Working remotely during COVID-19

With the outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and its subsequent spread around the world, many companies and employees are taking responsible steps to have employees work from home to combat its spread, a concept known as social distancing.

Companies of all sizes may struggle to adequately prepare staff to work remotely full-time. They may not have the equipment or the tools to access work resources remotely. Most staff are understandably distracted, due to concerns about the health and safety of their parents, grandparents, or loved ones with pre-existing conditions. They may also be worried about the financial struggles they will face if the economy plunges into recession. They may wonder how they will juggle homeschooling kids with working full-time in an unfamiliar environment.

These are not easy times. They require a complete overhaul of our standard way of life. As restaurants shutter, families and friends are separated, and countries and states implement shelter-in-place policies, we will all be adjusting to a new, intensely digital, life. As we wait for things to reopen, we must find ways to make the most of this unprecedented and, frankly, scary time.

Syvantis has transitioned to a work-from-home model for the foreseeable future. We’re going to share our initial tips for making the most of the time, and we will try and continue to update this blog with additional recommendations as we move through this crisis.

Setting up a work environment

When Syvantis began limiting the amount of people in our office, we did so because the health and safety of our employees and their families is incredibly important to us. We are committed to doing what we can to “flatten the curve” to keep the most vulnerable among us as safe as possible.

Making that decision, however, necessitates a drastic shift in the way we operate for the time-being. A lot of business owners are asking themselves if they can make this work, and we’re here to say you can.

Find the quietest place possible for your new work environment

Not everyone has the space to set up a dedicated office in their house, and managers shouldn’t expect that they do. Instead, we should prioritize finding a quiet place that can serve as an office for the extent of the outbreak. For some people this may be a corner of their bedroom and for others it may be the dining room. Employees should ask kids, spouses, or roommates to respect their space during working hours to the extent possible.

Managers, in turn, should recognize the unique difficulty employees with children face right now; for the foreseeable future, they will need to deal with the stress of being a full-time employee, a parent, and a homeschool teacher simultaneously. This may require employers to allow staff to work slightly more flexible hours. Perhaps starting an hour later will give that person enough time to get kids started on their schoolwork for the day so they can focus better.

Keep your work environment separate from your recreational areas

While sitting on the couch with your laptop and your cat might feel comforting during this chaotic transition, it might hinder your ability to effectively focus. It is quite common for people to experience this issue because the brain can associate this location with leisure rather than actual productivity.

Instead, try to find a place where you can have some level of separation from your recreational life. Maybe this is a folding table and chair in the guest bedroom, or maybe it’s at the kitchen table (if you don’t have many others living in your house with you). Either way, setting up shop somewhere that makes you feel more like you’re “going to work for the day” will also allow you to leave work at the end of the day.

Managers: Provide staff with webcams

Collaboration is key in nearly every industry. When everyone is working remotely, phone calls will not feel like they are a sufficient replacement for in-person meetings. Facetime, however, can help everyone to stay on the same page. You and your team will benefit from being able to read each other’s body language. Additionally, in the age of extreme social distancing, being able to see other people’s faces can help ease feelings of isolation, which can negatively impact productivity.

Many software providers are providing free collaboration tools to help companies make the transition to remote work. Microsoft, for example, is currently offering free trials of Office 365 and providing access to Microsoft Teams, a program for interoffice chat and video conference calling, for anyone that is trying to work from home during the outbreak. If your organization would like to get set up with Teams, please reach out to us to assist you with procuring these free licenses.

Avoiding distractions

Some people find that working from home is easier than working at the office because they won’t be interrupted by other members of their team right when they are getting in the zone. But for a lot of us, it’s hard to ignore the many distractions of being home such as kids, pets, dishes, or laundry. There are several tricks which can help to avoid these tempting distractions.

Talk to your family about interruption-free time

If you have older kids, this might be easier for you than for someone with a toddler running around the house. Regardless, you should find a way to talk to your kids (and other family members as needed) about when and how they can interrupt you. Maybe setting aside breakfast and lunch to spend time with the kids and get them started on homework would assist in keeping them occupied. You may also ask that they do not interrupt you except for emergencies outside of those times. You could set up a routine 15-minute break every couple of hours to check in on the kids. In addition, asking your older kids to keep the younger kids occupied and focused on schoolwork can help lighten the load as well. Overall, trust your instincts and try to establish a routine that works for you and your children.

For many, especially those with young kids, children with special needs, or those in single-parent households, working from home while the kids are also home will likely end up being very difficult. When your kid starts crying, you’ll need to check on them. When someone has a meltdown, you’ll need to handle it. Communicate with your manager and see if you can work out a way to help the kids stay focused on schoolwork or stay out of trouble while also completing the tasks that are important for your job.

Managers: be patient. There will be an adjustment period for all staff, but those with children may take a little longer. Work privately with staff who ask for help to ensure they are able to produce the best work possible.

Put the pets in a different room

If you’re lucky enough to have an office, keeping the pets out is as simple as shutting the door. If not, you may need to consider sectioning off where they are able to go during the day, especially if you have the type of pet who insists on getting your attention when they’re bored.

Set a schedule and stick to it

When you don’t have to commute to the office it is very temping to say “well, I’ll just stay up a little later tonight and sleep in an extra hour and work a little later.” Setting a consistent schedule that makes you feel like you are still getting up and going to work in the morning, however, is a very powerful way to help you stay focused throughout the day. A very helpful trick is to set multiple alarms or plan out your day ahead of time. Set timers that will help dictate when you wake up, eat meals, stop working, and go to sleep. This can work wonders with staying on track and structuring your environment in a way that promotes productivity.

Schedule your news intake

News is happening quickly right now. It’s important that everyone keep up with local, state, and federal news in order to ensure that we are collectively taking appropriate measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. You should continue to monitor reputable news sources to stay up to date, but you should consider doing so only at specific, intentional times.

Checking Twitter repeatedly or leaving CNN on in the background is bad news for most of us when it comes to focusing and, frankly, managing our anxiety about the crisis. The influx of information about the rising numbers of cases and the dramatic swings in the stock market are scary. When we’re stressed or anxious, we narrow our focus to that of the immediate threat. This makes it more difficult to focus on other tasks, like working.

Consider scheduling time in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening to check on what’s happening in the world. Again, it is vital that we all stay informed right now. But unless your job literally requires it of you, you do not need to watch the minute-by-minute updates. Give yourself the mental space to focus on work, your family, or really any other distraction. Distractions in stressful times can actually be a good thing if they take place in an appropriate way. If you happen to have a job that requires those minute-by-minute updates, consider turning everything off at the end of the day to create that space to the extent possible.

Give yourself a break

This pandemic is real. It is entirely valid to be fearful of it. If you find yourself getting distracted or excessively worrying, don’t punish yourself. It is normal to feel stress right now. Instead, try to find ways to cope with the anxiety that you are feeling. If it gets overwhelming, reach out to loved ones for support and assistance.

If you begin to experience extreme feelings of stress, consider seeking the assistance of medical professionals. A great many mental health providers are offering teletherapy methods which may provide huge amounts of support to you. Remember that you are not alone in this. We are all in it together.

Managing a team remotely

Promote regular team check-ins

When we went to remote work at the beginning of last week, we instituted mandatory Standups for each team at Syvantis. Each morning, a manager leads their team through a 15-minute meeting where each person gives a quick breakdown of:

What they worked on yesterday

What they will be working on today

Any issues they are running into with the tasks they have

If this standup sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve borrowed it from agile project methodology. We are already finding this meeting indispensable when it comes to keeping everyone on the same page. We also ensure our teams do not contain more than 6 people, as a good amount of research shows that teams that get much larger than that become less efficient and harder to manage.

Be flexible and be empathetic

Staff who have never worked from home before will require an adjustment period. Getting frustrated with them for it will not help them adjust faster – it will likely have the opposite effect. Give everyone time and space and guidance (when possible) to get settled into the “new normal.”

We might be here for a while. If you use the adjustment period to help establish new routines and communication methods with your team, you’ll make it easier for staff to be more productive in the long haul. You should still be setting expectations, timelines, and goals for the work staff need to complete, and you should still be holding staff accountable for meeting those expectations. It can be hugely beneficial to set more aggressive, but less stringent deadlines for tasks. This can involve moving the deadline up while making certain that everyone recognizes that they can be pushed back to a later time. This can help make work feel more serious at a time where it may otherwise feel more relaxed. No matter what you do, however, just make sure you are cognizant of the real struggle that people are facing at this time.

Expect disruptions and plan for the long-term

Epidemiologists in states like New York are anticipating anywhere from 40% - 80% of residents will contract COVID-19. You’ve already taken the first step toward helping us flatten the curve by sending your employees home to work. This is important, as it will allow hospitals and medical device manufacturers to build out their resources to better care for the 5% of cases that require ICU intervention. More than any other interventions, slowing the spread of the virus will reduce the total number of deaths we see.

Flattening the curve also means that we will likely be working from home for a while. We may see some respite during the summer months (certainly not guaranteed), but until we have developed a method for screening whether individuals have already contracted COVID-19 (and therefore cannot contract and spread it again), or a vaccine is released, we will need to continue exercising certain social distancing precautions. Some experts estimate a minimum of another 8-12 weeks before we can start to reduce extreme social distancing measures like working from home.

The bottom line is to assume that this is the new normal for a while. Test different strategies and tactics for communication. Play with ways to host virtual “happy hours” to help staff feel less isolated. Schedule weekly meetings with individual staff to check in and see how they are coping. You don’t need to get too personal, but it could help you identify whether someone is struggling and might not be at peak performance right now.

Respect confidentiality

If someone on your team contracts COVID-19, or if a member of their family does, you should not disclose the identity of that person to other staff when they report it to you. Instead, follow CDC recommendations for reporting the information and informing other staff for their safety in an appropriate and HIPAA-compliant manner.

Some benefits of working from home

Of course, there are some great perks to working from home! Staff might recognize how much time they save when they don’t have to commute. There are plenty of people who will find it to be a time to connect more with their families. Some people will enjoy spending time away from the larger outside world. Some staff may even find that they are more productive working from home, and that is fantastic.

If the option makes sense for your company, some people may find that having a more flexible schedule helps them to get into the “flow” of work. Perhaps you work out a deal where you can work through what would be your normal commute time Monday-Thursday to get work done sooner and take Friday afternoons off to spend with the kids. Night owls may find themselves more productive because they were able to sleep longer. Work with your manager to experiment with what works best for you. 

Find ways to enjoy the simple things

If you aren’t a huge fan of being home, or if you’re starting to feel like every day is blending together, try to find a way to break up the monotony. Take 15-30 minutes every few hours or over lunch for a walk outside. Take a few minutes to do the dishes, but do so in a conscious way, instead of as a method of procrastination. Sign up for a workout streaming service to make sure you are staying active (studies show, after all, that physical exercise can boost memory and focus). No matter what you do, try to participate fully in the activity you are doing. The more present we are, the less time there is for negative thoughts or feelings to enter. Existing in the here and now can help significantly reduce any distress you may be feeling. As a rule, find the things that help you feel relaxed and work them into your new schedule.

Remote work isn’t a panacea. Some people will find this transition very difficult. Some people may find themselves taking remote work less seriously, while others will consider it a huge benefit to them. This is going to be a unique learning experience for all of us.

In summary

This is a stressful time. It is a painful time. This will not be easy, and we shouldn’t pretend that it will be. Hopefully in the next few months, people around the globe will start to see life get a little closer to normal. For the time being, however, we’re stuck at home, so let’s make the best of it.

Watch our Webinar: Empowering Your Remote Workforce in the Age of COVID-19

Did your team move to remote work during this year’s global pandemic? Learn the best strategies for managing a fully- or partially-remote workforce without implementing a drastic big brother surveillance system from CEO of Syvantis, Janelle Riley, and Operations Manager, Jenna Walther.

Learn valuable approaches for:

• Planning and predicting individual and corporate-level capacity using Microsoft technologies
• How to conduct virtual professional development and goal-setting meetings that staff actually find useful
• Effective coaching strategies that drive employees toward fulfilling and results oriented work,
• And more