7 tips and best practices for work from home well

The last few months have put or put Work from home back at the heart of business operations. Here are our tips for comfortably work from home!

2020 and 2021 have made work from home part of our daily lives, regardless of the size of our companies. Between nervous breakdowns and moments of relaxation, Orange Pro gives advice on how to telework effectively.

Strikes, repeated confinements …

how to work at home when you are not used to it? It can sometimes be difficult to keep in touch with colleagues and to impose discipline on yourself, when the sofa or the fridge are close at hand. This is why it is important to establish certain rules, to be observed from the start.

1. Keep in touch

Work from home is conducive to long and demanding tasks that require concentration. Indeed, no risk of being disturbed by a colleague, as it can be the case in the office, especially if you work in open space.

Be careful, however, not to lose the link with your colleagues! A simple “Hello” on your corporate email when your day begins and a “See you tomorrow” when it ends are already ways to keep in touch. It is also a way of clearly indicating that you are available (or not) for them and thus dissociate professional and private life.

2. Prepare for a day at work

Take some time to dress and style your hair before you start your day. This even symbolically allows you to mark out your working time at home. 

And then, when working from home, you’re always just one click away from an unexpected videoconference!

3. Take breaks

When working from home, your biggest exercise of the day is likely to be getting up from your chair and going to make yourself a coffee in the next room. In the long run, this forced inactivity can become harmful to your body.

Agree to take breaks without feeling guilty, whether it’s to play sports, stretch your legs or simply clear your mind for a few moments. You will only be more productive afterwards.

4. Be transparent about your downtime

From a distance, the relationship between managers and employees is mainly based on trust. It is therefore crucial to be clear about your downtime. This is especially important if you have children at home and need time to take care of them. 

In this situation, communication is key. Employer can use employee monitoring software to monitor remote workers for a better result on both end.

5. Delimit your workspace

It can be tempting to get up at 9:25 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. shift in your pajamas and still in bed. This is pleasant in the short term, or from time to time, but it is better to set up a real workspace in order to mark the differentiation between professional activities and personal activities.

While it may be easier to do in a large country house than in a Parisian apartment, at least try to symbolically separate the spaces, tidying up your computer and files at the end of your workday.

6. Choose your telecommuting tools

The market is full of applications in order to work and communicate effectively with colleagues. To maintain your activity from your home, many services are offered if you are customers of Orange solutions for professionals.

Other professional messaging systems such as Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams are also useful and intuitive to use. Make good use of it!

7. Secure your work tools

After 2 hours of work, you get up to make yourself a cup of coffee and there is the drama: your children who were nearby took advantage of the fact that your computer was not locked to come and play with it, missing by the same opportunity to send the important email you were busy writing on your behalf!

Even less trivial, the security of your business is essential when working from home. You have all the cards in hand to organize yourself as well as possible in your work from home!