In the world we live in, there are health and security concerns. Even something as mundane as bad weather can force you to work from home. It might be just for a few days, or it could be a few weeks.
Below are a few tips to make this easier.
- Make sure that those around you know that you are working. Taking a conference call from the living room, with kids running around can be quite distracting.
- Take care of issues at home. Plan to have gaps between meetings. There may be others at home as well who have needs.
- Get a good headset – you will be doing more conference calls than you are used to. Having a good WIRED headset helps. You do NOT want the battery to die in the middle of a call. I use a Jabra voice UC 750.
- Get dressed. It puts you in a “work” mode.
- Respect your coworker’s status. If their chat status says “do not disturb”, send an email. Don’t connect via IM.
- Use a good keyboard. If you are not used to working on your laptop keyboard, get a keyboard for use at home.
- Get a good monitor. Laptop monitor’s are not always the best option
- Each meeting needs a moderator. The moderator should make sure that everyone gets a chance to be heard, without talking over each other.
- When on a conference call, avoid side conversations. Use the chat feature to let the meeting moderator know that you have a comment.
- VPN setup. Make sure that you have the correct settings for your company’s VPN. This will allow you to connect to your office.
- TEST EVERYTHING AHEAD OF TIME. You don’t want to be late to a meeting because you didn’t test out your setup
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The opinions expressed are mine. They do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
Brad's Random Thoughts 