11 Tips for Working From Home

PCMag editors selected Article

The outbreak of the coronavirus has most people working from home. If you're new to working remotely, these tips from a home-office pro can help you stay productive and maintain balance.

The global spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, is keeping people at home. Major conferences, including Mobile World Congress and Google I/O have been canceled to decrease the risk of infection. Some employers are encouraging or requiring people to work from home for an indeterminate amount of time. If you're new to the work-from-home lifestyle, whether due to coronavirus or because you've managed to find a remote-based job, you'll need to change some of your habits and routines to make working from home a success.

I've worked 100 percent remotely for more than five years, and I have some friends and colleagues who've done it, too. We all face unique challenges, not only because we have different personalities, but also due to our various lifestyles and the type of work we do. Still, many of the core issues we face as remote employees are the same.

Everyone who works remotely has to figure out when to work, where to work, and how to create boundaries between work and personal life. What about office equipment, career development, training opportunities, and building relationships with colleagues? Working remotely, especially when working from home most of the time, means figuring out these issues and others. Here are 20 tips for leading a better and more productive remote-working life, based on my experience and what I've learned from others.

1. Maintain Regular Hours

Set a schedule, and stick to it...most of the time. Having clear guidelines for when to work and when to call it a day helps many remote workers maintain work-life balance. That said, one of the benefits of remote work is flexibility, and sometimes you need to extend your day or start early to accommodate someone else's time zone. When you do, be sure to wrap up earlier than usual or sleep in a bit the next morning to make up for it.

Automatic time-tracking apps, such as RescueTime, let you check in on whether you're sticking to your schedule. They can also help you figure out what times of day you're most productive versus when you slack off. You can use that information to your advantage by reserving your hours of high focus for your most important tasks.

2. Create a Morning Routine

Deciding you'll sit down at your desk and start work at a certain time is one thing. Creating a routine that guides you into the chair is another. What in your morning routine indicates you're about to start work? It might be making a cup of coffee. It might be returning home after a jog. It might be getting dressed (wearing pajama pants to work is a perk for some, but a bad strategy for others). A routine can be more powerful than a clock at helping you get started each day.

I say "morning," but not everyone who works from home follows a nine-to-five schedule. Yours might be a "getting started" routine at another time of day.

3. Set Ground Rules With the People in Your Space

Set ground rules with other people in your home or who share your space for when you work. If you have children who come home from school while you're still working, they need clear rules about what they can and cannot do during that time. Additionally, just because you're home and can let service people into the house or take care of pets doesn't mean other family members should assume you will always do it. If that's how you choose to divide up the domestic labor, that's fine, but if you simply take it all on by default because you're home, you may feel taken advantage of, and your productivity may suffer.

4. Schedule Breaks

Know your company's policy on break times and take them. If you're self-employed, give yourself adequate time during the day to walk away from the computer screen and phone. A lunch hour and two 15-minute breaks seems to be the standard for full-time US employees.

5. Don't Hesitate to Ask for What You Need

If you're working from home unexpectedly due to coronavirus, ask for what you need within reason. You could be working from home for weeks on end and you should be comfortable, but ordering a new office chair and desk might be asking too much. Consider a mouse and keyboard, plus a back-supporting cushion instead.

6. Keep a Dedicated Office Space

In an ideal world, remote employees would have not only a dedicated office, but also two computers, one for work and one for personal use. It's more secure for the employer, and it lets you do all your NSFW activities in private. But not everyone has a separate office in their home, and keeping two machines isn't always realistic. Instead, dedicate a desk and some peripherals only for work use. For example, when your laptop is hooked up to the monitor and external keyboard, it's work time. When it's on your lap, that's personal time. You may want to go as far as partitioning your hard drive and creating a separate user account for work.

7. Overcommunicate

Working remotely requires you to overcommunicate. Tell everyone who needs to know about your schedule and availability often. When you finish a project or important task, say so. Overcommunicating doesn't necessarily mean you have to write a five-paragraph essay to explain your every move, but it does mean repeating yourself. Joke about how you must have mentioned your upcoming vacation six times already, then mention it again.

8. Be Positive

I like succinct and clear messages, but I know that the less face time I have with people, the less they know how to interpret my tone in writing. When you work remotely full-time, you must be positive, to the point where it may feel like you're being overly positive. Otherwise, you risk sounding like a jerk. It's unfortunate, but true. So embrace the exclamation point! Find your favorite emoji :D. You're going to need them.

9. Take Advantage of Your Perks

Every week, I bake a loaf of bread. Why? Because I work from home and I can. Plus, I enjoy it. When I worked in an office full-time, I struggled to find the time to pop something into the oven that often. Working remotely comes with unique perks. Take advantage of them. You deserve it.

10. Don't Be Too Hard on Yourself

The most successful remote employees have a reputation for being extremely disciplined. After all, it takes serious focus to do any full-time office job from an unconventional space. That said, everyone lets their attention drift sometimes. If you find yourself working one minute and booking flights for your upcoming vacation the next, don't reprimand yourself too harshly. Instead, ask yourself whether people in an office setting do the same thing. If the answer is yes, cut yourself some slack, then get back to work.

11. End Your Day With a Routine

Just as you should start your day with a routine, create a habit that signals the close of the workday. It might be a sign off on a business messaging app, an evening dog walk, or a 6 p.m. yoga class. Something as simple as shutting down your computer and turning on a favorite podcast will do. Whatever you choose, do it consistently to mark the end of working hours.

Above all else, figure out what works best for you. Sometimes the answer is apparent, but other times you might need some inspiration from other people who are in the same boat. A supportive community of remote employees does exist, whether you find them in your organization's Slack channel or online through blogs or Twitter.

Office Dating Policies Are Getting Makeovers In the Wake of #MeToo

Some companies offer co-worker one ask to those want to date.

Article by James Wellemeyer, Freelance Journalist                                  

Company rules on dating save employees’ blushes and the company money, says Paula Brantner, who runs PB Work Solutions, a law firm focused on preventing sexual harassment. “When there’s someone who cannot take no for an answer, that can turn into harassment at work,” she said.

There’s another reason why companies want to stamp out rampant dating among employees: Sexual-harassment suits are expensive. Settlements, lost productivity, and turnover from these cases cost about $6 million annually per Fortune 500 company, a 2005 study found.

The #MeToo movement has changed workplace dating. Andrew Challenger, vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement and executive coaching service that has studied sexual harassment at work, said companies like Airbnb are outliers. Most firms “tend to be laissez-faire” on the issue of workplace romance, meaning they don’t have specific policies that prevent it or restrict it. But the #MeToo movement has led many companies to take a second look at their rules.

 A study released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 51% of U.S. companies have reviewed their sexual harassment policies following the movement, and 72% of those companies have gone on to update their policies. The study surveyed 150 human resources executives at U.S. companies across multiple industries.

During the height of the #MeToo movement, a number of companies discussed blanket bans on workplace dating. But that proved to be a step too far, Challenger said.“You spend more time with these people than your family,” Challenger said. “It’s okay to fall in love in the workplace.”

 Brantner thinks bans are impractical and can actually exacerbate the problems that dating at work can present. “If there’s a ban, people don’t follow the rule,” she said. “They just hide it, and then it becomes a problem.” She says the best advice she can give on workplace dating is to “take things very slowly” and “if things do become more serious, tell the company and others at work.”

What to Expect This Year: Your Workers Quitting

January 08, 2020: Article by Korn Ferry

As the New Year begins, executives and leaders have resolved to push their businesses to new heights. Meanwhile, a large group of their employees has something else in mind: finding somewhere else to work.

In an eye-catching result, nearly one-third of professionals say their top work resolution in 2020 is finding a new job, according to a new Korn Ferry survey. Equally concerning? The biggest reason for searching is a lack of a fit between corporate culture and the workers’ values.

To be sure, the discontent may reflect the timing of the survey. “The beginning of the year is a time of change,” says Susan Snyder, a Korn Ferry senior client partner and leader of the firm’s North America Organizational Strategy team. But she says it also reflects how important company culture—which encompasses nearly all aspects of the office environment, including pay, workforce diversity, work scheduling, and even dress codes—has become today.

Executives do seem to know this, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent, but experts say that awareness hasn’t always translated into creating a culture that engages and enables employees. Some firms tell their employees that they are going to improve a culture and then don’t, which is worse than doing nothing at all, says Jennifer Streitwieser, a Korn Ferry associate client partner who specializes in engagement and culture.

And even some firms that are very good at learning from employees aren’t so good at actually telling those same employees that the culture will change thanks to their input.  “You can’t just say you have it, but you can’t just have it, either. It’s the connecting the dots that’s really critical,” Streitwieser says.

According to the survey, one solution may be giving employees more chances to advance their careers, take on tougher work challenges, or both. A plurality of professionals, 41%, said that “creating a greater impact or making a difference” was their top work resolution. And even among the ones who want to leave, nearly a quarter of them, 23%, said that the reason they want to go is that they are bored.

In a different question, 28% said that getting assigned to a more challenging, high-profile project would most improve their opportunities to advance at their current employer. “This survey clearly shows that many professionals are not only up for a challenge but value it as a way to demonstrate they are making a difference in the world,” says Dennis Baltzley, Korn Ferry’s global solution leader in leadership development. Fewer than 10% said that other traditional work-related aspirations, such as getting a raise, earning a promotion, or achieving a better work-life balance, was at the top of their New Year wish list.

REPORTS & INSIGHTS Authors: Jennifer StreitWieser, Susan Snyder, Dennis R. Baltzley, PH.D.
© 2020 Korn Ferry. All Rights Reserved

Baby boomers are retiring in droves. Here are three big reasons for concern.

By ANDREW VAN DAM, WASHINGTON POST

The youngest baby boomers are around 55 years old. The oldest are in their 70s. Most Americans don't remember a workforce without the largest generation. And yet, as boomers enter their final years in the workforce, their retirements are taking companies by surprise.

In the next five years, almost three-quarters of the companies surveyed in 2018 by Willis Towers Watson, a risk-management and insurance brokerage company, expect to face significant or moderate challenges from late retirements. But because nothing is predictable, a significant share are also worried about early ones.

Companies typically said they were more concerned than they used to be about the cost of older workers, and the challenge of replacing the knowledge and skills those older workers will take with them on the way out the door. The reported rise in concern over older workers "blocking promotions of younger employees" was not as sharp, though about two-thirds of respondents said it was at least a moderate concern.

The survey included 143 human resources managers at companies that, together, employ about 2.9 million people. It was analyzed in a working paper circulated in February by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Managers were asked to compare the business challenges of employee retirements over the past five years to the next five years. In each category, companies saw a greater challenge in the years to come.

The respondents were not part of a random sample, and their experiences cannot be considered representative. But they suggest broad concern in the business world about dealing (or not dealing) with an aging workforce. This data was not available otherwise.

Reason 1: It’s hard to plan: Boomer retirement dates are a mysterious moving target. Record-breaking shares of Americans plan to work longer. An April 2018 Gallup poll showed 41 percent expect to be working beyond age 65 — a huge jump since Gallup started tracking in 1995, when it averaged 13.5 percent.

The age required for full Social Security benefits has also risen. Americans born before 1937 became eligible for full Social Security benefits at age 65. By the time the oldest boomers were born in 1946, the standard retirement age had risen to 66. Boomers and others born after 1960 won't get full benefits until 67. Workers aren't always transparent with their employers about their plans, said Alan Glickstein, a managing director at Willis Towers Watson who helped oversee the survey.

"There's some pretty significant disconnects, gaps in knowledge between what the employers think and what the employees think," Glickstein said. They may not know themselves. Even if they do, they may be reticent to discuss their financial situation or make themselves vulnerable to replacement by committing to a retirement date with their employer.

While some people will only retire when forced, Glickstein said, "a lot of the older workers are working primarily because of financial need, not because they're fulfilled with their job and they want to be in the workforce until they're 70." In 2017, The Washington Post's Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan reported on the lives of people who had been forced to keep working well beyond typical retirement age, often into their 70s.

"Fundamental changes in the U.S. retirement system have shifted responsibility for saving from the employer to the worker, exacerbating the nation's rich-poor divide," Jordan and Sullivan wrote. "Two recent recessions devastated personal savings. And at a time when 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, Social Security benefits have lost about a third of their purchasing power since 2000."

Reason 2: Workers and employers are confused: Nobody knows what "retirement" means anymore. As more workers become consultants or accept temporary contracts or gigs, their relationship with employers is changing. Boomers' ties with their employers may be more tenuous from the start. In the end, their bonds are more likely to unravel piecemeal than to sever all at once in a nice ceremony involving a gold watch.

"You kind of wonder what retirement is anymore," Glickstein said. There's no longer "a magic moment when you stop working entirely," he added. The share of companies offering older workers partial-year employment and shorter hours is expected to rise sharply. About 2 in 5 companies surveyed are considering offering part-time work or flexible hours by 2020, nearly double the current rate.

Others hope to keep older workers around with reduced responsibilities, and a small but growing minority are offering options that blend volunteer work with traditional employment.

Reason 3: Boomers in some industries will be very hard to replace. Four out of 5 manufacturers, and 2 out of 3 employers in the mining and nonprofit sectors included in the survey were concerned about loss of talent. Retail and service-sector employers were not as concerned.

That tends to track somewhat with each sectors' reliance on older workers, but individual industries within each sector vary considerably. Funeral homes, religious organizations, bus drivers, florists and real estate agents all have more than a third of their workers over age 55, according to our analysis of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

At the other end are industries that tend to rely on a younger workforce, such as retail, restaurants, electronics stores, theaters and warehouses. In those fields, fewer than 1 in 7 workers are nearing retirement. In many industries, employers also face significant uncertainty as to whom or what will replace a retiring boomer, Glickstein said. Respondents reported that "loss of specific company knowledge" would be an increasingly difficult challenge, as would "finding workers with similar knowledge and skills."

As technology progresses, it's feasible that a robot or computer program could take on some of a worker's responsibilities when he or she is ready to retire. That means employers' succession strategies will evolve alongside technology. And because boomers are the first generation to face the task of passing on their knowledge to machines and computer programs — as well as to apprentices and junior employees — setbacks and tensions are bound to arise. "How do you translate that business knowledge into an algorithm?" Glickstein asked.

The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed.

Toxic Workplace Cultures Cost Companies Billions

Toxic workplaces make employees dread going to work, because they are stressed and don't feel they can be honest with their manager.  

American businesses lost $223 billion over the last five years due to bad workplace culture, according to a new report from SHRM.

October 17, 2019

One in five Americans have left a job in the past five years due to bad company culture. The cost of that turnover is an estimated $223 billion, according to a new Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report on workplace culture.

“Billions of wasted dollars. Millions of miserable people. It’s not a warzone—it’s the state of the American workplace,” said SHRM president and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP. “Toxicity itself isn’t new. But now that we know the high costs and how managers can make workplaces better, there’s no excuse for inaction.”

The report, The High Cost of a Toxic Workplace Culture, surveyed American workers to explore the impact of workplace culture on both the well-being of workers and the bottom line of businesses. It found toxic culture costs companies a fortune in turnover and absenteeism; highlighted common indicators of bad workplace cultures, such as discrimination and harassment; and underscored the alarming impacts on employees.

The research also uncovered a seemingly critical skills gap at the management level. SHRM found employees hold managers—more than leadership or HR—most responsible for culture. They also say heir managers often lack the soft skills needed to effectively listen, communicate, and ultimately lead. Findings include:

• Nearly half of employees (49 percent) have thought about leaving their current organization, while nearly one in five have left a job due to culture in the past five years

• Turnover due to culture may have cost organizations as much as $223 billion over the past five years.

• Seventy-six percent of Americans say their manager sets the culture, yet 36 percent say their manager doesn’t know how to lead a team.

• Twenty-six percent say they dread going into work.In addition to this workplace culture report, SHRM also released its 2019 Workplace Fulfillment Index, which revealed 44 percent of Americans feel extremely or very fulfilled in their current job compared to 56 percent who feel less than fulfilled at work.

  It also explored which factors contributed most to fulfillment, and found workers ranked cultural factors, such as meaningful work and flexibility, as more fulfilling than factors such as commute times or professional development.