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The entire world is under lockdown situation from many days due to Coronavirus. Over 30000 people have already died and around 7 lakh people are infected as of now. To reduce the spread of COVID-19, all schools, markets, malls are shut down across the country. The companies have asked the employees to Work From Home (WFH) where possible.
If you
are an office worker, and you do your most of the work on a computer, then you
are 100% working from home during this lockdown. There is though a bit of challenge
for the employers to coordinate with the employees who are new to this WFH
status.
Here are a few tips for you to master the art of work from home without compromising with the productivity:
Dedicated Work Station at Home
You normally work for 8 to 9 hours in your office and your employer expects you to give the same productivity while you are working from home. Make sure that you have created a small workplace in your home where you can work without too much disturbance. The ideal workspace at home is a room with a table and a comfortable chair where you can work behind a closed door. Keep your laptop and desk clean and tidy.
Working in an Organised Manner is the key
Before you start your day make sure that you get yourself dressed the way you do it when you go to the office. According to psychologists, when you are properly and formally dressed, it helps to put your brain in work mode.
Your Phone, laptop, chargers, notepad, and pen should always be in place when you are working from home. During the lockdown, your children are also at home and since the house help and servants are also not coming, you have the responsibility to look after them as well.
When your spouse is also working from home then both of you need to coordinate and take care of the children in turns. You need to figure out, how you will manage the other household chores at this time. All these things need to be organized if you really want to perform and achieve your targets while working from home.
Planning for the Day
Make sure that you have planned your work before you start the day. The best way is to make a task list and target sheet and keep that in front of you. Since you are at home you have some liberties but that doesn’t mean you deviate from your tasks. Yes if you are unable to complete the task during the office hours you need to ensure that you do it later but on the same day. Don’t pile up the work thinking that you will do it tomorrow.
Let there be Communication
Coordination between your team and with the other teams is required for completing any project that you are working on. You or your boss needs to prioritize how the teams are going to communicate between themselves. This communication is also important as you would like to know whether your team members are taking WFH seriously or not. Your manager would also like to know what productivity your team is giving while working from home.
Fix a conference call on a daily basis or on alternate days where you can evaluate the performance of your team members and brief the same to your manager or employer. You can use tools like Zoom, Skype, etc for your video conferencing.
It is better to call your colleagues on video or chat with
them for routine queries instead of sending an email.
If you are a manager or an employer, kindly share more
information than usual with the team members. Try to cheer them up with some
jokes or some humour. Discuss with them how they are coping up with the
lockdown stress. Keep the team spirit up in the calls.
Tackling
Distractions
When you are home during the lockdown, there is no way you can avoid distractions. Your family, your children are at home, there will certainly be noises from the kitchen from washrooms, TV, etc.
Talk to your family members and ask them to coordinate. Speak to your children that try to explain to them about the importance of your working from home. Still, you cannot have a distraction-free environment, so you need to adapt to the situation and keep focusing on your work.
Do Yoga or Exercise
If you are lucky enough to have a garden in your home, then during the breaks go and get some fresh air outside. However, people living in flats and high-rise buildings do not have this luxury. They can take a walk inside their houses at the time of Covid-19 Lockdown. You should also do some Yoga and light exercise at home to keep fit. It will also keep you free from stress of lockdown.
Working from home especially during the lockdown can make you
feel isolated and stressed. Reach out to
others, will help you come out of this feeling of isolation. Because they are
also feeling the same at this time
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has relaxed norms for facilitating work from home (WFH) for IT firms till July 31, 2020.
Earlier, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad said that work from home will become the norm and had relaxed the norms till April 30, 2020.
Prior to lockdown, the companies were not allowed to connect the office VPN to a home infrastructure. After the lockdown exemptions were given to the companies and it was allowed till April 30. This has now been extended till July 31.
As part of the exemptions, the companies do not have to pay a security deposit and doesn’t require agreement for WFH facility for IT and IT-enabled services. Besides, it will be the discretion of the company to allow employees to work from home or ask them to return to the office when needed.
Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, “In response to IT Industry’s request to facilitate WFH for OSPs, @DoT_India had relaxed terms & conditions for VPN till 30.4.20. After discussions with IT Ministers, this relaxation in terms and conditions is extended till 31.7.20.”
He further clarified in another tweet
“Wish to clarify that it is not an extension of #WFH. In response to IT Industry’s request to facilitate WFH for OSPs, @DoT_India had relaxed terms & conditions for VPN till 30.4.20. After discussions with IT Ministers this relaxation in terms & conditions is extended till 31.7.20”
The DOT announcement means that the companies can now ask its employees to work from home till July 31. However, this is not the extension of WFH. Companies are allowed to start operations with 50 per cent of the workforce at the workplace.
Work from Home – The New Normal?
Most of the management was not comfortable with the concept of WFH before lockdown. However, post lockdown the companies were forced to adapt this concept as there was no other option left. After a few hiccups and initial challenges, the employers and employees have shown a steady learning curve. As a result Work from Home (WFH) is becoming a New Normal now.
In fact, the organizations are planning to come up with new WFH policies for the employees. Many CEOs and HR experts are now of the opinion that post Covid-19, many organizations may adapt WFH for a certain section of employees.
Therefore, many HR experts have started framing new HR policies as the existing policies may not be adequate for WFH concept.
