CEHD Working from Home

A quick and drastic change in work style will be challenging. The most important things to do first are:

• • Have a plan - develop a plan for how your daily work, meetings, etc. will be handled by your team.

  • Develop a communication plan - identify the different ways you communicate with each other and those you support.

    • How will this change if part or all of the team are working remotely?

    • What tools are available and should be put in place to continue to provide support?

What does it do? VPN securely connects your computer to the university network from wherever you are, allowing you access to university network resources as though you are working on campus. VPN also adds a layer of security when working in public locations by encrypting the data being sent to and from your computer.

When should I use it? Establish a VPN connection anytime you:

• need a secure connection to the University network

• are computing in public places such as coffee shops or hotels

• are accessing certain university and CEHD network resources such as

  • • enterprise applications

    • CEHD shared folders

    • Papaya

    • LIME

How do I get it? Cisco Anyconnect VPN Client is already installed on most CEHD computers. If it is not installed on yours, you may download and install it directly from OIT using these direct links: Windows Client - MacOS Client (note, these links may require you to sign in)

It is installed. How do I connect? These guides should help: Windows - MacOS

You may make use of special applications for your work (what may be referred to as "custom applications"). These are software tools that may be unique to your position, or specific to your team.

It will be important to make sure these applications are installed on whatever device you plan to use remotely and that they function properly.

They may require the use of the UMN Virtual Private Network (VPN) software from off-campus. The VPN software provides a secure tunnel between your remote device and the university.

Enterprise applications are commonly used applications by many people at UMN, such as PeopleSoft or Astra. Because they may contain sensitive data, they likely will require the UMN Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access from off-campus.

Once your VPN is launched on your remote device, your enterprise applications should run as normal, although this will depend on the stability and quality of your network connection.

If your work consists of information gathering on the web, email, and use of other Google applications, you will find that you have the same experience at home as you do at work. The UMN Virtual Private Network is not required for these applications.

Some staff work requires access to a phone. While there are limited options currently for addressing these needs remotely, and option available that will be very helpful is receiving voicemails as audio recordings delivered to your email inbox. OIT provides a guide - Voicemail-to-Email - to get this configured.

Collaboration is a common need for teams. The ways in which we collaborate become second nature in our workspaces and having to consider ways to collaborate when team members are separated can be jarring. Numerous solutions are available to fill this gap when working remotely:

• • Collaborative editing - Google Documents, Sheets, Slides, and Sites, CEHD Shared Folders (requires VPN)

  • Video meetings - Zoom (preferred), Google Video Chat, or Google Meet

  • Conversations/Instant Messaging - Google Hangouts Chat or Slack

Working remotely can seem like a great opportunity. However, it takes planning and practice to be productive when working from your home or another remote location.

Here are some tips to consider:

• • • Define your office space - Having a place to go to start your day, and a place to leave to end your day is important.

    • Start your day deliberately - It’s easy to sort of drift from your morning routine into work, and then drift out again at the end of the day. That can leave you feeling ungrounded and without any true breaks from work. Decide when your workday starts. Sit down at your computer at that time, dressed for work.

    • You don’t owe your employer extra work - E.g. If you normally spend an hour a day commuting, you don’t owe that hour to your employer.

    • When you break for lunch, actually break - Even if you’re used to working through lunch at the office, you probably have plenty of other minor blips throughout the day to give yourself a break. At home, you can often be “heads down” for much longer periods, so a deliberate lunch break is important.

    • End your day on time. - Find a non-work-related task to apply each day at your stop time. If you don’t do that, it’s easy to lose track of time and suddenly find it’s 7 or 8 pm.

    • Seek social connections - Are you used to having a few colleagues around? Consider just keeping a Zoom conference going with them. You don’t need to talk all the time, but it can help feel less isolating if you can shout a question or share a joke.

    • Exercise - Many of us walk 2-3 (or more) miles each day, just moving around campus. Exercise is important for our physical and mental health, and it’s easy to forget how much we move around during our “normal” workdays.