
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Hammel, E.A., Sheila R. Johansson, and Caren A. Ginsberg. 1983. “The Value of Children During Industrialization: Sex Ratios in Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America.” Journal of Family History 8: 346-366.
Wells, Robert V. 1975. “Family History and Demographic Transition.” Journal of Social History 9(1): 1-19.
Cookingham, Mary E. 1984. “Combining Marriage, Motherhood, and Jobs Before World War II: Women College Graduates, Classes of 1903-1935.” Journal of Family History 9(2): 178-195.
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Conger, Rand D., Katherine J. Conger, and Monica J. Martin. 2010. “Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes, and Individual Development.” Journal of Marriage and Family 72:685-704.
Simon, Robin W. “The Joys of Parenthood, Reconsidered.” Contexts 7.2 (2008): 40-45. Print.
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There was a time when working from home was a pipe dream, but recently, there’s been a surge of jobs you can do from your own place.
Whether that’s working remotely for a company or starting your own business, there’s no shortage of work-from-home opportunities. Here are 50 options, many of which can generate annual earnings that equate to more than the average American salary.
1. Affiliate Marketer
For those unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, it’s simply referral marketing where you earn a commission. Let’s say that you have a website and refer a book on Amazon. When the visitor clicks the affiliate link and buys the book, Amazon will pay you a percentage of the sale. People love affiliate marketing because they can start earning money passively with few startup costs.
Are you an artistic and creative individual who is able to create animation and visual effects for television, movies, video games and other types of media? Then you can work at home as freelance animator. (Personally, I’ve seen animators make between $25 to $106 an hour on sites like Upwork.)
3. Baker/Caterer/Chef
If you have a knack for baking or cooking, then turn your passion into a side business. From your own kitchen, you could start a catering business or become a personal chef. If you’re a baker, you could sell you goods to friends, neighbors, online or at local farmer’s markets.
4. Blogger
Blogging is inexpensive and easy to start doing. It could be as simple as you just writing about your favorite music or food, and eventually, you can start generating money from your site. Just keep in mind that you need to pay patient when it comes to cashing in on your blog. If this is something you want to pursue, check out this guide.
5. Bookkeeper
Believe it or not, you don’t have to be a CPA to start bookkeeping. Just sign up for a bookkeeping course at a community college or even online (such as this course from The Accounting Coach). Once you complete a course, you can start earning, and the median salary is reportedly $34,000. (Some stay-at-home bookkeepers I’ve spoken with personally make more than $70,000.)
6. Child Caregiver
Whether if it’s just for a couple of hours or for the entire day, running a childcare business from your home can be lucrative. Just make sure that you obtain the correct licenses and permits.
7. Clinical Research Coordinator
Clinical research coordinators help manage operations for clinical trials. You could make more than $48,000 with this job, and you don’t need a bachelor’s degree.
If you have experience and knowledge in a specific area, then consider sharing it with others. For example, if you’re an accountant or lawyer, then you can provide advice to small businesses for a pretty penny. You could also consult businesses on how to use a new software program or how to become more environmentally friendly. (If you’re interested, my company offers a consulting guide to get started.)
9. Customer Service Representative
Do you possess excellent communication skills? Do you also have a landline and reliable internet? Then you can earn between $8 and $15 per hour as a customer service representative.
10. Data Entry
Inputting data for businesses isn’t the most of exciting of jobs. However, you don’t need any previous experience, and you can start at $10 per hour.
11. Copy Writing
You can write copy for businesses from your home and, in some cases, earn up to six figures. Try Fiverr or Upwork to find gigs.
12. E-commerce Store Owner
There are five types of e-commerce business models: dropshipping, wholesaling, manufacturing, white-labeling and subscriptions. Thanks to sites like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce, you can quickly launch your own ecommerce store.
13. Editing and Proofreading
Companies like Book in a Box pay around $20 per hour to editors, book jacket designers and proofreaders.
14. Event Planner
Whether if it’s planning a wedding, birthday party or corporate event, people are looking for organized individuals to do most of the event planning for them.
Are you really good at something? Try creating a YouTube account and filming yourself instructing others on how to do what you’re skilled at. To start earning some cash, enroll in YouTube’s partner program so that you can make $1 to $2 per 1,000 views.
16. Grant Writer
Universities, hospitals, and nonprofit organizations often need to apply for grant money. Since these applications can be difficult to write, these businesses often turn to talented grant writers. As a grant writer, you can make between $40,300 and $67,000 per year.
17. Graphic Designer
Many businesses are in need of someone to design their logos, websites or visual ads. If you have a degree or certification in this area, you can make a comfortable salary annually (reportedly $45,000 and up). The more skilled you are, the more clients you’ll likely get through word of mouth. Here’s a guide on how to build a website that can help you get started.
18. Handmade Crafter
Do you make handmade products like jewelry or furniture? If so, try setting up an Etsy shop and selling your handmade crafts online.
19. Instructor
Do you know how to play a musical instrument? Can you get people into shape? Whatever your knowledge or experience, some people will pay you to share that information with them, whether in person or online.
20. Internet Security Specialist
As an internet security specialist, you monitor networks for security threats and implement security standards. You may also install data protection systems as well. Given the attention that online security has been receiving, this job is expected to grow steadily over the next several years.
When attorneys prepare for a trial, they often seek feedback on their case. Depending on the mock jury website you choose, you can make between $5 to $150 for your opinion.
22. Online Teacher
Are you a teacher who’s looking for a more flexible schedule? Then consider teaching via Skype or via a pre-recorded session through organizations like K12 and Connections Academy.
23. Patent or Intellectual Property Lawyer
Applying for a patent or protecting intellectual property are both areas where expert advice is needed. As such, if this is your area of the law, you could reportedly make between $112 and $121 per hour.
24. Peer-to-Peer Lender
Thanks to sites like Lending Club and Prosper, you can easily lend money to a business or individual. As an investor, you’d make money on the paid interest of the note.
25. Pet Groomer
Do you love being around animals? Are you also patient enough to clean and style pets? If so, this could be a great home-based business.
Even though everyone has a camera on their phone these days, there’s still a need for these types of professionals like for events like weddings. You can also sell your images on sites like Foap.
27. Product Reviewer
You can make a decent living (reportedly between $20,000 and $95,000) just by reviewing the products that you use daily.
28. Programmer
Learn a programming language, such as Ruby, and you could end up making around $61 per hour for programming. If you’re interested, here’s a handy programmer guide to get you on your way.
29. Realtor
While you can run a reality business from your home, as long as you have your state’s real estate license, you still need to show potential buyers the home. But don’t forget that you also have to prepare the home for showing. Thanks to technology, you can become a virtual realtor where you can show a property without having to be there in person.
30. Renter
Do you have an extra bedroom? How about a car you don’t drive everyday? Are there household items laying around collecting dust? If so, try renting them out to people who could use them. (I personally made over $50,000 renting out my basement in 2017.)
31. Repairer
If you have a knack for fixing things, like bicycles, cars or computers, then consider launching your own repair business. It probably doesn’t cost more than a little marketing to get started since you probably already have the tools and resources.
A short task is a job or assignment that can be completed quickly. Examples include writing a review, taking a survey, or watching a video. They may not pay much, but it’s a fast and easy way to make money from home. Here’s a list of short task sites you can check out if interested.
33. Social Media Manager
There are a lot of organizations who need someone to manage their social media accounts, and some may even want you to completely develop a social media strategy for them.
34. Stylist
If you love fashion and want to work from home, then you can become an online stylist. Some reportedly make up to $15 an hour.
35. Survey Taker
This won’t make you a millionaire, but you can be paid between $1 and $50 each time you take an opinion poll, answer questions about your shopping habits or review a product. You’re usually paid by check, PayPal or points that can later be redeemed for gift cards.
36. Tax Preparer
Even though this is a seasonal gig, you can make a salary of over $30,000. Don’t forget to register with the IRS before you start this home-based business.
37. Become an Expert
Nowadays, people are going online to find experts at things they themselves may be struglging with. A growing trend is hiring an expert versus hiring a large company to come in and help fix problems. One resource is Catalant, which hires out experts from $15 an hour to $280 an hour. That’s one option if you’re looking to help others with your knowledge.
If you’re a registered nurse, then you could work for health insurers or health management companies like Humana, Aetna and UnitedHealth Group. They hire nurses remotely to handle case management, treatment authorization and patient education.
39. Transcriber/Transcriptionist
This job essentially means listening to audio files, such as lectures or doctors’ medical dictations, and then typing out what you hear. It’s an entry-level gig that can pay up to $25 an hour.
40. Translator
Are you fluent in another language? Start earning a living off of this skill by translating documents or becoming an interpreter.
41. Travel Agent
Despite the fact that there are numerous travel sites that make planning a trip a breeze, it can still be time-consuming. What’s more, there may be certain travel conditions that you are not aware of. That’s why there’s still a market for travel agents to scour the web for the best deals, share advice or plan itineraries.
42. Virtual Assistant
If you’re organized and can handle office duties like replying to emails, calendar management, entering data and assisting with social media, then this job is perfect for you. And you can make between $10 and $15 per hour.
Some small- to medium-sized businesses don’t have the budget for a dedicated chief marketing officer, a vice president of marketing or even a public relations firm. But they may have the funds to hire a virtual public relations representative to take care of duties like promoting a business or managing a crisis.
44. Virtual Recruiter
This is pretty much the same position as an in-house recruiter except you get to work wherever you want. The other major difference is that you search the web to find the right employee for the right position. You’re also responsible for screening the applicant and being a part of the interviewing and negotiation process. Some recruiters are paid upward of $125 an hour for building resume templates.
45. Virtual Tutor
If you have extensive knowledge in a specific area, then you could earn between $12 to $35 per hour by tutoring students either over the phone or on Skype.
46. Voice Acting
If you have a golden voice, you can make somewhere between $56 and $72 per hour.
47. Web Developer
Depending on the specific job, as well as your expertise, you could bring in between $55,000 and $175,000 per year building websites from scratch.
In order to deliver the most accurate service to customers, search engines pay individuals to analyze search results. You don’t need to have much experience, and you can haul in $12 to $15 an hour.
49. Website Tester
Businesses want to make sure that their websites are intuitive and easy to navigate. As such, they’ll assign instructions for people to follow to check out their site. Each test usually takes around 15 to 20 minutes. In return, you’ll often be paid $10 to $15 per test.
50. Writing Gigs
Businesses of all sizes need written content, like blog posts, website copy or eBooks. As a result, there are thousands of writing gigs available that pay anywhere between $10 to $100 per hour.
By: John Rampton / Entrepreneur Leadership Network VIP
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Remote work stands to play a major role in the future of work for many years to come. Staying informed about which companies are hiring for work-from-home jobs can help you find the exact remote opportunity you’re looking for.
Since 2007, FlexJobs has helped job seekers find flexible jobs with thousands of remote-friendly employers and job postings in more than 50 categories. Take the tour and find out how a membership can help you connect with legitimate, professional remote jobs.
It is difficult to count what we have lost during the pandemic. We’ve lost jobs, loved ones, incomes and our social lives. Living and working remotely has also meant we are losing our empathy for colleagues. This is especially true of business leaders and executives who need to be able to understand the problems their employees are grappling with as we leave lockdown.
This loss in our ability to empathize with one another is not new. In 2018, 51 per cent of Brits said they thought it was declining, compared with just 12 per cent who thought it was increasing. The pandemic has supercharged this. We are looking at one another through screens and heavily ensconced in our own worlds, so it is difficult to expand our awareness to people with different experiences.
There is a crucial difference between empathy and sympathy. To sympathize with someone means we feel sad for their misfortune. Empathy, on the other hand, means understanding and sharing the feelings of another.
Throughout the pandemic, most of us have been able to sympathize with those who have lost jobs or family members. We have been able to feel compassion for those living in cramped quarters. But by being physically separated from them, we have not been able to truly understand and empathize with those people.
We have become distanced from our employees and, more widely, our customers – the
majority of who increasingly want to deal with companies and brands that demonstrate their care for people and the planet. As offices start to reopen, it is vital we can act with empathy towards our staff and those we serve. This is crucially important for those at the top of businesses, who have kept their jobs and had a different experience of the pandemic.
In order to understand the customers and people they are serving, business leaders need to be able to understand their staff. There is a huge array of experience just waiting to be tapped into to create a more empathetic work environment. Some communities are more tight-knit than others and have had better support systems throughout lockdown. Younger workers may have been more isolated and need more help and encouragement returning to the office.
Often senior executives have more in common with other senior executives than their customers and other target audiences, such as staff. Therefore, learning how to rebuild lost empathy will mean spending more time with the people you’ve never met. To lead with listening and not opining, to immerse yourself first-hand in the real-world experience of your customers’ lives rather than just reading reports about them.
On a practical level, this might look like asking for written feedback from staff on their experience of lockdown. It could also mean trying to spend time in the office coffee shop. Appearing physically accessible to employees will encourage conversations that can never happen over email.
There is also a place for data, but not as we know it. In today’s big data era, digital interaction between companies and customers means businesses have access to more data than ever before. Sourcing the most valuable data isn’t the only challenge. When there is an over-reliance on endless sheets of numbers it can be difficult to define behaviors. There is a risk of losing a richness of understanding. One-on-one interviews with staff or customers can be more useful than “big data”. It can be costly and time-consuming and, because of this, it often gets left behind.
However, with so much of the same data out there, it is in the small, slow data that the most striking insights can be found – nuanced findings that can make all the difference between people thinking you and your business are empathetic, or not.
By: Simon Gregory Joint Chief Strategy Officer at BBH London
Would you consider yourself an empathetic person at work? Are you always willing to lend an ear to your co-worker’s latest band practice drama, or would you prefer to keep conversations at the corporate level?
A recent survey conducted for the 2018 State of Workplace Empathy reported that a whopping 96% of respondents rated empathy as an important quality for companies to demonstrate. Despite this, 92% of employees believe that empathy remains undervalued at their company, which is an increase from results in prior years.
Empathy is described as not just understanding another person’s perspective, but truly putting yourself in their shoes and feeling those emotions alongside that person. It’s a cornerstone of emotional intelligence, and when a workplace demonstrates empathy, there are countless studies that correlate it to increased happiness, productivity, and retention amongst employees.
With the never-ending fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is now the new normal. People have become accustomed to working from home, and this is not going to change any time soon. So if you want to keep up, then you need to need to adapt quickly to the remote work environment. Both business owners and employees need to make physical, mental, and emotional adaptations.
This ultimate remote work productivity guide will inform you of everything you need to know in order to master the new system. Managers and business owners that are adapting to remote work will need to be extra considerate to remote workers. The same principles of effective management apply, but in a completely different setting, using different techniques. The following are the things you should consider if you want to stay on track.
Ensure Your Employees Have the Tools
If you are doing any kind of task, then you need to do it well. Remote workers need the right tools to ensure that they can complete the same tasks as they would get done in the office. You need a good communication toolkit, a secure remote connection, and an efficient file-sharing system. You don’t have to overthink this – there are many third-party tools, paid and free, that can perform many functions that you could imagine.
And these are only the software tools. Remote workers need to have laptops, a good internet connection, proper desks, lighting, separate office space, etc. While many remote workers will do this for themselves, you might want to think about providing the proper incentives. If workers cut costs on things like desks, internet, computers, and lighting, overall productivity levels will suffer.
Do Not Micromanage
Multiple studies have alluded to the fact that certain classes of remote workers have felt stifled when it comes to micromanagement. This comes from managers who feel they need to compensate by constantly checking in with remote workers and asking them what they are working on. This is a huge no-no. If you can’t rely on your workers to get the job done, then you have a trust issue. Only enquire when you notice a dip in productivity or when you get a complaint. This might seem counter-intuitive, but it is actually much more efficient and humane.
Schedule Meetings Frequently but Not Obsessively
Much like micromanagement in general, excessive meetings are not only counterproductive – remote workers actually are reporting that they feel demoralized. Group meetings should happen around twice a week, with a personalized meeting once a week or so, unless you need to touch base with an employee for a specific reason. This was an issue even before COVID-19 but has gotten even worse since.
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Communicate Effectively
Communication is still the number one priority when it comes to productivity. Encourage employees to communicate. And be clear to identify exactly what it is that you want to be done and by when. If there are any issues, you should have an open line of communication so remote workers can come to you with them. By making your meaning clear, you can ensure that you and your employees are on the same page while also showing them how to communicate.
Be Flexible/Sensitive to Employees
Everybody is going to need time to adapt. It is not only productivity that is suffering. People are suffering, and the general population is in fear of becoming infected. Many still have their typical workload to contend with and are adapting to different time zones and a completely different work/life environment. Ask how they are doing and what it would take to make their jobs easier.
Encourage Healthy and Effective Productivity Practices
The fact is that many remote workers simply do not know what constitutes healthy and effective production practices. They should be proactively encouraged to approach work with a positive mindset of achievement, collaboration, and communication. Lighting should be appropriate, their postural alignment should be considered, the internet speed should be fast, and they should prioritize certain tasks.
Most people got to work every day like zombies without any kind of recognizable game plan, on autopilot. Disseminate an eBook or pamphlet providing the details on productivity across many dimensions – posture, light, computer, software, work hours, mindfulness, etc.
Remote Work for Employees
Employees will need to maintain a strong mindset and a focused approach if they want to excel in the current economic climate. Yes, you can obviously excel at your job right now, and it is actually something of a prime opportunity for those who capitalize on it. Keep the following items in mind if you are looking to get ahead.
Have a Clear Work/Leisure Balance
There is an obvious sweet spot between work and play. You need both to have a satisfying lifestyle. Make sure that you have clearly defined work hours where you will not be interrupted. Equally, make sure you have clearly defined leisure hours where you will not be interrupted by work. The best way to do this is probably to schedule time away from both technology and the computer.
Get Super Organized
Because you are working from home, you need to be extra organized. It is just too easy to spend the day sleeping in, watching TV, or just suffering from a lack of focus in general. You need to identify work time for yourself, meaning no dog, child, friend, relative, or partner can interfere. You need a routine for getting out of bed, eating, sleeping, and taking breaks. You need to have a system of logging off from work and email so no work-related email can eat into your leisure. In all aspects, you need to be more organized than ever.
Prioritize Goals Daily
Without clearly defined goals, it is easy just to stay at the desk without getting anything done. In some instances, there is less incentive to get work done. This advice was relevant before COVID-19 but is especially relevant now. Write down, on paper, what you want to get done each day. It is a great way to get focused.
Become Self Motivated
Now is the time to become more self-motivated than ever. First, it is easy to fall into depression or lethargy while working from home. But you could also use this as an opportunity to attain all goals that you were previously unable to accomplish. You now have more freedom – you can get a quick workout in the morning, lunch, or evening. You can work on a side business. You can complete physical work around the house. And you can do all of this while still maintaining maximum efficiency on your typical work. Dipping in and out of work after a period of rest and relaxation will make you more productive, and you will also be more clear and focused when you do.
Build a Serene, Productive Office Space
There is no excuse for having a sloppy, small, untidy office space. You can make it a side project, but you should have a spacious, neat desk with appropriate lighting and a fast internet connection. It’s a bad idea, for various reasons, to let your kitchen table double as your office. Build a dedicated office that is used exclusively for work – optimized it to its full potential. You are going to be working from home for the foreseeable future. You won’t be able to work at your best unless you have a top office environment.
Take Advantage of the New Environment
Many remote workers are a little disappointed at the current turn of events. But there is no need to take a negative mindset to all of the opportunities on offer at the present time. You can achieve your goals, increase your skillset, and take advantage of the freedom that comes with working from home. This includes saving on rent and transport costs or creating a side business. Treat the glass as half full, and take advantage of the new environment.
Embrace Digital Minimalism
There are so many ‘applications’ out there that help you to increase your ‘productivity’. But having too many applications will kill your productivity. If you have too many notifications, you will simply freeze up. Get as minimalistic as you can when doing your work. Use the minimal amount of applications. Consider cleaning up your file system, removing accounts you do not use, deleting social media that is not productive, and only using the essential software to get your tasks completed.
Essential Remote Work Tools and Software
Remote workers need the right tools to get the job done. At the same time, there is a learning curve when you are using a disparate number of platforms and tools, it can take a few months to get everything integrated and running smoothly. With this in mind, the remote work tools need to be easy to use, simple, and intuitive.
If a tool is complex, then it is not really helping. The following is a list of some free online tools that may help. The list is not definitive as there are thousands of tools, but it might help. You need to consider personal organization, time tracking, file creation/sharing, messaging & video, and project management as the basic categories.
Personal Organization Tools
If you are working remotely, then you might want to download a few applications to stay on top of things. One platform that immediately springs to mind is Todoist. Todoist keeps all your to-dos in one place, so you can plan your day better and make sure that you don’t forget anything. When something comes up, add a reminder and get back to what you were originally working on. This will keep your mind from wandering when you’re working and will ensure nothing gets missed. Other options include Evernote and Memento.
Time Tracking and Payroll Tools
We have written extensively about time tracking and payroll here. Essentially, you want an easy way to record hours and to automatically payout remote workers. Because the freelance market is getting bigger, time tracking and payroll need to be even more streamlined. The best payroll software includes Gusto, OnPay, and Patriot Accounting. Some payroll providers, like Gusto, will also accommodate HR.
File Creation/Sharing Tools
Without a doubt, the one to go for here is Google Suite of products. The Google Suite includes all of the online products for sharing and collaborating on presentations, spreadsheets, and Word documents. It is easy to use and completely free. Because the files are online, it really beats desktop applications, though there are potential security threats to take into consideration.
Messaging/Video Communication Tools
There are many messaging services available, most integrated with project management tools. Slack is probably one of the best, as it is both slick and functional. Slack provides a solution to communication difficulties that come with working remotely. It lets you have real-time conversations with anyone in your team, create channels for different purposes, and create threads within messages to keep your chats organized. File sharing is also supported by Slack. You can directly send files to your team, which is much easier and cleaner than email. It is a good mix of professional and casual. Other options would include Telegram or WhatsApp.
Project Management Tools
There are many options for project management. Asana is a good option, allowing for Kaban boards to be created for specific tasks. You assign people to cards and move them along as they are in the various stages of completion. Trello is another option, though it is more basic. Zoho Projects is also an excellent choice and can be integrated with the larger Zoho suite. For more complex projects, you may want to consider Wrike, LiquidPlanner, or Celoxis.
Working From Home – What the Statistics Say
According to Global Workplace Analytics, 30% of the global workforce will be working from home by the end of 2021. PWC conducted its own survey, and there were a number of findings that are good to pay attention to. Remote work is here to stay, and so is the mindset and habits associated with it. The results of the PWC survey were as follows:
Remote Work A Success – Remote work has been an overwhelming success for both employees and employers. The shift in positive attitudes toward remote work is evident. Over 80% of employers indicated that the shift to remote work has been successful for their company.
Employees Reluctant To Return – Employees want to return to the office more slowly than employers expect. By July 2021, 75% of executives anticipate that at least half of office employees will be working in the office.
No Consensus On Balance – There’s no consensus on the optimal balance of workdays at home vs. in the office. Over half of employees (55%) would prefer to be remote at least three days a week once pandemic concerns recede. Over 65% of managers say a typical employee should be in the office at least three days a week to maintain a distinct company culture. Other experts and studies have also indicated that 2 – 3 days a week in the office is the optimal balance for all parties.
Balance Contingent On Experience – Least experienced workers need the office the most. Respondents with the least amount of professional experience (0-5 years) are more likely to want to be in the office more often. Thirty percent of them prefer being remote no more than one day a week vs. just 20% of all respondents. The least experienced workers are also more likely to feel less productive while working remotely (34% vs. 23%).
Productivity Levels Increased – More employee respondents say they’re more productive now than they were before the pandemic (34% vs. 28%). And more executives agree: over half (52%) say average employee productivity has improved vs. 44% who said the same in June. Also, employees who report higher productivity are much more likely to say their companies have been better at performing various activities, including collaborating on new projects and serving customers.
In other words, there is an astounding number of positive implications of the Work From Home (‘WFH’) culture. Employees are more productive. However, psychological experts have been alluding to the negative mental health implications in a subset of employees, and this also has to be taken into account.
Tips For Setting Up a Home Office
If you are a manager or remote employee that is working from home, having the right office is an absolute necessity. Your work environment will have a pronounced effect on your productivity levels. Multiple studies have been conducted proving the effects of the surrounding environment on worker efficiency.
Put another way, it’s just easier to get work done when you are in the right frame of mind, without distractions. And it’s good to think long-term. You are going to be in your office for years and perhaps decades. It is an investment, not a cost. The following are essential to setting up a home office.
The Work Space
The ideal home office is one where you are completely isolated from other parts of the house. Meaning that it is not a part living room or part kitchen or part bedroom. It is a room designed specifically for use as an office. The designated office should also be spacious – you don’t want a broom closet. Be good to yourself – create a space designed for work alone.
The Desk
A standing desk might be a good option if you are looking to preserve your health for the long-term. The deks should be relatively large and the chair should also be high quality. You don’t have to break the bank, but consider that you are going to be using the same desk and chair for years on end.
The desk should be a good height. The industry standard is around 29 inches, but you want to get an adjustable one to suit your height. You know your work surface is at the correct height if, when you sit up straight, your forearms are parallel to the ground and your wrist is not bent up or down when you type or mouse. The top surface of your wrist should be on the same plane as the top of your forearm.
The Chair
If you do not get the right chair, your posture will suffer. Dinner chairs are often not at the correct height and are not orthopedic. While there are expensive office chairs out there, $200 should be enough for a decent-sized one that will do the job. Just make sure it is adjustable. You might also want to look into lumbar support and an adjustable seat pan tilt.
Monitors
The desk and chair help with postural alignment. But you also want to adjust the monitor height so you are not staring into a small screen, hunched over. Even with a basic computer, you can buy an extra monitor and connect them via Bluetooth or a cable. This is cheap to do and it will make it easier to code, look at spreadsheets, or create a presentation.
Display resolutions come in a whole alphabet soup of terms but look for any of the following ones to get that desired higher sharpness: QWXGA, QHD, WQHD, or 4K UHD. Also, note that the display connector may limit the screen resolution; on many computers, the video subsystem limits HDMI 1.x resolution to 1920 x 1200 pixels regardless of the monitor size.
Lighting
Lighting is an area that many would not think about when it comes to office spaces. But lighting plays a role in your circadian rhythm and different coloring will have different effects on your hormones. Overhead lighting is best, and it frees up space in comparison to a desk lamp. Another area to consider here is the brightness setting on your monitor.
Other Factors
Other factors you will definitely want to consider when creating your own office space are:
Internet Speed – Just get the fastest possible plan you can afford. Nothing is more frustrating than slow internet. 50Mbps is the minimum speed to shoot for, and the more people using the internet at the same time, the more you want to get a higher-speed service. If you really want to nail this, get a wired Ethernet connection.
Headphones – If you want to shut out the outside world so you can focus single-handedly on your work, then consider a pair of Bose headphones or similar. They are nearly soundproof and do a good job of blocking out all external noise.
Scanner/Printer/Shredder– You are likely going to need to do these office-related tasks by yourself, so you will have to invest in the appliances.
A Virtual Private Network – So, now every household member has 3 or 4 devices all using the same internet network, and you are also completed work on that network? Time for a VPN as a basic security precaution. You may also want to consider extra security features at the root access level. ExpressVPN and NordVPN are great options for security, speed, and privacy.
System Restore – Perhaps the most important consideration of all. Office systems perform daily backups of all work. You will need to save your work regularly using Time Machine in macOS or Recovery in Windows.
How To Find the Best Remote Workers
For managers, finding remote workers can be an added difficulty. So many people are now shifting jobs in a turbulent economic environment, it’s hard to know how to screen people and even to find people with the needed skills. But patterns are being established and there are time-tested ways to find people that are a fit for your business. Even as things change, certain principles will always remain the same.
Referrals
Referrals are still the best way to find new talent. Not one of the best. The best. Data from Jobvite has indicated that employee referrals have the highest applicant-to-hire conversion rate. Only 7% apply but this accounts for 40% of all hires. This is huge. And the successful candidate already has a friend in the office, which makes it easier for him or her. In addition referral hires have greater job satisfaction and stay longer at companies – 46% stay over 1 year, 45% over 2 years, and 47% over 3 years.
Social Media
If you’ve tried sourcing candidates from social media before and were not overly impressed about the results, try throwing in that the position is remote and watch the applications pour in. Work-from-home jobs can appeal to a range of applicants, including people who want to change their career but do not have to move in order to do it, digital nomads who want to work as they travel, and people sick of commuting.
Remote Job boards
If you’re looking to reach a high concentration of remote job seekers, try using job boards that specialize in remote hiring. While this isn’t a free option, it might still be worth trying out, especially if you’re hiring for a senior position. At least you know that everybody who applies is interested in working remotely, so you won’t waste any time. There are tonnes of remote job boards, including WeWorkRemotely, NoDesk, SkipTheDrive, WorkingNomad, and Jobspresso.
How To Screen Remote Workers
When screening remotely, you have to revise the standard system to take the new situation into account. You need to ensure that the candidate is self-motivated and disciplined because you have fewer tools at your disposal for enforcing rules. Once the candidate is hired, it is harder to assess what they are doing. The remote worker simply has more power and freedom, so you need to be extra careful in your screening beforehand.
Monitor All Communications
In a physical interview, it’s great to be able to take someone’s measure by how they conduct themselves. It is the best way. Sadly, it is no longer possible, meaning you have to look towards alternative avenues to gauge someone’s worth. The best way to do this is simply to see how quickly they respond to emails, how polite they are, their video communication skills, etc. Do they have difficulty connecting? Are they easily contactable? Odds are, the better they are in terms of basic communications, the better they will be as employees.
Schedule Tests
If you post a job on a remote job board, you could get hundreds of applications. If you post a job with a simple test, you might get 10 applications. This simple technique is incredibly powerful. Always post a simple challenge or test. It is a form of preliminary screening that staves away all of the ‘chancers’, leaving only those who are truly interested in the role. The test does not have to be extensive, it can even be a short 500-word essay on a given topic. Those who are serious will not be put off by such a basic screening procedure.
Focus on Self-Discipline and Motivation
This has already been mentioned previously but needs to be reinforced. When you are screening potential candidates, you need to be really sure that they want the position, have a history in it, and want to have a long future in it. You certainly don’t want to waste 6 months with a person who is sitting at home collecting a paycheck! Ask what their routine is, how they stay motivated, what their internet speed is like, whether they have built a home office, etc. You can learn a lot about a person without directly asking them about their technical skills. When people are unguarded is when they reveal the most important points.
Remote Work Difficulties to Overcome
The following are the primary remote difficulties that need to be overcome. They are best looked at not merely as obstacles, but stepping stones to increased growth. New items require different solutions.
Communication
The biggest difficulty with remote work would have to be that of communication. You don’t know what employees are doing, and employees may not know what employers want from them. This is best resolved with enhanced communications. It’s not simply about keeping in closer contact and constantly going ‘connecting’ with people via Skype. Employers need to clearly identify what they are looking for, instead of changing their minds all the time. Employees need to communicate what they expect in their new role. The clearer and more focused both parties are, the better. Short, focused, clear communication is better than being bombarded with tonnes of information that nobody knows how to handle.
Productivity
Managers need to find out how best to manage, and workers need to find out how best to work under new conditions. It’s not just because either party is ‘lazy’. It is an entirely new environment and everybody needs to give serious thought to how best to increase their productivity levels. Employees have more freedom and need to think about how they can stay motivated. Employers need to look at creative ways to market products and assign tasks. The whip is no longer as effective, and managers need to establish a rapport with remote workers.
Mental Health Issues
The combination of COVID-19, remote work, and lost jobs has caused a lot of harm across the globe. Remote workers are at risk of mental health problems and we are already seeing evidence of this. On top of this, 20% of those diagnosed with COVID-19 developed a subsequent mental health issue. Sitting in a room working without being allowed to travel far is just not good for psychological well being.
Keeping Busy
It can be difficult to assign roles, deadlines, and tasks to remote workers. A balance has to be found between getting workers to their desks using time tracking software and taking a complete goals-based approach to what is getting done. Neither one works 100% by itself. If an employee does not have goals to achieve, then he or she is going to leave the desk and do something else. Remote workers need to be kept busy, but not overwhelmed. Have a stockpile of goals to achieve, but don’t come down too hard on employees that cannot meet the demands.
Standardizing Work Hours
In the remote work environment, it is entirely possible for people to be working in different time zones. And this is fine. Remote workers should be asked what times suit them best in terms of work. It will be the times they are most productive. At the same time, they will be expected to keep to these work hours when they have committed to them. People need to be online for general queries and concerns, and responsibilities are attached to jobs.
Automation & Remote Work
Automation has a huge role to play in terms of remote work. In fact, remote work is only possible right now due to technological innovations, mainly in terms of voice and messaging applications, as well as project management tools.
We have already seen forms of ‘light’ automation with applications such as Grammarly, Google free keyword planners, Yoast SEO, the Google Suite, etc. Though these are not strictly ‘automation’, they have lessened the load for many workers who would have had to do it manually.
In a more technical sense, automation is there to automate routine tasks. This means that software/algorithms are doing what humans did previously, 100%. The end result is that both managers and workers can focus on creative tasks. There is no real limit on what kinds of tasks can be automated.
For example, automation can parse those distracting emails for you, freeing up your remote team’s time to focus on other things. It’s all too easy to get caught up with little tasks and mindless administration work! Even more so when there’s no one to spot you doing it. But with automation handling those tasks, there’s less fuel for procrastination.
Another productivity concern caused by the transition to remote work is one for teams. Some workflows are complicated. They require input from many people. When teams work from home, however, keeping track of a piece of work becomes more challenging. With automation, you can set up auto alerts to let you know when an urgent task needs your attention. Needless to say, automation and remote work are inseparable. The teams that use automation tools the most efficiently will reap the rewards.
How To Run an Effective Remote Work Meeting
Running a remote work meeting is different from in-house office meetings. You are not sitting next to a person, so it tends to be more casual. Some people might leave to go to the bathroom or just to pop out! But there are a number of items that can be considered which will engage the attention of all parties involved. A key point here is to make sure everybody has something to do and contribute, otherwise they are just attending another ‘pointless’ meeting. The following are the 5 best ways to run an effective remote work meeting.
Make it Consistent
Group meetings should take place at similar times each and every week. You might want to have one at 11 PM Mondays and Fridays. In this way, everybody will become accustomed to attending this meeting. It also makes it easier for remote workers to plan their work. A surprise meeting can be annoying and might take somebody away from an important task.
Assign A Clear Agenda
All people attending the meeting should have a clear agenda/numbers of what they intend to contribute. You might encourage people to have certain documents prepared beforehand. You should be clear on who is attending the meeting and why the meeting is taking place. All meetings are information exchange, but you need to clearly define this.
Use Appropriate Software
Good communications software is subjective, and you might simply want to use a tool that all parties are familiar with. Zoom is a great option, as practically all remote workers and managers are familiar with it. It’s also a useful technology, in general, that is easy to operate. Video platforms will all have good file-sharing capabilities at their disposal.
Set the Tone
How many people are attending? How professional is the meeting? A meeting of 4 people is a lot different than a meeting of 10 people. You can be easygoing and casual with 4, but the meeting would quickly devolve into a mess if you try doing that with 10 people. Is the meeting a professional exchange of information or catchup between a couple of friends? These days, it can be a little tricky to tell the difference with the ever-receding lines between work and leisure.
Establish Clear Etiquette
A few small adjustments to your remote meeting etiquette can go a long way. Make sure everyone’s microphones are muted if they aren’t speaking, enforce an on-time start, and encourage everyone to dress appropriately and have appropriate backgrounds. So many meetings are just too casual, and it encourages sloppiness. You wouldn’t go to work in pajamas, why do you think it’s ok to attend a meeting in casual wear?
Set a Time Limit
Don’t let the meeting run overboard. For most meetings, there is no need to go above 30 minutes or so. And, according to a wealth of scientific literature, you are going to find it impossible to keep people engaged beyond 45 minutes. Set a clear meeting agenda, isolate the most important concerns, get the job done, and finish on time. If you have any other concerns, specific members can be contacted directly or you can set up another video call with them.
How To Integrate Remote Workers Into the Culture
Perhaps the trickiest concern for project managers and business owners is integrating workers into the culture. While this was always a concern, a lot of it usually happened on autopilot. The remote worker would be in an office, looking at the design, and talking to all the other people who adopt the culture. Needless to say, nothing like this happens remotely, where you can’t even tell if a remote worker is at the desk! Here are the best ways you can integrate remote workers into the culture.
Share the Corporate Culture
What, you don’t have a clearly defined document specifically stating the business culture? Well, go create one! And when you do, share this document with the remote worker. This is the most direct way for everybody to stay on the same page. You will also want to explain the culture during the interview stage of the hiring process.
Team Building Exercises
A large part of business culture is that all of the remote workers (and, of course, managers) will get to know one another. This is best done with team-building exercises. Every 3 months or so, have a team-building exercise of some kind. The HR department should be helpful in visualizing and setting it up. It could be a competition or social event, the point is to get everyone involved and having fun, not just completing an assigned role.
Create Specific Social Channels
You can create social media pages and specific channels on Slack and other platforms that are dedicated purely to entertainment. You want to have a clear delineation between social and professional communication channels. But people need an outlet to talk and converse with one another. It’s actually the best way to grow a company. If people feel they simply have to follow orders without being able to contribute, even to a small few people, they will simply lose interest.
Make Use of Automation
Make it easy to connect by leaning on helpful tools. If you use Slack for team communication, try using plug-ins like Geekbot to send regular “get-to-know-you” polls and surveys. This works in part because Geekbot updates can also be used for work-related topics, so if a team is used to the survey format, they may be more likely to participate when lighter topics roll around. Questions include: “What playlists do you listen to while you work?”, and “What’s something you’re really looking forward to in the next week?”.
Setting Up a Productive Morning Routine
Without the entire office looking on to see how you are doing, it can be hard to get motivated for work. This goes for both employees and employers. So it’s doubly important to have a clearly defined morning routine that assists you to be as productive as you can be. It will also help your mental and emotional wellbeing, productivity, and overall well-being having a distinct correlation.
Have a Consistent Routine
This is the single most important piece of advice anybody can give you in terms of working remotely. Be consistent across the board. Start and finish at the same time every day. Have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time every day. And go to sleep at the same time every day. While this sounds a little intense, it is the best method to get your mindset for maximum productivity and happiness. Consistency drives results – the more often you change your routine, the less effective the results will be.
Get Organized
Never approach your desk without a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish. This is one of the most common problems associated with remote workers and people in general. They are passive about what they do but expect active results. Before you switch on the computer, write down what you expect to accomplish and what time frame you hope to do it in.
Be Prepared
If you know what you are going to eat for breakfast, when you are going to take lunch, and what time you are going to start, it eliminates a lot of mental stress from your morning. Isolate if you are going to exercise in the morning or the evening, but won’t wonder about it while you are at your desk. This is idle time-wasting. A good trick is actually to close all tabs from the night before, and only leave open tabs relating to jobs that you need to get done. This will subconsciously encourage you to work on that task, instead of navigating to FaceBook!
Be Tidy
Your office space and kitchen should be clean the night before you attend work. You don’t want to have to attend to extra tasks when you are getting set to do a good morning’s work. Tidy the place the night before.
Switch Off
After 7 PM (or thereabouts), it’s time to power down all work-related email and technology. The degree with which you are able to relax is proportional to your focus when you do actually come back to work. This is not exactly related to the ‘morning’ routine, but it will most certainly help you in the morning time. If you do not relax in the evening, you will not get a good night’s rest, and your morning will be affected.
5 Essential Health Tips for the Remote Work Economy
The remote work economy is not merely about increasing productivity. It encompasses complete mind-body health. There are opportunities like never before to optimize your schedule and pursue your desires. Remember, it is 100% possible to have more satisfaction while also excelling at your job. The trick is balance and focus. If you are not passionate about your work and the future it can provide, then your health will deteriorate and you will eventually end up leaving.
#1 – Get Outdoors
While this is not exactly ‘endorsed’ by the government and the media, you definitely need to get outdoors as regularly as possible. No matter how artistic your office may be, humans are meant for the great outdoors. Even a short walk a couple of times a day can be extremely beneficial, providing exercise and a change of scenery.
#2 – Exercise
While working remotely, you can fit in the time to do a sport that you have always wanted. This could be Yoga, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Soccer, CrossFit, or a whole gamut of possible sports that are available in the area. This can have indirect benefits. If you simply sit at a desk all day every day without proper exercise, your energy levels will decrease with time.
#3 – Minimalism
The remote work economy is forcing people to prioritize what they really need. For many, this takes the form of minimalism. You have to choose what to give your attention to and eliminate any excess clutter you find around the house. It is not just physical items – mentally, you need to choose what to prioritize on. Or else you will be a victim of mindless distraction and the resulting mediocrity, like many others.
#4 – Social Connectivity
You might get lonely working remotely. You’d be far from the first person to feel that way. Invest in making connections with others that help you feel like part of a community. You can set up meetings over coffee with friends who work from home in your area. You can also take an online course with some of your colleagues, or set up gaming times or just-for-fun video chats in the afternoon. And check out online remote work communities for meetups in your area to expand your circle.
#5 – Leave Work in the Office
Perhaps the most useful tip for both health and productivity is to leave work in the office. When you are at work, you work. But when you are relaxing, you relax. The best way to do this is to shut down all of your technology (or at least work-related applications) when you finish work. It is imperative to have a clearly defined separation between work and leisure. Otherwise, you are simply going to burnout, and you will feel terrible on the way down.
Conclusion
If you want to succeed in the WFH economy, then it is actually quite simple, whether you are a remote worker or a business owner. Prioritize your goals, values, and expectations. Find staff, or roles, that you like to do and that you think you can contribute to.
Communicate effectively with those that you work with and eliminate everything that is not directly related to the growth of the company and to your growth as a human being. It’s not lack of information, lack of technology, or lack of support that hinders people striving to succeed in a WFH world.
It’s a lack of focus, lack of motivation, and lack of effort. Stick to your fundamentals, and the new remote work economy will be the best thing that happened to you and your finances.
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March 18, 2005, I cleaned out my desk at Registered Rep. magazine, the financial publication I was (I can admit it now) a rather terrible business reporter for, and left a job I’d held for two years. I didn’t leave on bad terms. I liked all my co-workers and there were no sour feelings, but I also didn’t have another job set up.
I just knew I wasn’t a very good business reporter, my boss agreed with me, and thus we went our separate ways. I turned in my key card, filled out some paperwork with HR, and hit the Irish pub across the street for a round of goodbye beers. I wasn’t sure what I’d do next. Maybe try freelancing for a while?
And that, friends, was the last day I worked in an office. Six months later, I founded the sports website Deadspin out of my apartment, and I’ve been working at home as a writer ever since. It has been so long since I worked in an office that my non-office work life is now old enough to drive. Considering every story I’ve read about in-person office life in the last 16 years has been about all the terrible things you’re doing to each other in cubicle-land, it does not seem that I am missing out on much.
What I discovered upon leaving office life was how much more immediately productive I became when I no longer had to commute back and forth every day, when no one ever came by my desk to interrupt me just as I’d really start to hit my groove, when I didn’t feel like my boss would come up and start breathing down my neck at any given moment.
To be sure, working from home isn’t for everybody, but it clearly worked for me: I can’t imagine working any other way now. I certainly didn’t get it right the first year, but I have developed all sorts of lifehacks and shortcuts to maximize my efficiency and sustain a comfortable work-life balance. I’m good at this.
I’ve watched during the past year as you have broken every cardinal work-at-home rule that I’ve honed to a science over the last 16 years.
But then the pandemic hit, and suddenly, many of you were working at home, too. And you, no offense, are terrible at working remotely. You’re all rookies, and you keep making rookie mistakes. I’ve watched during the past year as you have broken every cardinal work-at-home rule that I’ve honed to a science over the last 16 years; it’s a little like watching a toddler try to use a chainsaw. And now the whole world’s a bloody mess.
With the accelerated vaccine rollout and large swaths of the workforce likely returning to the office at some point this year, we’re (hopefully) going to be returning to some semblance of normal — or at the very least a New Normal. But there are still going to be hundreds of thousands of people working from home that previously weren’t before the pandemic. You all need to step up your remote work game and get a lot better at this or risk taking the rest of us down with you. To that end, here are five unbreakable rules, if you’re going to commit to remote working for the long haul.
Do not just wear your pajamas all day. I’m not saying you have to put on a suit and tie like you’re working at a bank or something. (But also it wouldn’t hurt?) Your mind, body, and soul can’t help but not take anything you’re doing all that seriously if you’re still wearing your bedclothes all day. You obviously don’t have to be formal, but you have to set very clear boundaries for “work time” and “off time,” and a great way to do that is to dress accordingly. I recommend, at a minimum, workout clothes, which at least hint to your mind, body, and soul that you should be doing something right now. Changing your clothes before you sit down to work tricks you into believing your surroundings have changed. And tricking yourself that you’re under more scrutiny than you actually are is a key part of working from home. It is truly shocking how many people tell me that they just wear pajamas all day when they’re working at home. No wonder you’re not getting anything done.
Conversely, do not forget that you are also in your home. Whenever someone who has always worked in an office finds out I’ve worked out of home for so long, they always say something like, “I don’t know how you do it. Don’t you just want to go lie down rather than work?” But in practice, it’s the opposite problem: When your home is your office, that means you are in your office all the time. After all, there is always some work to do, and if you are not careful, you will just spend all your waking hours doing it. And we have enough of a national issue with workaholism and burnout as is. The problem is not remembering your home is your office; the problem is remembering that it is not just your office. During the pandemic, it is increasingly obvious that some of you are just sitting at your desk every hour of the day… and nowhere else in your home or apartment. It’s your living area. Live in it.
Limit how much time you spend on social media. This is just a good life tip in general, but the problem with being at your computer all day — particularly when we’re all in the middle of a global pandemic — is that you can get sucked into a doomscrolling black hole. (And after all: That’s supposed to be what lying in bed and not sleeping is for!) Social media is making us all crazy anyway, but when you combine it with cabin fever, you get, well, you get the total madness we’ve all been experiencing over the past year. I recommend the Freedom app, which will block whatever sites you want it to, for as long as you want it to. You’ll be surprised how much happier and productive you are.
Set a clear schedule with set parameters. This goes hand in hand with Rule №2, but you have to make yourself, every day set a time that you stop working, no matter what. (You know: like a job.) I recommend thinking of the day not in terms of hours, but in terms of tasks. Make a list at the beginning of the day. If you get all the tasks done before your set hour, great: You get time to go read a book, play a video game, or put your pajamas back on. But no matter what: Don’t go past that set time, or add to your lists of tasks. Otherwise, you just won’t stop.
Go outside. This is vital, even in a pandemic. (Especially in a pandemic.) People that work from home constantly have to remember that, in spite of all immediately available evidence in front of their face, there is in fact a whole big world just beyond their doorstep. Go see it. Your home, your computer, and your work will be waiting for you right where you left it. And who knows? You might even find work a little easier to crack into upon your return.
Seriously, you all need to head back into the office; I can see how this is making you all nuts. But in case we’re all still stuck, sans office, for a little while longer, you can start by finessing these five unbreakable rules for working at home. For your sake. For mine. For everybody’s. You can thank me later.
For anyone that works, commuting might just be the worst part of the day. So with WFH and less time commuting, could we see a drastic change in the cities we live in? #WFH#FutureOfWork#BloombergQuicktake ——– Like this video? Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/Bloomberg?sub_… Become a Quicktake Member for exclusive perks: http://www.youtube.com/bloomberg/join QuickTake Originals is Bloomberg’s official premium video channel. We bring you insights and analysis from business, science, and technology experts who are shaping our future. We’re home to Hello World, Giant Leap, Storylines, and the series powering CityLab, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Green, and much more.
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Research from The International Workplace Group’s 2019 Workplace Survey showed how over half of us globally were already working outside of a main office HQ some of the time. And even in a pre-pandemic world, 75 percent of employees noted remote working as “the new normal.”
That new normal arrived en masse for a lot of us just a few months later.
There seems to be a mixed reaction from organizations as to whether remote working at the scale we currently see will last. Tech firms and even some major banks have come out publically to say they’ll be cutting office space and moving to a “central hub” approach, similar to a WeWork set-up.
Yet recent well-publicized comments from the likes of Goldman Sachs are adamant that their employees will be returning, with boss David Solomon stating: “I do think for a business like ours, which is an innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture, this (remote working) is not ideal for us. And it’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible.”
The traditional arguments in favor of organizations allowing remote working were based on well being, a better work/life balance, attracting more candidates and even seeing better productivity and engagement.
But comments from the likes of Solomon deviate from the body of research that had suggested working from home was a solution to so many modern-day work issues — and highlights some of the potential pitfalls.
And there could be new research that supports his viewpoint too, especially when it comes to the holy grail for people managers: engagement.
But first, let’s take a whistle-stop tour of some research showing remote working as highly beneficial for people and organizations alike and should feature more into the future.
Remote working is beneficial for engagement and productivity.
Turning to various studies by Gallup, a pretty picture is painted about the positive outcomes associated with remote working. And it predominantly comes down to engagement.
Highly-engaged workplaces, Gallup reports, can see 41 percent lower absenteeism and 21 percent higher profitability. How this links to remote working is that engagement reportedly peaks when workers spend 60 percent to 80 percent of their time working remotely, seemingly confirming that a mix of in-office contact time and remote-work flexibility, weighted toward the latter, can stimulate better performance and outcomes.
Outside of performance gains, offering flexible working can attract more candidates too — or at help to retain ones currently employed. This survey released in 2018 by Flex jobs found that 78 percent of millennials would be more loyal to an employer if they had flexible work options, whilst seven in 10 also said they’ve left a job or have considered leaving a job because it lacked flexible working arrangements.
Of course, flexible working covers a range of areas from flex-time to picking shifts, but remote working plays a major part.
According to Dan Schawbel’s Harvard Business Review article analyzing findings from a 2018 Virgin Pulse study, it turns out remote workers may not be more engaged after all. They may even be more likely to quit.
The study showed how two-thirds of the 2,000 predominantly-remote employees they quizzed weren’t engaged and only 5 percent said they see themselves working at their company for an entire career. That compares to just one in three who don’t work remotely.
Schawbel argues that these results aren’t surprising, citing that humans crave at least some face-to-face interaction in order to feel bonded to teammates.
I couldn’t disagree with that, and the majority of straw polls on LinkedIn I’ve seen over the last year do indicate that most of us would like some balance between remote and office-based work. But what this research doesn’t touch on is the generational divide in remote working, especially pre covid, and how that may skew results.
As the survey from FlexJobs noted above reported, it’s younger workers who typically crave flexibility, and numerous studies have shown how millennials and Gen Z tend to be less loyal to a single employer.
McKinsey Global Institute’s timely analysis of what’s next for remote work published in November last year suggests that “hybrid models of remote work are likely to persist in the wake of the pandemic, mostly for a highly educated, well-paid minority of the workforce.”
Will remote working at scale last?
In short, yes, but not at the current scale. As McKinsey’s report perfectly summarized:
The virus has broken through cultural and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a structural shift in where work takes place, at least for some people.
Key here is “for some people.” I do think that for many of us, being forced to work from home has opened eyes to a new way of living, of integrating work life with home life, and the time, well being and cost benefits that arise.
But it’s not for everyone. Before Covid, people working remotely really wanted to be remote workers. It was a perk they sought out. Because of this, it’s valued more, appreciated more and also, the remote worker by choice likely recognizes in themselves that they have a personality and way of working that does lean towards higher productivity and engagement outside of an office.
Post-Covid, there are now hundreds of thousands of people now working remotely, but not by choice. And that’s the main difference. The right home setup wasn’t there to begin with. They may have a personality that thrives more on social interaction and find their engagement is supported by the hub of an office and proximity to co-workers.
Interesting anecdotal evidence for this perspective was on a recent LBC London phone-in where long-term work-from-homers were lamenting the permanence of their loved ones in their home offices as they too were sent home for the pandemic.
By: Arthur Wilson / Entrepreneur Leadership Network VIP
Susanna* has spent most of lockdown in back-to-back Zoom meetings. It is a major change for the senior banker, who used to commute to London from her home in rural Lincolnshire and regularly travelled across the country to meet business customers face to face.
The 55-year-old does not miss the 5.30am alarms or spending three nights a week away from her husband and son. And she appreciates the way the bank’s management has banned calls between noon and 1pm – now dubbed “golden hour” – and cuts video meetings off after 50 minutes to give staff a brief buffer. But working from home has felt relentless, and after nearly a year she is longing to return to some sort of normality.
Following the pandemic, Susanna is hoping for a middle ground where she can experience the buzz of central London and cross-country travel, while enjoying the extra downtime remote working permits. Her ideal scenario would be to meet her team of six just once a month in the office, and she would not be afraid to challenge bosses if they asked for more.
“Why would we need to do that,” she said, “with everything that we’ve proved over the past year in terms of how we’re able to conduct our business, and do it much quicker?”
Susanna is not alone in her desire for more flexibility in her post-pandemic life. Indeed many analysts believe a shift to remote working was already under way, with coronavirus accelerating it by around a decade.
Seven in 10 UK employees who have been working remotely during Covid-19 told a survey by Boston Consulting Group that they felt as productive at home as in the workplace. More than half (53%) of workers said they would prefer a hybrid model in future, splitting their time equally between their desk and a remote location.
Boris Johnson provided little new guidance on managing the return to workplaces last Monday when he presented his roadmap out of lockdown, promising only to review the advice on working from home by late June. Most social restrictions are expected to be relaxed in midsummer, but businesses are not anticipating a large-scale recolonisation of offices before September, provided coronavirus case rates continue to decline.
By then, office-based workers will have spent almost 18 months away from the watercooler, and few expect work to return to the way it was.Some of the largest firms in the financial sector, for decades a bastion of an office-based corporate culture, seem ready to rethink the way things are done. They are also seizing the opportunity to cut costs by reducing the amount of office space they use.
Banking group HSBC revealed last week that it was taking advantage of the booming popularity of home working by cutting its global office space by 40%. Its floor-space footprint looks set to shrink in London: the lender said it was committed to its headquarters in the Canary Wharf financial district, but may not renew leases for other sites in the capital.
Competitor Lloyds followed with an announcement that it would slash its own desk numbers by a fifth over the next two years, following staff requests for home working to be made permanent.The issue of remote working has divided opinion within the financial sector, however, with the chief executive of Goldman Sachs calling the trend an aberration.
Although the US bank has operated successfully while its staff remained at home, David Solomon said this did not represent “a new normal” because firms like Goldman Sachs required face-to-face contact to foster innovation and collaboration, and to train and guide the next generation.
It may be younger members of staff, including millennials, who demand flexibility from their employers, including those in the financial sector, said Anita Rai, head of employment at law firm JMW. “As a business you have to make yourself attractive,” she said, “and that is the challenge for some of these financial institutions which are saying they are not really fans of agile working, because a lot of the generation coming through will be more resistant to that.”
Most firms are expected to embrace a hybrid model, which will be more difficult to implement and manage than having the entire workforce either at home or in the office.
“It’s going to be very difficult if we have a complete free-for-all,” said Nick South, expert on the future of work at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). “You have to think about people’s families and needs, people’s preferences, the practicalities, the guardrails you want to provide. There is quite a co-ordination job needed to make this work, and that’s before you think what tech do we need where, and how we will redesign our space.”
Another banker, Belinda*, is among those hoping to continue working remotely for at least half the week, from her home office in rural Devon. The mother-of-one, who is in her 40s, appreciates being able to spend time with her son as soon as she closes her laptop.
Her life before the pandemic consisted of commuting to various city-centre offices run by her employer, a high-street lender.
“I have been really impressed with how productive we can be without being together in a building,” she said. “But there are times, if I’m really honest, that I miss doing some creative thinking together.”
New ways of working will make new demands of managers and human resources teams, according to psychologist Prof Cary Cooper of Alliance Manchester Business School, who is also president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
“You have to have line managers who can manage people, who can tolerate ambiguity,” Cooper said. “They will need social and interpersonal skills, to recognise when people aren’t coping well because they are working too much from home. But all this is doable.”
During the pandemic, UK office workers have adopted remote working more readily than their European counterparts, according to several surveys from US bank Morgan Stanley’s Alphawise research unit. British employees also intend to request more days at home in future than those in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
It is not entirely clear why this should be, though the length of the average commute in the UK, especially in south-east England, could be a deciding factor, as well as the hours worked in the UK, which has a longer average working week than most European countries.
The shift in the world of work will have lasting consequences, not just for organisations and their staff, but also for our city centres and the service businesses – including sandwich shops, coffee stands and dry cleaners – which before Covid relied on steady footfall from office workers.
Those businesses may find town centres less attractive in future, said Catherine McGuinness, chair of policy and resources at the Corporation of London, the governing body of the Square Mile.
“We are pretty confident about people wanting to keep their big headquarters,” she said. “I worry what this means for the smaller supporting businesses. We may see a shakeout from the centre to the areas where people are basing themselves for the other days. It’s inevitable, I suppose.”
* Names have been changed
Remote possibilities for big tech
The speed with which Silicon Valley embraced Covid-enforced working from home as a permanent cultural shift made what is a challenging transition for many businesses look easy. In February last year, weeks before coronavirus had achieved official pandemic status and ahead of government-mandated emptying of offices, companies from Google to Twitter had told their employees to stay at home.
As restrictions stretched into months, the need to adapt sparked a remote-working arms race between the digital giants, underpinned by the notion that more flexible employers are better employers.
For tech companies with existing resilient, internet-based working practices in place, and employees familiar with chat groups and video calls, the initial switch was frictionless. In May, with most traditional companies still grappling with the logistics of remote working, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, proclaimed that employees would be allowed to work from home “forever” if they wished. Google and Facebook have followed, announcing a permanent extension to their remote-working policies.
But while tech firms have been quick to adapt to a decentralised, distributed model, the shift has proved a surprising cultural upheaval.
“[Tech companies] weren’t as far ahead as you might think with remote working before,” says Joseph Evans of UK-based Enders Analysis. “They had that image, but expectations at these companies, particularly in head office, were the same as in other sectors – to be present in the office. The pandemic changed that, and unquestionably companies such as Facebook have embraced the change.”
Now that vaccinations look likely to allow a return to offices later this year, Silicon Valley companies are looking at “hybrid” models. Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is developing a model where staff work three days in the office for “collaboration” and two days from home. “No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid workforce model,” Pichai said in an email to staff in December. “It will be interesting to try.”
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has said the pandemic is fuelling a geographical diversification away from Silicon Valley, with about half the company’s workforce probably working remotely over the next five to 10 years. “We are going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale,” he said.
But the flexibility does not stretch as far as some may wish. Alphabet’s model would require employees to live within commuting distance, and a fully remote option is reportedly off the table. And while the Facebook and Twitter plans open huge opportunities for those living outside Silicon Valley, the companies have said employees who choose to relocate to cheaper areas will take a pay cut. The moves have sparked a wider debate on localised pay rates across cities and regions.
“All the tech companies have gone on a back and forth journey regarding remote working,” says Evans. “They are settling on the idea that it has worked better than hoped, but that fully distributed teams on a permanent basis isn’t an optimum situation.
“There will be substantial remote working – Facebook in particular is excited about hiring from anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world – but none of them will be 100% any time soon.” Mark Sweney
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Once upon a time, remote work was something only tech startups considered to be an option for staff members scattered across the globe. Then a pandemic struck, forcing businesses everywhere to reconsider the possibility that allowing employees to work from home might be the only way to keep the company from failing.
This ebook, based on the latest ZDNet / TechRepublic special feature, helps enterprises and SMBs alike navigate the technical and management challenges of a remote workforce.
According to a TechRepublic survey, 61% of businesses have gone out of their way to make remote work possible for most employees. That’s not a blip on the radar. Given that an overwhelming majority of respondents (61%) would rather work from home than in an office, it’s safe to say the remote work option is here to stay.
For employees, it’s a change in routine and locale, but for businesses, it’s much more than that — every company has far more to consider. Let’s dive into five considerations that your company must understand for a smooth and productive work-from-home experience.
No matter where your employees work, they need the right tools. When those employees are working in the office, you provide them with everything necessary to get the job done: Computers, printers, mobile devices, desks, chairs, network devices, software, white boards, and more. If you believe employees working from home should be on their own for equipment, you’re doing remote work wrong.
If you’re not willing to directly pay for the tools your employees need, you should at least consider allowing them to expense those costs. But all purchases must be approved — otherwise, you’ll wind up with employees buying extravagant chairs and laptops.
According to our survey, 56% of respondents said that their company had done a poor job of supplying the necessary hardware (computers, printers, and so on) and 52% of respondents said their company had done a poor job supplying them with the necessary office equipment (desks, chairs, etc.) to work remotely. Unless this improves, staff will either be incapable of doing their jobs with any level of productivity (at best) or they’ll burn out and quit (at worst).
At a bare minimum, your company should supply remote workers with:
Burnout is a serious issue with employees who are not accustomed to working from home. Why does this happen? The biggest reason is the inability to separate work from home. When this happens, the lines blur so much that employees can begin to feel as though they’re working 24/7/365. On top of that, people no longer get a much-needed break from family life. That one-two punch makes burnout happen faster and on a more profound level.
How do you manage this? The most important thing you can do is keep the lines of communication open. You’ll need to have someone (or multiple people) on hand to talk to staff in order to help them through these periods.
You’ll need to educate your staff to:
Create a routine such as scheduled work times that clearly define ‘work time’ and ‘home time’.
Set boundaries like, “When the office door is closed, I’m at work.”
Communicate with family — make sure your employees are doing a good job of communicating with their loved ones.
Practice self-care. Your employees will need, on some level, to learn how to take care of themselves to avoid stress.
Understand priorities so your staff always know what work takes priority and what work can be put off.
According to our survey, 78% of respondents indicated they were working from home five days a week. If those staff members don’t work smart, they’ll suffer burnout fast. Feeling like you’re ‘in the office’ day in and day out can be exhausting. To that end, you’ll need to consider allowing staff to work a flexible schedule.
Managing a flexible schedule
This one is a challenge for most businesses because nearly every company works on the assumption that business hours are universal. There’s a reason why Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” resonates so well with a majority of the population around the world.
However, with remote workers, the idea of a set work schedule needs to be thrown out the door. You must remember that people are working at home, which can throw a major wrench in the works. What am I talking about?
Tending to children who aren’t in school
The possibility of burnout
Family responsibilities
Less reliable networks
Equipment failure
The single most important thing to consider is that your employees do prefer to work from home, and can be even more productive working in that comfortable environment. But that improved productivity might come with a price for your company in the form of allowing for flexible schedules.
Remember: As long as work is getting done in a timely fashion, it shouldn’t matter when it’s getting done.
Security is key
One thing your business must consider is security, and how to help your remote workers do their jobs without compromising company data. This might mean you’ll need to purchase enterprise-class VPN services for those who must transmit sensitive data from their home networks. Those employees who deal with very sensitive data might also need to be trained on how to use encryption.
Another issue that must be addressed is passwords. You probably have password policies in place for office-based staff, but you can’t enforce those policies on their home networks, which means you’ll need to train your remote workers to change all network passwords (such as those for wireless routers) to be strong and unique. Even if you also have to get those employees up to speed on using a password manager (which they should anyway), this cannot be stressed enough.
You need to know which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor, and I suggest these KPIs as a good starting point.
Self-discipline: An employee’s ability to work independently.
Effective communication: An employee’s ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with teams and clients.
Learning skills: An employee’s ability to not just follow a known instruction set, but also to learn new things efficiently.
Remote vs. local tasks: Are there tasks that can or cannot be performed remotely? You must know the difference.
Accountability: Employees must learn to hold themselves accountable to get their tasks done with less supervision.
Self-discipline: Employees must be capable of staying on-task with less supervision.
Collaboration: Employees must be capable of working with other teammates efficiently via video/audio chat and email.
Availability: Managers must be available to discuss work-related matters during business hours. Although employees might work a flexible schedule, they must also be available during business hours.
Conclusion
Your company’s transition from a standard work environment to a full remote or hybrid (remote and in-house) environment doesn’t have to be a challenge. Given that nearly every business across the globe has been practically forced into this new world order, the hard part is already taken care of. With just a bit of extra planning and work, you can make this new reality not only seamless but even more productive.
