COMMUNICATION, WORKING FROM HOME STRATEGY
I have had the pleasure of working from home through a few of my roles. But still, for me, COVID-19 has shaken social norms to the core and business with it. Generally speaking, with workplaces having less face-to-face time, the quality of email communications and preparedness to receive communication is essential.
I thought I would share some of my insights on this issue and how I have dealt with the ‘not-so-great’ aspects of working from home. While some of us will be lucky enough for these things to be a non-issue, I want to raise awareness in the hope that it might alleviate some of the problems I have had to overcome in the past.
Written communications can easily be misinterpreted at the best of times, which typically can be addressed with a simple meeting to clarify. However, now that we are working from our place of residence, we must take additional care – if we offend, we offend in someone’s home. If a person is made to feel defensive in their home setting, it can be a stressful and challenging thing to dissociate from. The work/home barrier has been compromised already, so we need to make sure workers don’t feel as though they aren’t allowed to draw that delineation for their own home space.
1. Dress for work – there are two reasons for this, firstly to ‘switch to work mode’ and secondly to ‘switch off from work mode’. Another benefit of doing this the avoidance of procrastination.
2. Friction shouldn’t drive communication– regular stakeholder engagement via voice or video is crucial, even if it is merely to ask how another is doing. That way, it ensures that the majority of interaction is positive or neutral, not just negative when something goes wrong.
3. Never send written communication in the heat of the moment – use the draft folder as a buffer to minimise later regret, and it is twice as productive than having to say sorry. Ask yourself the question, would I talk like this to them in their own home? In the event a heated email was sent, own it and apologise.
5. Be careful of jokes – There simply is not the means to provide context nor tone.
6. Assume emails are poorly written – there is nothing worse than being the recipient of a heated email, especially in the current climate. Extract only the facts – the actual information.
7. Be kind, and be mindful that these are challenging times for everyone – you have little to no knowledge of what’s happening in the recipient’s life, and we cannot assume everything is OK.
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