Nothing is perfect and while working from home is the ideal solution to keep companies doing business during a pandemic, like anything else remote work certainly has its challenges. We asked our team to share some of the challenges they’ve encountered and to share their solutions. Afterall, challenges are meant to be solved.
The Struggle is Real
Here are some of the challenges that our team faced and their strategies to overcome them.
The Challenge of Working in a Shared Home
Many team members reported that working in a shared home definitely poses challenges throughout their work day. Here’s how they’re handling it:
- Separate your work space: “It’s critical for me to have a seperate space to work, with a door that closes, even though only my wife and I are here. I close the door and tell my wife when I’m on calls or meetings, so she keeps the noise down.”
- Create Boundaries: “I let them [my family] all know to pretend I am at work as much as possible and not distract me unless there is something urgent going on”
- Lean on Family: “I have an amazing, supportive wife. She helps to keep my daughter occupied and, most importantly, happy. Depending on the meeting at hand, she helps motivate my daughter to another part of the house (or outside). She is a rock, and I would be lost without her.”
The Challenge of Communication
When adjusting to a remote work environment, it’s a delicate balance to maintain proper communication. There’s a fine line between too much and too little. When communication is light, our team recommends to “try to connect more with the team via slack or other communication channels.”
When it’s too much, the suggestion is to “Block out time to not have meetings. Pausing notifications/etc when you need to focus on a certain tasks.” One team member, on the subject of remote communications, provided a prelude to their interview answers in the form of an article they’d explored discussing video call burnout. This piece resonated with some members of our team so, if you’re feeling drained whenever you face the prospect of another video conference event we suggest you give it a read.
The Challenge of Working with Pets
For some on the team who share their home with one or more pets, there were some more unique challenges presented. One team member spoke of their three pets as “Excellent Interns” but was challenged by “Interns that think just because I’m here, then I should be able to let them outside…again.” While a specific solution wasn’t shared here, the solution is clearly a case of giving the interns what they want. Meanwhile, another team member reported that cats make selfish co-workers and struggled with keeping their fluffy home office mates off their workstation. Pro-tip, the solution here was to give out lots of treats in the room farthest from their laptop. Also, since the team members will be at home for the majority of the time, it is critical that they keep the environment clean.
If not, there’s a significant risk that the place might become filthy and infested with pests or something similar. They’ll then have to hire an exterminator from a company like Pest Control Experts (for more info, check https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/louisiana/). Hence, to avoid all of these, make sure that you dedicate a space for work and keep it clean at all times.
We Shall Overcome
Now that our team has shared some struggles and successes, we’d love to hear from you! Let us know what challenges you’ve faced, solutions you’ve devised and please let us know that we’re not the only ones giving into our pets’ demands. Add your comments below or share your experience on our Facebook page. We’re all in this together.
