The era of the new normal has made us dependent on technology. Whether it’s personal or professional life, a new culture has been built wherein, an individual can’t take his eyes from the screens. Likewise, working from home has also become a trendsetter on its own that requires some set of etiquettes and ethics to implement.
During the ongoing pandemic, your home is your office which requires the same rules and guidelines to be followed as it was at the workplace pre-covid. Home being a virtual or digital workplace has deported each working individual to the virtual boundaries, equipped with some benefits and challenges too. Such factors make a lot of difference wherein, virtual etiquette is a new ball game that requires some new rules. Here’s How:
Make Proper Timetable: Working from home sometimes makes you lazy which affects both work and personal life as well. So it is advisable to follow the same schedule that you followed in pre-covid situations. Start and wind up your working hours based on your official shift timings to maintain balance in your personal life and productivity in your professional life.
Be Well-Dressed: Put yourself in the right headspace by dressing and grooming well. This will give you a feeling of confidence and boost your productivity. As psychology says dressing well aids a person with a smarter personality and more self-confidence. Hence, being well dressed would also help you in maintaining your e-personality and virtual productivity.
Clean & Peaceful Environment: While working from home, fix one place or corner of your home which is well cleaned and out of the noise. A clean and peaceful environment will help you to concentrate more on your work with good ideas and speedy performance. Also, during virtual meetings where the camera is required to be turned on, a clean and peaceful environment impresses and attracts others towards your background, often leaving an impression of your house.
Communicate Well: Try to communicate short and crisp with effectiveness in your messages. Select a medium of your communication either mail, call or virtual meetings and send the appropriate message in shorter form delivering the right meaning. Communication with different people while working is time-consuming thus, try to prefer the mode of communication or arrange a group call if the same message needs to be delivered to multiple people.
Muted Microphones: The thumb rule of virtual meetings is to mute your microphone when you are not speaking. Muting a microphone helps fellow teammates to have healthy and noise-free discussion such as children noise, pressure cooker whistles, vendors noise in streets etc. Prevention of such noise while muting the microphone results in speedy and effective interaction.
Be Attentive: Sometimes in group discussion, there happens a few moments which are not of your interest or becomes boring. Still, you are required to be attentive while being present. Do not use your mobile phone for personal use while you are at an official meeting. Your attentiveness shows your seriousness towards the organization. Also, don’t leave the meeting room without informing your manager or teammates.
Off-Hours Time: Work from home doesn’t mean working 24*7. Thus, always maintain and respect the off-hour timings. Some people like to work during their official shift timings and some work according to their space and flexibility. Everyone has some personal space wherein, discussing official stuff sometimes bothers them. Thus, it is advisable to maintain order in a way that it must not become troublesome for others.
Your home is your office wherein, following the virtual etiquettes can drive an effective balance between your personal and professional life.
