It turns out that the online business is surviving in the current environment. Why? DNA deleted

“In 1665, Cambridge University closed due to a plague epidemic. Isaac Newton had to work from home. He discovered the differential and integral calculus, as well as the law of universal gravitation. “

Unfortunately, we live in an outstanding time. With the onset of 2020 and the COVID-19 epidemic, employees around the world are closing their homes for quarantine, trying their best to maintain a normal course of life, and therefore continue to work. But there is one difference from all previous infectious pandemics that humanity has survived – this time we have the Internet.

For Internet business, there are two options for the development of the company:

hire in place people who will sit in office chairs during certain business hours;
Allow employees to work anywhere, with the ability to organize any office in which they would like to work.

A growing company has to use both ways at the same time, or it misses opportunities, and in such times as now, when most offices are already empty, companies created according to the first strategy have serious problems. Those that can not be solved in one month from scratch and 100%.

And the most unpleasant thing is that now it is impossible to predict when and how it will end. So let’s discuss our point of view on the most pressing issue – work from home.

Test Kobayashi Maru

For five years now, at every interview, representatives of our company have been telling the applicants the same thing: “You can work anywhere. It’s not necessary to be in the office. ” True, the leased office space still grew in proportion to the regular number.

But at the same time, Qrator Labs continues to hire people in strategic places for us (or time zones), allowing them to work wherever they want: at home or in coworking. It doesn’t matter where the person actually is, as long as he has an Internet connection, along with all the tools that we provide for effective communication.

And here’s what really matters:

Corporate mail;
Corporate communication system (it must support voice and video / group calls);
Corporate repositories and ticket store;
Shared drive with collaboration applications;
Corporate portal / blog / magazine.

In the case of most software companies, such a set should be enough. The choice of specific tools and services may vary, and security measures to prevent unwanted access will definitely differ from company to company, so we will not give any recommendations – each company should independently evaluate what best suits its requirements.

However, working at home is much more complicated nuances, which we want to talk more about, because they affect everyday work and communication much more than, for example, the lack of a single means of communication within the company.

Company management should understand that employees need time to adapt. For a large enough company, switching the majority to remote work is a kind of test by Kobayashi Maru: you physically cannot do it perfectly in a month. Even if half of the company worked at home and the other half was in the office, such a change will significantly affect operating activities. Do your best: the company should clearly state the policies for employees working at home.

Here’s the idea for the management of enterprises that previously didn’t encourage work at home: write a message to the families of your employees explaining the situation and how important it is now not to distract your children, parents or spouses while they work. Accept that employee families are now also part of the company – at least because part of your company’s office is now located in their apartments.

“When we started working, we did not have offices. We just worked at home – only then they started calling it an office ”(one of my colleagues)

Individual work schedule. Those of us who have been working from home throughout our lives know damn well that we need to limit working hours and take breaks. Otherwise, you will burn out in a week. Create a work schedule that includes your morning, afternoon and evening classes. Do not forget to breathe fresh air and at least do some exercise.

Dressing or not is up to you to decide – of course, if you are not participating in business meetings, although in that case you already know the rules. Please note that some corporate messengers start a call right away from the video, so it makes sense to put on shorts with funny pictures in the morning.

“Do your job, not someone else’s job”

Rule of two minutes – Simple enough to learn it now and always use it. Some people do not know how to work outside the office, on their own, surrounded by family and children – and if they need help, you should try to help them. This does not mean that you should fail your own tasks, trying to help everyone solve their difficulties with messengers and whatever else – ideally, there must be a special person for this.

If you are this special person – our condolences, but it will not be easy only at first.

“Don’t try to hit, just hit!” (Morpheus – Neo)

Another important thing related to remote work is the ability to succinctly formulate your own speech, making sure that the interlocutor understands the essence of what you describe, completely and immediately. No need to ask in the messenger “are you here?” Before you write a meaningful sentence – immediately write the whole phrase, this will save both your and the interlocutor, time and effort.

Stop thinking about multitasking. Think about diversification and responsibility.

Learn to be asynchronous and expect it from your colleagues – you should always know what you will do if it takes time to answer your question. Responsibility tends to be spread out, but you should always remember well what you are responsible for, and keep it up to date.

Learn how to escalate difficult situations correctly if something goes wrong and you can’t do it on your own: when emails do not work, send messages via available channels, in case of no response – call. Sociophobia should not go to the detriment of the cause, it should exclusively help!

Now we are all cyber

Things to attend to:

The second provider of Internet access services in the place where you live. It can be a spare SIM-card with a good tariff plan, and in case you are paranoid, then a separate broadband cable. Make sure that your second Internet provider does not buy transit services from your first Internet provider (you can do this, for example, here) – they must have independent networks, otherwise you will not get any benefit from this;
Get yourself a GOOD headset. Make sure that you are comfortable in it throughout the day and you can talk for two to three hours. Before buying, check the microphone quality from reviews – you should understand such things yourself, do not waste money on anything and make deliberate investments (and these are they). It is useful to ask the advice of a gamer friend, they are in this pro;
A headset, in principle, can be provided by a company, but there is another thing that you will definitely have to build yourself – a workplace. You will have to sit (or lie) somewhere, and this place should be comfortable enough so that you can continue to do this for hours on end (we were all in a state of flow, right?).

This means that if you prefer to sit, get yourself a comfortable armchair and a desk (with contactless delivery!), Do not skimp. At the same time, you will support poor furniture retail. This is almost the same as being in the office, but at home you have much more freedom of choice – use it to create a dream job.

Finally, tell your family members and any other neighbors that you are going to work, which means that they should not distract your attention. The process of getting used to them can take some time – it is most effective to use it to develop an additional habit of creating written notes and notes about what you are doing and what are the current conditions – when you are distracted sooner or later, you can easily return to context.