7 practical tips for remote workers and their managers
- Breathe. Let your eyes rest in the fresh air.
These activities are not extraordinary, but if you work from home, you can easily forget about them. Especially, if you feel isolated. Leaders can help develop a healthy team by promoting healthy habits. These are the ways to improve the health of your team working from home.
- Prioritize mental health
Our work schedule can be easily disrupted by the needs of our family members while working from home. In such situations, managers can support their employees with their positive attitude: understanding and flexibility. If your employers are not available in the morning, it might mean they will be more productive later. To expect that employer will be available nonstop while working from home is a way to burnout. Enable your team to adjust their schedules and set some boundaries, when you stop the work for some time, a day or longer.
- Don´t be afraid to alternate work and personal life
The invisible line between home and work life will gradually disappear completely. Employees with families have always needed some flexibility. This need has now become visible for everyone trying to find a balance between home and work life. Therefore, the time to accept the fact, that personal and work-life blur, has just come. Regional President ManpowerGroup for North America, Becky Frankiewicz, called this phenomenon Living Out Loud: „I ask all my leadership team to remove those camera blockers and turn their videos on, let’s see each other in the fluidity of our day. Let people know that we’re all in this together.“
- Take a break and recharge your batteries
Working from home is not a vacation. In fact, compared to working in the office, it can increase the level of stress even more, because the work responsibilities might still seem to be present. The human body and mind need to take a break and have some rest regularly. Some employees tend to work long hours without taking a break and then push their rest into one short vacation. Moreover, some employees don´t rest adequately for their work commitment.
- Reduce email volume
Working from home may also mean more e-mails in our inbox. Instead of meeting our colleagues in person, we communicate through e-mails. Try to reduce the number of e-mails in your box by using various tools or shared documents. By reducing the pressure to check the inbox constantly, employees can easily find a balance between work and breaks.
- Monitor progress
Managers and team members should cooperatively work on defining professional as well as personal goals. This can help them grow both personally and professionally. Support them with the following goals: give them time and flexibility to work on this aspect of their personal development. Create a strategy of how to achieve the goals. This will help them make tangible progress, step by step.
- Ensure accountability
The manager cannot supervise and control all the team members constantly. Transfer of responsibility can be of help. Colleagues can cooperate, send comments to each other or organize virtual breaks together and have some informal conversation. Managers should support such activities to strengthen team cohesion.
