I’ve been fully remote for 15 years. I have an office at home, at a fair distance from the rest of the house, with a door that closes. I’ve done technical work and management work in that time, and the people on my team are also spread out all over the world. Whether I was “in an office” or not, I would be remote from the people I work with.
Anyway, a bit of anecdotal evidence I can provide: For the first two or three years doing full remote, it was quite an effort setting boundaries with my family, even with the aforementioned office, door, and “please knock” sign. It’s a lot better now; they understand that I am at work, and that they should not assume that I am available to do whatever whenever.
Did it make me “less productive” during those early years, having to struggle with setting those boundaries, compared with what I might have been working in an office? Maybe. I can definitely see where lots of people would find productivity difficulties in that situation. With the pandemic, we’re talking about a whole lot of people being thrust into remote work unprepared for how to make it work best, and having their spouses, children, roommates all right at home with them, with nobody understanding those aforementioned boundaries. And with the stress of Covid on top. Of course there’s going to be productivity challenges. The WFH thing is just part of it, in a larger landscape of circumstances.
With me, I already had my WFH environment well installed when Covid came around. I already had firm boundaries, which the other people in my house understood. Pretty much nothing changed for me, work wise, apart from having to get an entire company worth of people enabled to suddenly work from home (which we did, I am proud to say).
My advice for people who are new(er) to WFH, or who are not yet WFH but want to be: cordon off time and space for your work, make sure that the other people in your household (or who might otherwise intrude on your workspacetime) are aware of that cordon, and defend that cordon at all times. You will need to refuse to engage with people during work, unless it is a legitimate emergency - exactly as would be the case if you were in an office - even if you happen to have the time to interact in your workday for a given intrusion.
I’ve been fully remote for 15 years. I have an office at home, at a fair distance from the rest of the house, with a door that closes. I’ve done technical work and management work in that time, and the people on my team are also spread out all over the world. Whether I was “in an office” or not, I would be remote from the people I work with.
Anyway, a bit of anecdotal evidence I can provide: For the first two or three years doing full remote, it was quite an effort setting boundaries with my family, even with the aforementioned office, door, and “please knock” sign. It’s a lot better now; they understand that I am at work, and that they should not assume that I am available to do whatever whenever.
Did it make me “less productive” during those early years, having to struggle with setting those boundaries, compared with what I might have been working in an office? Maybe. I can definitely see where lots of people would find productivity difficulties in that situation. With the pandemic, we’re talking about a whole lot of people being thrust into remote work unprepared for how to make it work best, and having their spouses, children, roommates all right at home with them, with nobody understanding those aforementioned boundaries. And with the stress of Covid on top. Of course there’s going to be productivity challenges. The WFH thing is just part of it, in a larger landscape of circumstances.
With me, I already had my WFH environment well installed when Covid came around. I already had firm boundaries, which the other people in my house understood. Pretty much nothing changed for me, work wise, apart from having to get an entire company worth of people enabled to suddenly work from home (which we did, I am proud to say).
My advice for people who are new(er) to WFH, or who are not yet WFH but want to be: cordon off time and space for your work, make sure that the other people in your household (or who might otherwise intrude on your workspacetime) are aware of that cordon, and defend that cordon at all times. You will need to refuse to engage with people during work, unless it is a legitimate emergency - exactly as would be the case if you were in an office - even if you happen to have the time to interact in your workday for a given intrusion.