In the coming days, many in the Government of Canada workforce will transition to working full time from home in response to measures and best practices to contain the Covid19 outbreak. These are turbulent times, and stress levels are high. The transition to full time work from home is a big change, and I found some aspects of the transition to be really challenging. To that end, I wanted to offer my experience to those going through that change over the next little while.

I transitioned to full time work from home in October of 2019 upon joining the Digital Academy at CSPS, a distributed team with members across Canada. The team is well set up for virtual work, but working 100% virtually requires some different skills so it felt like a steep learning curve at first. My home is a vastly different work environment as well, and it has taken some time to really feel ‘at home’ working from home!

Much has been published and shared on remote work, virtual teams and best practices, including the Digital Academy’s busrides episode on remote work (see resources below) and I don’t want to reproduce that info here. Instead, I wanted to talk about my own experience with it and some of the human aspects as I adjusted to the change. I found some of the biggest challenges (aside from getting the technology to work) were the changes going on within me as I adjusted to spending a lot of time alone in my home.

The work environment

It is such a freedom to drink coffee from a real mug, pat my cat during the day and be able to listen to music without earphones. I can take a teleconference while going for a walk, or outside in the sunshine. I can listen to a webinar while I go for a run. Not having to commute gives me a full 2 hours extra in my day, which gives me time to read, learn, drink coffee and spend time with my family. I can pop dinner in the oven and have it ready when everyone gets home.

My remote work set-up, cat included

But the flipside is that when I take a break, I see the unfolded laundry and the dirty dishes — its hard sometimes to stay focused with those reminders of all the other things that need doing. If I’m not careful, I can go days without social interactions, as the chit chat that comes with an office environment is largely absent in the virtual one. I can find myself getting lonely, feeling irritable, eating poorly, or not taking care of myself well. Life can feel very small, suffocatingly so.

Life at the office brings a normalcy and separation from home life that can be welcome, and working from home can feel like the work and the personal blend into one another. Taking care of my mental health has become a real priority that I need to be conscious about in a different way then before. I should preface this article by saying that I have had episodes of depression in the past, and manage an anxiety disorder, so prioritizing my mental health is very real for me.

So, to mitigate these effects, I have a few ‘rules’ I have made for myself and have found that when I follow them, I feel much more positive about myself, my career and life in general. I have at least one virtual ‘coffee date’ a week, and I do better mentally if I have a few. I use video so we can see each other’s faces (zoom, webex) and it really helps to not feel so isolated. In the era of Covid19 isolation, I hope to increase the number of virtual coffee dates I have, as many of the events and interactions I was looking forward to are now cancelled or postponed. I also make time for real live people — seeing friends or even doing some work from a coffee shop (if possible) — just being around others lifts my mood. Its amazing how much the energy of others has an impact on my mood, both positive and negative. Being alone all day can really get me down, so this is probably the most important piece for me.

I carved out some space for myself in the downstairs rec room, and turned the corner into my office. I can’t recommend enough finding a space that is just for work if you can — it helps me shift gears mentally into work mode and separates my work life from my personal life. I decorated to make it welcoming, with some pictures and a decent chair. On that — a decent chair makes a big difference. At first, I used a dining room chair and was in a lot of pain after a few weeks, so I got myself a better one. Bring your chair home from the office if you can. Take the time to set up your workspace ergonomically the best you can — your body will thank you.

I set boundaries — if members of my family are home during my work day, they know they can’t come into my work space. I asked them to text me or call me just like they would if I was at the office. This helps me to stay focused on the occasion that they are home. Obviously this may not be an option in Covid19 isolation, as many will have responsibility to care for children and others in addition to work. I expect that my 3 year old daughter will be home with me over the next month, and that may be tricky as she is at an age that requires a lot of attention. My plan is to be open with my team and let them know when I can be available and when I will be offline. I will lean on friends and family as well, and somehow I know we’ll find a new normal.

The Adjustment

It took me about 2 months to really feel like I had a new routine. Hopefully this era of social isolation will be over long before that, but it is normal for this transition to take a bit of time and not feel really productive at first. When I first worked from home, I worked the same hours I had in the office (8:30–4:30) but I found I had extra time in the morning and I didn’t want to work as late. Over time, my schedule slowly adjusted to starting work around 7:00 — earlier morning is when I do some of my best work and without the commute, I was fresh and ready to go earlier.

It also took time to realize that I am someone who is happiest with a high degree of flexibility in my schedule, and I have no problem intermingling work and personal life. For example, I may take a couple hours off in an afternoon to do a longer run or some chores (with approval of course!), then make up the time in the evening or on a weekend. That flexibility is really important to me. Other remote workers need to keep a much clearer distinction between work time and personal time to feel healthy and balanced in remote work. Those preferences are personal, and important to know which type you are to make work from home really work for you. Be sure you are clear around expectations with your manager as well.

I also found that my energy levels and moods changed quite a bit. Being around others at the office resulted in feeling ‘on’, and I struggled with lower energy levels at first when I started working from home. In hindsight, I realize that was part of the adjustment and it stabilized over time. It was tempting to have a nap sometimes, and at times I did! Now I see it as a benefit of working from home — when I am exhausted or sick I can take care of myself. And, my energy levels stabilized as I adjusted to the new schedule. I put in more productive hours now then I did at the office, as I’m not limited by my commute and I find it easier to focus on the work in a quiet environment.

Focus is one of the biggest benefits, in my mind, to working from home. I can work uninterrupted for several hours and produce at much in that time as I did in a day in the office. For me, the lack of interruptions and background noise gives me a deeper focus on the task at hand, and I appreciate that hugely. If I need to shift energy as I’m working, I can play music or go for a walk, and come back to it. But it is different from managing my focus and productivity at the office, where I was distracted by the many conversations and interruptions — I find at home I need more reminders to take breaks.

Working Upstairs for a change in pace

The technology

The tech was a challenging piece. The laptop VPN didn’t work at first. The team was using a number of collaboration tools I wasn’t familiar with. The learning curve felt steep at times, and there were periods where I couldn’t be productive and felt frustrated. It was strange to work as a fully virtual team, and I had to learn new team norms, which are different in a virtual environment. If your team is new to working virtually, there may be confusion about tools, where to share information, how to connect as a team and how to manage work deliverables. Collaboration tools like Slack and workflow tools like Trello are incredible for helping to ease the communication woes, but norms still need to be established for the use of these tools. Are some people using them and some not? What can be shared there, and what communication needs another channel? Are efforts or messaging being duplicated? What are the protocols for protected information? Having a virtual demo and a little extra support in the early days may help people feel comfortable and come up to speed faster. There are many helpful videos and articles online to support people in their learning as well.

The Wrap

These next few weeks may try us, challenge us, frustrate us and scare us. We may feel alone, but we are not alone. Across Canada, we are all in this together and we have many avenues available to us to connect with one another. We may need to be patient with each other, with uncertainty and a lack of timely, clear information. We all have a part to play in making this time as bearable, even pleasant, as possible.

For myself, I have some clear goals about who I want to be through this crisis, at work and at home. My first priority is the well-being of my loved ones. Right up there with in importance is my mental and physical health, as I need both over the coming weeks more then ever. On the work front, I want to support public servants working in service to Canadians, as our front line staff and Canadians need our support right now. My goal is to have extra patience with colleagues who are overloaded with information, extra work, and shifting priorities. I will endeavor to be proactive and positive, and think of ways I can support my work colleagues. To lend a hand wherever it is needed, and support those who have technological, accessibility, mental health or other challenges. I want to be thoughtful about my communication, and ensure I am communicating as well as I can, as a virtual work environment can challenge communication.

I have included some resources below on remote work, and I know many more will be shared in the coming weeks, as employers all over the world move their workforces online.

I wish you, your families and your teams all the very best over the coming week. Look after each other. This will pass, there is an end and we will get there together.

Resources:

Remote work Part 1: https://busrides-trajetsenbus.ca/en/ep-14-en/

Remote work Part 2: https://busrides-trajetsenbus.ca/en/ep-15-en/

Virtual Tools: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lN9qF4dME6X0FXwIoR-9PIgW5avda2gk/view

Is this blocked in my department (website to see what technology is blocked/unblocked in your department): https://isthisblockedinmydepartment.ca/

Information for Government of Canada Employees: https://www.canada.ca/en/government/publicservice/covid-19.html?utm_campaign=covid-1920&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_media&utm_content=canada-ca-en