How to transition to remote work in a hurry

Being social at office lubricates official conversations and the work itself. The more we spend time with colleagues having non-essential chatter, the easier our work becomes with them.

It helps to be creative and infuse fun into a virtual interaction. Any official conversation, like a manager meeting his subordinates in a one-on-one meeting, can start by asking about the person’s life (something unrelated to work), so that a connection is built.

Being transparent about what an employee and the managers are doing is crucial in a remote setup.

Daily check-ins remove any confusion on what everyone is working on and negates the need for unnecessary communication throughout the day. Managers need to make things clear at all times so that employees are not left in the dark, while not resorting to micromanaging.

Managers cannot expect high performance of remote workers in all the areas of evaluation in this sudden shift to remote working without training and preparation. 

It is a good idea to have regular checkpoints while working remotely so that managers can provide them with direction and guidance. Also, people working remotely have to be provided with some freedom and cannot be glued to their chairs all day. The results matter, not the number of hours.

Managers need to be flexible and patient with their work-from-home approach due to the added pressure of closed daycare and schools, scarce resources, and high emotions of employees. 

They need to let workers decide the right time to work or the right days and provide them with the benefit of the doubt if they are unable to handle a task. We all need to be resilient in these tough circumstances and come up with creative solutions.