How to support colleagues who have difficulty working from home

There are of course various reasons why people do not like working from home, or are even stressed by it. It might be an intern who is still living in a crowded student house, in a small and noisy room which makes concentration a real challenge. Your work does not advance, and the pressure of work starts to grow. Some people also find they are easily distracted at home and find it difficult to get into working mode. The washing is calling, you could just run round with the vacuum cleaner, the sun is tempting you out into the garden... Some people probably feel that they have to prove they are actually working now that this is literally no longer visible. Taking breaks and relaxing then becomes a challenge, so does switching off in the evening. There are several other reasons to think about.

Offering the right support therefore starts by asking the question of why someone does not like it when they are working from home. From there, you can start to seek a solution, if there is one available. Do they have a good workspace at home, or is it not possible to create one? Do some people maybe really miss the social interaction too much? Then it is worth making the effort to see whether they could not come into work after all one or two days per week. Just to recharge, or to do the things that require total concentration. Then of course there a number of very common traps. You will find a number of tips below that you can discuss with your employees.

Follow your normal morning routine

What often happens is that people who are not used to working at home, when initially they don't have to go to the office, switch into a kind of holiday mode. And it is quite fun once in a while to roll out of bed and sit in front of your computer in your pyjamas. However, it has been proven that the clothes you wear not only influence how you feel, but also how you perform. So it is worth the effort of getting dressed as if you were going to work. It also means you are giving yourself a signal that your working day is starting. For the same reason, you should stick to your normal morning routine.

Plan a fixed morning call

What can help is to start the morning of each working day with a planned call. That gives you something you need to turn up for, on time. Preferably make it a video call, so that you have to sit still for a while. Make sure the others agree, because while one person enjoys making calls, for others it costs them a lot of energy. And you don't want to give someone a headache right at the start of the day. It is useful to agree beforehand what is to be covered in the call. Is it the schedule for the day, how you are doing, goals, obstacles or other things?

Eat that frog first

People have a tendency to postpone things they dislike doing or that they dread. If you are in contact with your colleagues you can vent about these things, or brainstorm them, which will help to get you started on them. Seen from a distance, things look worse, with the result that your whole day gets hung up on the things that you really ought to do, but don't do. This costs you - without you realising it - a lot of energy. The same applies to a to-do list that is too long. You never clear it, leaving you with the feeling you are always running after things and you never get a feeling of satisfaction at the end of a working day. So make a plan each day with three tasks. The worst one - that frog - is number one on your list, you do it first. The other two also have to be done. And the rest? They are the bonus, great if they are done, an extra pat on the back for you. By working this way you will find that you have more energy, which means that by the end of the day you get more done than you thought.

Plan the same breaks as you would take at work

One trap of working from home is that you stay sitting at your desk all day long. Where normally you would walk to the coffee machine, and have a chat with a colleague in passing, now you probably have better coffee, but less conversation. Which means you are back sitting behind your desk again sooner and don't relax enough in between. The likelihood of neck, shoulder and back pain will increase, and thanks to uninterrupted mental work you will burn out faster. So make sure you plan in some breaks. Set your cooking timer or the alarm on your phone and go and do something else when this goes off.

Keep moving

Of more likely: start moving. Either way, make sure that you don't spend the whole day sitting down. Take a stroll while making a phone call, do a 7-minute workout during a break or do a series of yoga exercises. Better short, simple and more frequent, than just once, harder and for longer.

Don't snack

Mark the end of your working day

Anyone who has trouble with stopping working can set an alarm clock for the end of the afternoon. A sort of school bell: school's out!

Create your own clean desk policy

At least tidy up your laptop and your desk. Cross off the list what you have got done (and give yourself a high five if you cross off the top 3 tasks). Perhaps put together a plan for the next day, so that things don't keep running round in your head.

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