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Message: [QUOTE="Yardigan, post: 3674201, member: 8851"] Have been working at home for 15 years or so now and have had multiple promotions, so I think it's doable. It's important to have a regular meeting cadence with your boss to make sure they know what you're doing and ensuring you're doing what they need. As long as you have the mindset that the biggest part of your job is to make your boss look good, it seems to work from anywhere. Our company sent everyone home in March and has told most not to think about returning to the office until at least January, possibly beyond. My guess is 'beyond' for most. Haven't had problems working with people and beyond being able to work together, I already have friends and family. I look at my co-workers as colleagues and not people I'm going to hang out with after work. (Did that when I was younger, and I actually think it "can" make for more problems than it solves). As a manager, I think if you stay in touch with what people want to tell you is going on with their personal lives, show concern, be flexible and understanding, it works. Poster above referenced the challenge of working at home with no dedicated office space and two young kids in the house. That was my situation in CT, and it did present occasional challenges. Back then, there was little to no tolerance for background noise, issues that needed to be taken care of around the house, etc., and that did cause some occasional stress. Since moving to RI, our 'kids' are adults now and even though I don't have totally dedicated office space, it's very workable. Interestingly enough, the 'new' guidance for managers is to be extremely tolerant of background noise, flexibility, etc., which I find very easy to do, since I already lived it. The hardest thing for a lot of people, I think, is overcoming the temptation to overwork, because work is "always there." I stress work/life balance to my folks because the only thing you're likely to get out of working nights, weekends, or on days off, is resentment. I can't pay you more or promote you because you work 70 hours a week. I can let you be [I]very[/I] flexible with your time, just get your work done. As a manager, I need to be authentic with that messaging, too. As tempting as it is sometimes to'take care of a few work things in the evening/on the weekend or day off...I can't tell my people to take that time off if I don't. I keep reading new 'advice' for people working at home, usually starting with...get up at the same time, shower, get dressed like you were going in to the office. I do pretty much the opposite. No alarm clock, up anytime between 630-730...walk by the computer, turn it on, hit the coffee, back to the computer desk and am off to work. Have booked on my calendar an hour and 15 minutes for lunch [I]every day[/I], and usually use that for a 3 mile walk, a shower and a bite to eat. Sometimes I have to move it, but I never cancel it. I find it extremely valuable to disconnect completely for that timeslot in the middle of the day and encourage my employees to do likewise. Some struggle with that, I just tell them, no one ever dies and no critical project fails just because you went to lunch. I love it, it'll probably keep me in the workforce at least a couple years more than if I had to go into an office every day. Good luck everyone that's having to adapt! [/QUOTE]

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