I am a long-term home-worker. I hadn’t ever intended to be so. I left full-time employment at the end of July 2017, when my then employer refused my application for unpaid leave, to complete my doctorate. After ten months of exclusive devotion to my thesis, I picked up a position as a non-executive director of a Greek shipping business and became chair of trustees of a small charity. With the passage of time, my academic work has morphed into post-doctoral projects and I have picked up the chairmanship of a second charity. All of this work – paid and unpaid; academic, charitable and professional – is home-based. Meetings happen in person only annually or quarterly; most take place by video- or teleconference. My study has become my office and I spend the bulk of my time at home in Tooting.
So I’ve noted with interest the Government’s advice that all who can work from home should now do so, in order to contain transmission of the Coronavirus. In the past few days, my own husband, who normally works in the City or in Brussels, has joined me – in his case, as a temporary home-worker. So far, we’re surviving this new experience.
Home-working isn’t an easy option, even for a short time, but it can be done successfully and rewardingly.
The immediate benefits are obvious: no commuting, no need to put on ties or suits every day, greater freedom over the hours of work, far fewer noxious and pointless meetings, less intrusive supervision, relationships based on greater trust. Much of this has or may have a positive effect on well-being.
At the same time, home-working can be a lonely business. A sense of isolation can accumulate. At a distance stresses and strains are less easily shared or mitigated. Disciplines and boundaries are easy enough to establish at first, but may quickly crumble under the pressure of illness, miscalculations or external events. The voice of self-criticism may multiply exponentially. The temptation to skimp on physical exercise, proper diet or even healthy social contacts may grow with the passage of time.
Over the past two and a half years, my own experiences have been variable but increasingly positive. Unlike those now working at home because of the Coronavirus, I had to make a complete break from a job that had been busy and stressful, with a large management requirement. The last few weeks of that job were tough, and its termination felt like going over the edge of a cliff or, to put it another way, like a total and bracing immersion into an entirely new pattern of life. The freeing-up of my time created much space – too much space – for introspection about the past. I had to learn new habits and patterns of thought, to work out how to spend my time productively and to develop new forms of concentration without former structures and boundaries to coerce me. As if all that weren’t enough, I quickly realised that there are many temptations around to make the home-worker unproductive: social media; the internet; the music collection; exhibitions, lectures, events; the fridge; the wine-cellar...and so on. And when, in June 2018, I picked up paid and charitable work, I had to think through how to juggle a portfolio that makes very different types of demand.
My experiences as a home-worker suggest a work in progress. Broadly speaking, I know now what works for me and what doesn’t, and I am very happy to have moved on from the traditional pattern of office-bound employment. For those of you who are new to this, I can’t claim that anything I have learnt will necessarily help you (we’re all different), but my tips for successful home-working would include the following:
· Define your working-day clearly and create boundaries around it; don’t let working-time and non-working-time contaminate each other.
· Set yourself a realistic daily routine that contains and balances as much variety as possible.
· Generate enough real human contact (e.g. telephone, Skype) every day to maintain a healthy social component in your home-working – do not let e-mail or texting become your only form of contact.
· Create time for physical exercise – in whatever way suits you: a brisk walk, some gardening, a jog, exercising the dogs, cycling….
· Get out of the house every day – even if only to feel the rain on your skin and wonder when you last saw the sun.
· Confine social-media apps to one or two devices and keep them in another room from the one you’re working in; set aside specific time for social media – do not let Twitter, or, if you must, Facebook and Instagram dominate and overwhelm your time.
· Do not convince yourself that a lunchtime glass of wine (or two) will help your work.
· Watch your diet – work out whether you need more or fewer calories as a home-worker than an office-worker (I need far fewer);
· If you feel bored and listless, get up, move around, do something else for ten minutes and then set yourself down to concentrate for a set period of time.
The Coronavirus seems to be posing a unique risk to human health. Like everyone else, I am listening closely every day to the emerging advice from Government and doing my bit to take personal steps to contain the spread of the virus. Such steps may cause novel secondary effects, but they need not be unwelcome. Successful home-working is certainly possible; good home-working feels very rewarding. Good luck to everyone who is now embarked on a new, if temporary pattern of work.
John
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