Working from home



I must admit, I get the whole "switching off" thing, and how some people might struggle with it. Heck, at the start of lockdown, I missed my drive home, blasting Rob Zombie, or whatever. I then learned how to switch off at the end of the day.....upon discovery of the "off" button on my phone and laptop. Chuck in a flick of the "V's" too as they both power down, for added satisfaction....sorted.
 
Make it work around you and remember emails are not something that need to be responded to immediately. It's something you can respond to when it suits you (within reason of course!)

I woke up early the other day and couldn't get back to sleep so I worked on something and emailed it to the client at 6.30am but didn't expect a response until later in the day. Today I'm only working a couple of hours this morning, then going out with family so I'll not check or respond to anything until maybe this evening or tomorrow morning. Depends what time I get back and how I feel.
 
I've got into the habit of switching my email notifications off on my phone after 5/6 and on weekends.
The culture in my company can be pretty shit with some people mailing stuff out between 9/12 at night....ridiculous imo.
 
I'm officially retired but still do quite a bit of self employed work from home. When I was employed, I did do work from home but also did social things at work. The balance worked for me.
That's how it pretty much works for everyone, a bit of give and take. A mate of mine went to work for a company where virtually everything was proscribed and there was a very hard set of rules for almost everything. Not surprisingly there was a very high turnover of staff. He lasted 3 months!
I've got into the habit of switching my email notifications off on my phone after 5/6 and on weekends.
The culture in my company can be pretty shit with some people mailing stuff out between 9/12 at night....ridiculous imo.
We had a rule of no e-mail traffic between 11pm and 5 am and the big cheese didn't take kindly to infringement. The more senior you were the more severe the consequence.
 
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I log off all my work devices when I finish for the day and don't think about it until I log on the next morning. I'm annoyed that I was added onto a team WhatsApp chat on my personal phone but I just have that muted.
I've done all the long hours in the past and you're no more productive. It's all about being seen to be working and for your managers to be able to show the team are working long hours.
If you can't do your work in your allocated hours, there is a problem. Either with you not being efficient enough or your workload is too great. Either way it needs to be addressed.
 
I find the easiest thing to do is plan an activity for your usual finish time, even if it’s just a walk, helps break the day up.

Yep. I take the dog for a walk, then go to the gym or for a run.

Very occasionally need to come back on to do a specific thing but I make sure I keep it within a set time and don’t open my outlook or teams whilst I’m on.

Don’t have work emails on my phone either.
 
Just turn your computer off at 5pm or 6pm, and noone can contact you via zoom/teams and cant read emails. It's what I do.
Must have works mobiles now , some workplaces will abuse it for sure

I still think Long Term more companies will want staff to go back even if it’s split 50/50 office and home
I've got into the habit of switching my email notifications off on my phone after 5/6 and on weekends.
The culture in my company can be pretty shit with some people mailing stuff out between 9/12 at night....ridiculous imo.
Work to live NOT live to work , otherwise awful lot of regrets when death comes calling
 
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Let’s be honest - a lot of out of hours communication is simply showing off -“ hey , I m soooo important - I m working 24/7 - cc line managers”.

As a company director I have to communicate with fellow directors out of hours but I won’t contact my team as it makes them feel they have to respond there and then.

I regularly insist staff leave on time , give or take , a work life balance is critical to people’s well being and they operate better during work hours .

Work hard - play hard is an old saying and is entirely relevant today.
 
I log off all my work devices when I finish for the day and don't think about it until I log on the next morning. I'm annoyed that I was added onto a team WhatsApp chat on my personal phone but I just have that muted.
I've done all the long hours in the past and you're no more productive. It's all about being seen to be working and for your managers to be able to show the team are working long hours.
If you can't do your work in your allocated hours, there is a problem. Either with you not being efficient enough or your workload is too great. Either way it needs to be addressed.
Ah, the culture of "Face Time", you are correct definitely not more productive.

I had a boss who always challenged staff who were in the office endlessly, he would ask "are you inefficient" the answer would of course be "no" then you must be overworked, so "keep a detailed work diary for a month, and we can then review it and see what tasks we can take away from you". Only had to do that once, people sharp switched on that they were not going to be rewarded just for "being there".
 
I log off all my work devices when I finish for the day and don't think about it until I log on the next morning. I'm annoyed that I was added onto a team WhatsApp chat on my personal phone but I just have that muted.
I've done all the long hours in the past and you're no more productive. It's all about being seen to be working and for your managers to be able to show the team are working long hours.
If you can't do your work in your allocated hours, there is a problem. Either with you not being efficient enough or your workload is too great. Either way it needs to be addressed.
Bang on the money pal.
 
Must have works mobiles now , some workplaces will abuse it for sure

I still think Long Term more companies will want staff to go back even if it’s split 50/50 office and home

Work to live NOT live to work , otherwise awful lot of regrets when death comes calling

We dont have work mobiles, only if theres a business need. So just tends to be the bosses. And at that level even before all this there was a general acceptance that they'd be contactable
 

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