Solutions for Work-from-Home Headaches

By Zafar Khan, RPost CEO

A year ago, there was a sudden shock to the world that caused mass disruption in people’s normal routines, forcing an uncomfortable behavioral change for most. This pandemic-induced shift to an isolated work-fromhome (WFH) routine should become a shibboleth once vaccines flow freely. But perhaps it won’t.

Over the course of the last year, we’ve all acclimated to our new routines, comfy chairs, and lounging between meetings. We play with the kids at odd hours of the day and work from anywhere with a hot-spot connection. All in all, it’s not too bad (assuming your profession or business was not too negatively impacted).

This acclimation may have been genuinely transformed the way we work — permanently and in ways we’re just beginning to understand. So as we potentially enter an era of quasi-permanent remote work, we have some fun, tech-inspired work tips and solutions:

Problem:

When you had an office, you could close your door so people would leave you alone to focus. Now your teammates DM (direct message) you whenever they like, as they may have no idea that you’re busy. They are impatient, expecting to see dots immediately appear to indicate you are replying in real time. And they some take offense if you are not quick enough to reply.

Tip:

Obviously, set your status to “busy” on Teams (or any app you use) and remember to set it back to “available” when ready. The key is getting your organization to actually look at and respect these statuses. Tell staff that the red light (on Teams) is the new closed office door. And even if you know the answer and can instantly reply, wait … so as not to set the expectation that you are available on demand (or that you have too much free time).

Problem:

All work; no play (or at least no more chit-chat about sports, movies, etc.). Remote work effectively ended those water-cooler chats we used to have about non-work subjects, which was a camaraderie-building distraction from the daily grind. What now?

Tip:

Set the expectation that virtual meeting rooms will open five minutes early and close five minutes after the meeting ends for those who want to socialize. Managers should actively encourage this as important for company morale and team building. After all, this used to happen when meetings were in conference rooms. But remember that everyone secretly likes meetings to start on time, so elegantly cut the banter off precisely at the scheduled meeting start and end time.

Bonus Tip:

Meetings with videos and multiple parties should also be shorter than the old, hour-long conference room sessions. Meetings that were 60 minutes should now be 30 minutes; 30-minute meetings should now be 20 minutes. Attention spans are shorter, and video conferences have been shown to be more mentally taxing than in-person meetings.

Problem:

You’re using technology more – to e-sign for remote business needs and to encrypt email for inter-office communications. You need a better way, one that is easy to use plus more affordable when used frequently.

Tip:

Download RMail and RSign! (What else did you think I was going to say?) Our RMail for Outlook and Gmail, RSign e-signature web apps, connectors, and API make it easy to automate or extend your business systems with seamless, feature-rich, and more affordable e-sign and e-security tools. Our features provide the best user experience. Our prices make us the most affordable. And, our services connect elegantly inside your existing email programs and business systems.

Problem:

Taking notes with pen and paper during in-person meetings used to make you look engaged and give others the confidence that what they were saying would be noted, remembered, and acted upon. Now, people see you typing on a video call and assume you’re DMing your spouse about who’s going to cook dinner later that night.

Tip:

One solution is to announce that you are taking notes before you begin, which turns your act of typing into a positive and instills old-school confidence that action items will be memorialized. Even better, encourage old fashioned paper/pen note taking during video calls. It looks better for the note-taker, and it sounds better for everyone else, as there’s less typing noise (people rarely remember to mute when typing notes).

RPost CEO Zafar Khan has been in the technology field for more than 15 years, and he has strategy and finance experience with Deloitte Consulting and Goldman Sachs. He has also worked to transfer U.S. Department of Energy National Lab technology to the private industry and was selected as one of 15 CEOs to participate in a U.S. Presidential Trade Mission. Khan has invented four U.S. patents, holds a BA degree from Wesleyan University, an International Certificate from The Georgetown University School of Business, and an MBA degree from The Wharton School.

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Questions? Contact IA&B preferred vendor RPost today. Ask for Jamie Larson. Phone: 617-213-6912 Email: jlarson@rpost,com Website: rmail.com/iab