The last article I wrote regarding myth-busting remote working proved to be quite popular so I have decided to do a second article. If you haven’t read the first one, you can find it here.

 

As I uncovered within the first myth-busting article, there are a number of misconceptions with regards to remote working. These misconceptions range from social isolation to having no real relationship with your colleagues. As I continue to learn and grow within remote working I have noticed there are some less conceptual/ideological misconceptions, and some very real misunderstandings about working from home.

 

For anyone who works from home, I would bet my bottom dollar you have heard the following at least once, and if you know someone who works from home, you could be guilty of saying these things to them!

I bet you stay in your PJ’s all day.

This comes from the belief that if you don’t have to step out the house, you’ll stay in your most comfortable clothing, which normally happens to be pajamas. Although there may be some truth in this idea, in that we don’t all walk around our own home in suits and ties, I can say with sound knowledge we don’t all walk around in our PJ’s either. Personally I wear a full-face of make-up, earrings and clothes that would be suitable to go out into public in! Although working from home does allow us a significant amount of comfort, most of us realize that to be productive, staying in PJ’s isn’t the answer.

I’d get nothing done if I worked from home…

When I hear this I always think back to when I was a child and I would be told to tidy my room, and about 20 minutes in I would find something I haven’t used/played with for 6 months and end up completely distracted from said room-tidying (much to my parent’s annoyance). However, the key part of this point is where I say “when I was a child”.Although our homes are full of distractions: TV, chores, food, Partners, Kids etc. I personally have found it’s more the other way, that I struggle to put work down. If you work in an office when you leave the building, largely you have left work. You may answer the odd work email here and there, but you’ve left work. When you work remotely you never physically leave work. This means there is a requirement to mentally leave work. I have mentioned this before, but I do this by keeping work restricted to my laptop, rather than mobile. I also have a helpful partner who will sit there and frown at me if I work too late. This misconception that remote working = difficulty to continue working is completely false.

But your Boss doesn’t really know if you’re working!

I’m going to name and shame my Grandfather for this, often he’ll try tempt me for a day out (usually to the coast) on a work day. His justification is due to not being in a real office my boss surly wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t around. Oh how he is wrong. Yes, I do not have to physically sign-in, and I certainly don’t have any monitoring equipment on my work laptop so theoretically my manager doesn’t know (for certain) that I’m working, but boy wouldn’t it be obvious. My role as a Producer is demanding, it’s fast-paced and the work hours I do are required to produce the best events possible. If I ducked out for a day when I should be working it would be so easy to spot! The whole concept of remote working is based upon trust, if I let my manager have even the slightest worry that I’m not working, the whole system falls apart.

I guess you’re not allowed sick days then, as you can work from your bed…

Although we have the luxury of not passing colds and flu on to our colleague’s (can’t catch it over skype!) remote workers have yet to developed the ability to avoid illness completely. Of course we can still take a sick day! This relates back to trust. Our team members trust us to make the right call, if we think we are too sick to work, then we take the day off. Although it should be mentioned that we do have the ability to make ourselves more comfortable than if we worked in an office, which may help us reduce the need to take the day off. For example, sitting at the desk with a hot water bottle, Lemsip and a huge blanket. But on the whole it’s no different.

 

I hope the above has helped to dispel a few more of the misunderstandings that surround remote working. As you can probably tell I am a huge advocate for this style of working and if you have any questions regarding this please just send me a message or email me at: catherine.king@coriniumgroup.com

 

If you think working from home could be for you, and you’re interested in learning about the opportunities here at Corinium please forward your details, CV and Cover Letter to: enquries@coriniumintelligence.com

 

Many Thanks,

Catherine :)