The ability to create a pleasant space when working from home, foster efficiency by reducing distractions, and take care of our well-being at all levels can be challenging if we do not have the right resources.
If only we had a spare room in our homes: a nice, well-lit office, away from the noise and activities of the people we live with or adequately isolated from the commotion outside. It should have a spacious desk, the latest chair and a pleasant temperature at any time. It would almost make you want to get stuck into work, wouldn’t it?
This idealized scenario is probably not within everyone’s reach. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take specific guidelines seriously when working from home.
3 guidelines when working from home
At ifeel, we are concerned about employee welfare, and that is why we do not want the environment in which you have to work remotely to be a stressful or detrimental factor to achieve it. This is why we’ve outlined three tips that will help you when working from home healthily and efficiently.
1. Remote workspaces must be realistic
Working from home means accepting the decorative, urban, and architectural cards you have been dealt. It would be great if we could all work in dream offices, have dream homes to live in, and create wonderful remote workspaces. As you may know, the bad news is that this is not always 100% possible.
We must build an environment that, within our possibilities, fulfills its function. The goal when we talk about generating realistic spaces when working from home is to have the ability to make the most of the resources we have.
2. Remote workspaces must be adequate
When working from home, we must be able to create spaces that are large enough so that we do not feel overcrowded. They should be well-lit so that we take care of our eyesight, generate an environment conducive to work and be quiet enough for a visual and auditory level to avoid unnecessary distractions or noises of different types that hinder our performance. When working from home, the home office should be comfortable enough so that, although it is a workspace, it is pleasant to be in it. We also need a work environment that is safe, meaning we do not injure our back, neck, arms, etc.
3. Separate the work environment
We must avoid external factors from invading our tasks in the same way we must try that our professional duties do not invade aspects of our life foreign to the labor.
Therefore, it is essential that when we are working from home, we look for a place in our house that can be separated from the place where other people with whom we live work or places destined for other tasks that are not related to work (for example, the kitchen, or the bed). Separating environments helps us focus on what we have to do and associate that place (which may be a particular table or a particular corner of another room) with work, encouraging us to get on with our tasks more fluidly.
When remote work is not done from home
We often take it for granted that remote work is about working from home. However, this is always the case: in some situations, we work remotely from coworking spaces, a coffee shop, a library, or even an open-air park.
In these cases, we must also consider the recommendations for working remotely from home that we mentioned above, only this time, instead of creating them, we choose them. To these suggestions, we can add the following:
1. Don’t complicate things
Choose a place close to your home. One of the most critical advantages of remote work is the time it saves compared to commuting to the office to work. If you choose a place to work remotely that, although it is great, is far from your home, you miss out on this benefit.
2. Choose a pleasant place
Remember that you are going to that space to work, not hang out. Make sure it is a comfortable, well-lit, and quiet place, where it is easy to concentrate and where spending several hours each day is not daily torture. It is important to have done the necessary home repairs and maintenance in order to have a pleasant working space.
3. Choose an inspiring place
Every task requires a conducive environment to be performed efficiently. If your work involves a lot of phone calls, it is important to choose a quiet place that allows privacy. If you need a lot of space or need to use special materials or make noise, choose an ample space where you will not disturb anyone. If you have to make many video calls, choose a discreet place where no unpleasant surprises will appear on the screen.
Emotional well-being for companies
At ifeel, we work to increase the well-being at work of both those employees who are in the office and those who perform their tasks by working from home. That is why we are dedicated to helping companies create stimulating and healthy work environments for their employees.
Our team of psychologists has created an emotional well-being program for companies to achieve this. Through this collaboration, your company’s human resources managers will be able to receive personalized, data-driven advice on improving the psychological well-being of their teams. On the other hand, this program provides employees with a complete mental health care service organized at different levels according to their needs. Try our program now to see how it can help you.
Visit our Resources section, where you will find podcasts, HR guides, or Interviews with key HR managers. In addition, you will have access to a Psychosocial Risk Factors Template, which will help you comply with the Labor Inspection requirements.
We hope this post on working from home has given you good ideas to facilitate the completion of your tasks. Contact us to learn more about how our emotional well-being program for companies works. Request a demo today, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
