As businesses are now more prepared than ever to facilitate remote and hybrid working arrangements, the number of people working from home in the UK – and indeed in most geographical regions – has increased significantly in recent years.
As a consequence of this radical shift in working environments, the nature of a ‘typical’ office job has also changed dramatically. No longer are in-person meetings, water fountain chats, and busy canteens part of the daily throng of workplace life; in many instances, the home has now become the hub of employee activity, and this has pre-empted an entirely new set of work-related challenges. So, how can you meet these adjusted demands, and ensure you master the art of working from home? We provide the key answers.
Develop your presenting skills
With departmental teams spending less time together, virtual communication platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, have quickly become essential tools for facilitating corporate interactions, meetings, and events. Therefore, employees are now often expected to be able to present in a clear and coherent fashion, and have the confidence to engage potentially large audiences from a remote location.
If you’re eager to develop your presenting skills, it might be worth visiting the live casino at Paddy Power, and tuning into a stream of any live table game. These streams are hosted by highly-talented croupiers, who must effectively communicate various strands of information to a substantial number of online players. Watching how they interact with viewers, studying their body language, and taking inspiration from their energy and enthusiasm, will undoubtedly stand you in better stead for your next public speech.
Make the distinction: are you at home or in the office?
When working remotely, it can be often difficult to distinguish where the office ends, and the home begins. Dependent on your setup, you might be working in a room that you also use for recreational activities; sometimes, this softens the line between your personal and professional life, resulting in the latter encroaching on the former. If possible, try to base yourself in a room that you visit infrequently outside of working hours, or at least create a hypothetical (or physical!) boundary around a defined workspace.
Take breaks
Fewer distractions aren’t always a positive thing. In the office, you’re likely to be regularly approached by fellow workers, be called into impromptu meetings, and have a whole host of other interruptions disturb your train of thought. Whilst working from home often facilitates a more serene atmosphere, this may cause you to work intensively for prolonged periods. As reported by The Wellbeing Thesis, it’s crucial that you schedule a reasonable number of breaks into your working day, and try to get some fresh air during these rest times.
A continuing trend…
According to a study conducted between September 2022 and January 2023 by the Office of National Statistics, 44% of the individuals surveyed had either worked exclusively from home, or embraced some form of hybrid working schedule over the previous seven-day period. Therefore, it appears the remote working revolution is showing no signs of reversing – perhaps it’s best to start re-arranging that spare room…
