HOW TO MASTER WORK FROM HOME

By: Luis Castillo, Juan Ignacio Correo & Thomas Harsch  |  Mar 19, 2020

When working remotely companies and employees must consider implementing policies and guidelines to ensure productivity and performance are not affected, and work dynamics and cultural traits remain intact. 

In preparation for the upcoming weeks, we worked with our Director of Product, Juan Ignacio Correa, COO, Luis Castillo and Founder and COO of Elenas, Thomas Harsch to develop a list of recommendations that will help you and your team to kick-off this stage with ease. 

About discipline:

• DO NOT wear your pajamas. We repeat DO NOT wear your pajamas. It seems obvious but this tip is key to impact your productivity. 

• Have a clear and structured schedule, imagine as if it is a normal day. Take time to drink your coffee, have breaks and attend your meetings and regular conversations.

• Be on time for your meetings. Working remotely does not mean cutting on what needs to be done, so everyone expects your punctuality and the same level of commitment. 

• We already said it, but save some time for you! Include activities to take care of your energy, do some exercise, stretch or walk around the house and most importantly do not forget to eat and take bathroom breaks. 

• Avoid working from your bed or with the TV on. Set up a space for doing the job, it does not have to be fancy, just make sure to have good lighting, a seating area and the basic elements you need to do the job.

• After your workday is over make sure to put your things away, avoid taking your laptop to bed or to dinner. Take some time to decompress and get ready to enjoy some time off work. 

About communication: 

• Trust is key to making this situation work and in order to gain it, you need to be assertive and proactive with your communication. Remember that over-communicating will always be preferred. 

• Be clear about what you need and expect from your colleagues and managers. Being distant can not be an excuse to fail on your deliverables or to avoid asking for help. 

• Don’t limit your communication to work-issues, make sure to schedule some friendly calls with your colleagues. It will help you secure the culture, but also to keep the energy going.

About teamwork: 

• Structure daily check-ins and check-outs to follow up on deliverables, check motivation and identify potential obstacles or risks to achieve your goals. 

• Take advantage of free/paid platforms and solutions to follow up on productivity such as Google Drive, to replace Word or Excel documents and enable collaboration, Jamboard from the Gsuite to replace whiteboards, for project management we recommend Monday, Jira or Trello and Zoom or Google Hangouts to make group calls happen.

• We are always talking about learning how to work in teams, but this situation opens an opportunity to re-learn how to work independently, meaning take your time to analyze the number of meetings you have and consider if you can convert them into emails or simpler conversations. 

• Being distant eliminates the high fives, the celebrations, and positive feedback. Use LinkedIn to celebrate your team’s work and give some shoutouts when someone is making progress on their goals. 

• Since it is clear we are not wearing our pj’s, make sure you turn on your camera for all meetings. This contributes to maintaining the culture of your team and make things lighter amidst challenging times. 

• Help your team and be a safe keeper of the culture, if you identify someone that is not following the agreed guidelines make sure to raise your hand and provide feedback. 

If you are interested in knowing how are we implementing these guidelines and learn how to do it by yourself, shoot us an email at hola@polymathventures.co