The pandemic saw more of us working from home than ever before. If you’re looking to make it a permanent arrangement (or even a semi-permanent one), check out our 11 invaluable tips to setting up an office at home.
Category: <span>Work from home</span>
It’s September 1st and it feels like autumn is already upon us.
If you’re still working from home and the novelty wore off ages ago, the coming of the darker and colder days might be filling you with dread. If you miss the office, you might struggle without the re-assuring repetitiveness of your daily commute and the friendly banter from your team, you may be feeling as bleak as the weather.
Not everyone finds it easy to work from home, especially if you are distracted by children, your partner (who is also trying to work from home), household chores and the doorbell constantly ringing. Here are some suggestions on how to keep your motivation levels up whilst working from home
A government minister has floated the idea that civil servants who work from home should be paid less than those that work from the office.
So, should work from home staff take a pay cut?
Working from home got many people and business through the worst of the pandemic, but it seems the honeymoon is over as ‘unnamed’ government ministers are calling for home workers to be hit with pay cuts.
It’s quite obviously a cynical and blatant ploy to get people back into offices before the value of their property portfolios plummet. But it seems to be gaining some traction as Google has floated the idea of cutting the pay of any US employees who choose to work from home indefinitely.
Some commentators are even suggesting that travel costs are covered in salaries, and so a cut is fair (or fare) enough if employees aren’t commuting. Which is, of course, absolute nonsense – how many people really negotiate salary based upon the cost of their commute.
So, to try and cut through the bluster, we’ve put together a case in defence of working from home.
The school summer holidays are almost here, and if you thought working from home was tough while the kids were at school, wait until they’re off and need entertaining for weeks on end – the constant need for attention, coupled with the hot, sunny weather could make getting any work done all but impossible.
It always pays to plan in advance though, so here are six top tips to make sure the summer holidays aren’t a complete wash-out, at least as far as your work is concerned…
More of us are working from home than ever before. But as we slowly start getting back to normal after the pandemic, many of us will be returning to offices up and down the country, even if only on a part-time basis.
The pandemic has also seen a lot of job losses. This has, in turn, seen a growing number of people starting their own business.If you’ve started up on your own, you’ll be conscious of the need to keep overheads low – and working from home can work out a lot cheaper than renting out office space.
And having employees is no reason to rent out separate office space, you can simply kit them out with a laptop and a smartphone and some other essential tools for remote working and they’ll be able to do their job just as well wherever they are.
If you need to collaborate on anything you could arrange to meet up at your home office, a coffee shop or conduct a meeting via conference call.
There comes a point, however, when you outgrow your home office – the trouble is though, you may not be aware or willing to accept you have.
So here are five telltale signs you’ve outgrown your home office…
Working from home is great for productivity, it promotes a better work/life balance, and can it can even be a deal-breaker when it comes to hiring the best talent, but it’s also a great opportunity to get a load of other things done on company time – if we’re all completely honest about it, when we work from home we don’t spend every minute of our working day doing things for the business.
But does that necessarily mean we’re less productive when working from home? One in four bosses seem to think so, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Although we’re slowly but surely creeping out of lockdown, it seems that some restrictions and changes to how we do things will be hanging around longer than others.
Many office-based workplaces are adopting new work from home policies that will see staff working remotely for at least part of the working week. And the winter months could even see a drive to have everyone working from home again, wherever possible, in a bid to keep virus infection rates down.
We could also see a return to face masks.
Although many of us have had to work from home over the last 12 months or so, telecommuting isn’t for everyone though.
But telecommuting can be beneficial for both employees and employers. While employees get the benefit of flexible working and the improved work/life balance that brings, employers get a more motivated and productive workforce, with staff who are happier to work longer hours when the daily commute is taken out of the equation.
Many businesses are moving to a remote-first policy, which means more of us than ever will be working from home for the foreseeable future. Here are five top tips to make sure that, as an employer, you get the most of telecommuting.
Today is Earth Day – a global awareness day designed to make us all think about what we can do to be more energy efficient and eco-friendly. Here’s how to exactly that at your business premises…