While some offices are resuming normal office life, a lot are not at that phase yet. And a lot who have attempted to resume, had to change their plans due to increasing COVID-19 cases and the general anxiety and fear around us. For those who do go to offices, it probably still doesn’t feel like normal with all the social distancing rules. Hence, many continue to work from home.
It’s been about three months since the work from home experience began and things are a lot more different now. By now, our home life and work life have truly merged and this is almost becoming a comfortable routine for many. Zoom was once an amazing creation and now it’s just a regular meeting tool. Wearing pajamas all day was cool at first, and now you’ve probably worn them out. And just like any routine, it gets boring.
On that note, 925Egypt has rounded up a couple of suggestions on how to help you keep your team integrated while working remotely.
1) Virtual Coffee Breaks
Coffee hangout on Zoom
Let’s be honest here, work is many things, but work is also a place where we meet people and get to socialize. No one sits at their desk from 9 to 5 pm working away tirelessly; people get up and chat by the water cooler, they make plans to order food from a nearby restaurant when staying late, and they definitely bond in the office kitchen when making their morning coffee.
Hence, a 15 to 20 minute non-work related zoom hangout should make sense. We are not saying that the entire team should spend hours on end chatting. But a regular catch-up session every day on how everyone is doing, how they are coping with quarantine and whatever is convenient and relevant at the time, is a sure way to maintain the bond between team members.
2) Trivia Quizzes Related To The Field
These quizzes aren’t graded so there isn’t anything to worry about
Whether you are working in a career line that you studied for in university or not, there is nothing wrong with keeping your knowledge fresh. Every day, perhaps during the virtual coffee break or on the social media work group chats, someone can be in charge of asking a relevant academic/ non-academic question that relates to the company’s line of work.
If you work in marketing, one question could be ‘what was the best television ad this Ramadan? And why?’ With such a method, you’re killing two birds with one stone; the team is interacting, and they are interacting over something that is relevant to the company’s work. This forces them to research, and stay aware of any new trends and discoveries related to their respective career path.
3) Checklists & Checkpoints
Do you feel relaxed when you tick off things from your checklist?
A lot of work-oriented websites encourage daily virtual meetings even if there is no particular update. If time permits and it doesn’t get in the way of actual work, then go ahead. However, it is best to have a daily checklist of the things that need to be done per day. Alongside the checklist, you can have checkpoints where at a certain hour, you check in on employees and see if things are progressing. If they aren’t, that’s when it makes sense to call for a virtual meeting.
This is heavily reliant on the time management and organization skills of team members. 925Egypt previously wrote an article on tools to help stay organized and increase productivity. Truly, there is no better time to work on your organization skills than right now because being self-disciplined without supervision is necessary in working from home.
4) The Social Media Check In & Check Out
Sleep time? Mute time.
Work is 24/7 now and has been for quite some time. While many of us have accepted and adapted to the culture of ‘immediate responses’ whenever work arises, it’s important to have ‘non-work’ time. By non-work time, we mean a couple of hours where the work group chats are not constantly buzzing.
For proper sleep, it is best to be away from devices a couple of hours before going to bed. Perhaps make it a point that starting from dinner time, your phone is on silent mode. Mental health is important too so, give yourself a break from worrying about work. If you have to put that on your schedule too, then do it and don’t forget about it.
