Hey man, do you feel lucky? Covid-19 in the context of remote work

A few days ago, in Portugal, we saw our students getting out of school and acting as if they were on vacation. Just kids who don´t realize the exceptional times we are living.

Than, I started to think about the general workers who never had the chance to work from a remote place. And many of them may fall into this error as well, not having enough discernment to understand that working from home can become an extremely difficult exercise to perform.

We need to be honest, a large part of companies will face two serious problems: (i) not having an efficient remote work plan; (ii) not having professionals prepared to develop their functions in these conditions. Problems will start.

Working from a remote location, without feeling the normal pressure that exists in the office, can seriously affect the productivity of certain companies, especially in cases their workers are not being professionals (or simply cannot be); in such cases, excuses like "I don't feel well", "I think I'm sick" may appear. And that could be the thruth, of course.

Working from a remote place requires a different view of certain principles. You need to be much more professional and disciplined. And for some people, being at home means that family get-together, means relaxing; especially, in cases where there are children (and they'll be in home too, as we know).

Some of these workers, who truly like what they do or, at least, are committed to achieving their company´s goals, may go through a difficult times, because the circumstances will arouse up different kind of emotions. So, this exceptional times could be not so fun as some workers may think.

As a remote worker, who had to develop several skills to keep a high level of productivity, I would suggest this:

1) Have a clean, organized and quiet space to work from home;

2) Do not allow interruptions on any pretext; not for asking if you want a coffee, not for asking for your quick help for something, not for anything;

3) Define and respect an imperatively schedule. Have some pauses, but do not turn on television or something like that;

4) Silent your phone notifications. Simon Sinek, an autor who studies theses issues, conclued that, on average, people check their social media about 150 times per day. If you are in a critical group of people who are compulsively checking their social media, I highly recommend to put your regular cellphone away and have an old one just for necessary calls. Sure, you´ll have these kind of problems with your computer too, so, define some configurations to avoid that.

Although general, these are some basic measures that any remote worker cannot ignore in order to develop an unbreakable discipline. And developing this discipline takes time. The problem is this: there is not enough time, so it is important for those who perform remote work for the first time to implement this measures immediately.

So, let me ask you again, do you feel lucky about working from home?

I would say this: be serious and perhaps, in the future, you may have the chance to work more often from home or any other remote location.

Covid-19 will change our view of remote work and, at the same time, awaken a new work paradigm in a substancial perspective.