Telecommuting? Why you need to keep work and home separate â and how
When working remotely, separating work life from home life can be a challenge. Photo credit: Bruno Cervera on Unsplash.
As the city, country and world battle COVID-19, in an effort to practice social distancing, many people, including members of the Ryerson community, have begun working from home.
âIt can be really hard at first. Thereâs phones going off, news updates, kids screaming, dogs barking. There are real life challenges preventing some people from working,â said Ryerson professor Michael Halinski of the Ted Rogerâs School of Management (TRSM).
To help ease the transition, Halinski says thereâs another type of distancing that we also need to practice.
âItâs really important to keep boundaries between different aspects of your life,â he said.
This distancing is important because when you commit to a particular role youâre most efficient in those particular tasks, he explained. So, when roles are blurred, or there arenât any boundaries, inefficiencies can mount. It can also lead to an unhealthy work-life balance.
If youâre new to working from home, below, Halinski offers essential tips to help guide you through this transition:
Starting out
When beginning to work from home, itâs crucial not to try to tackle half your household chores at the same time.
âSome people might start out thinking, âOh, if Iâm working from home, I can do my laundry and make this fancy meal.â But the answer is no, you still need to create those boundaries, especially in the beginning,â he said.
But what if itâs a lighter workday â is it okay to meal prep between conference calls or take care of another chore, for example?
Youâre not in luck there either.
âIf itâs a less demanding workday, I would use it to build stronger bonds with your colleagues. That might make work more meaningful,â Halinski suggested, noting that people who work from home often have weaker relationships with colleagues, since most of their communication is through email and phone.
9-5 at the office? 9-5 at home
Another important boundary to firmly establish is âtemporalâ â that is, the time you begin and end your workday.
In this case, Halinski says donât try to change your temporal boundaries too much. If you worked 9-5 in the office before, continue with that routine.
Should you hop into your work email while you eat breakfast, or at night while watching Netflix?
Ask yourself â if you were working at the office, would you go in early? Would you usually work late?
âOf course, if your boss is pressuring you to do X or Y thatâs different, but I wouldnât change your routine just because youâre working from home,â Halinski said.
Mark your transitions
Another challenge of shifting to working from home is losing that physical distance or boundary that you usually cross going to work.
Normally, that commute helps signify the transition from one sphere into another.
âNot having a commute means losing the time we often use to shift our minds into preparing for the workday,â he said, noting that we also lose that time to decompress at the end of the day as well.
When working from home we need to maintain certain markers that signal those transitions.
For some, that might be having a shower, putting on work attire, making coffee, and then sitting down at a desk to begin.
âThat shower will transition you to your work time,â he said.
Other transitional markers could be taking the dog for a walk and then opening your email, or pouring coffee into your usual mug and sitting down to tackle the day.
And about that âwork attireâ â do you really need to put on your best boardroom blazer to sit in your living room?
Halinski says itâs less about what you wear and more about continuing your typical routine for the start of your workday.
Communicate your boundaries
For some, one of the biggest adjustments to working from home is suddenly sharing your work space with a spouse, kids, roommates, or even elderly parents.
âWhen people start working from home, many might think, âWell, Iâm disciplined, I can do itâ, but many of us live in an environment with other people or pets, and those people may not know your boundaries regarding when and how you work,â Halinski said.
âYour discipline isnât worth much if others donât know your boundaries,â he added.
So, those temporal boundaries youâve just set? Communicate them. And if youâd rather not be disturbed when completing a particular task, you need to communicate that too.
For couples sharing a home work space, Halinski says itâs common for conflicts to occur â so this communication is especially key.
âThey both need to establish boundaries and communicate what they are, and let them know if they need to adapt and adjust as they move along,â he said.
As for those who have kids or caregiving demands â or both â Halinski says that communication is even more important.
âFigure out who will care for the kids and when, who will work and when, establish routines and boundaries, and be flexible as needed.â
Commitment counts
The key to all of this, he says, is being consistent.
âReally committing to those boundaries over time is key to making it all work,â Halinski said.
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