Work From Home: Mindset – E is for Emotions
The sixth letter of our mnemonic M.I.N.D.S.E.T. specifically designed to help you work from home better is ‘E’, Emotions.
E – Emotions Best Practice
We have two responsibilities:
- To ask, ‘How are you feeling?’
And
- To articulate how we are feeling.
When we change to work at home, our colleagues can no longer see how we feel. Yes, they might be able to over Microsoft video Teams, or possible pick up something in a tone on a call. But it is harder. Feelings at work are hard to work with anyway. Emotional Intelligence is just becoming a thing. Add into the mix working from home, with its reduced communication bandwidth and it’s like moving back to when the internet was a 56kbps dial-up. At times, just frustrating.
The responsibility is half with us to explain how we feel, and half with others to ask.
My daughter, Gabby (19) went to University in Loughborough. This was about two years ago. I remember the conversation we had before she went. Remembering that Gabby has twelve different ways to say ‘Ok!’
‘Chick – When you’re at home we can see how you are, that you are annoyed by your friends, or something is eating away at you. When we speak to you at Uni, we can’t tell these things. We can only guess. Please don’t make us guess because we’ll worry. We will ask. You’ll also need to explain how you feel. Please find a way to share how you feel.’
Click on the image below for the extended version.
To her credit, she did. We didn’t have to guess. She realised that whether it was good or bad, we wanted to know because then we could help. Remote working is similar. Leaving people to guess or to worry is not fair to anyone and will not help. Particularly in these times of well-being and mental health. Sharing how we feel is imperative.
The other 6 M.I.N.D.S.E.T. Best Practices
Read the main article: How to Work from Home Effectively: Adopt these 7 Best Practices.
- M is for Manage: Learn how to manage yourself working from home.
- I is for Isolation: Find out how NOT to isolate yourself working from home.
- N is for Neat: Know why staying in your pyjamas all day will affect how you feel about work.
- D is for Deliverables: Find out why you are on the payroll and where to start investing in you.
- S is for Space: Getting your own space when you work remotely is very important. Find out how and why.
- T is for Technology: Technology is the foundation of your productivity. See how to ensure that it is up to the job.
