Working from home tips & tricks from Cube

I was one of the first employees allowed to start working from home thanks to concerns about the Corona virus. Having just returned from Portugal with a slight cold, I was labelled at risk and allowed to continue working from home.

Before I had really found my feet, the news arrived that the entire company would join me in seclusion from Wednesday 18 March, on the advice of the RIVM. At the time of writing this has been a good four weeks and we have actually experienced very few objections.

Hence, we thought it would be a good idea to share our approach and experiences with you through a blog. Hopefully, you will find a tip not mentioned before, or we will inspire you with new ideas to make working from home a pleasure.

Advantages of the Cube culture

We are lucky that the core of our work takes place behind a screen. Moving the picture tubes, computers and mice will not have a very big impact on this. Communicating digitally is also nothing new for us, so the team is all set for the busy e-commerce period.

Indeed, our designers & developers even report that things are better at home in some areas. Few jammers and mostly good & enclosed workspaces provide unparalleled focus.

How different it is for our project managers, who miss face-to-face contact much more. Thinking along with our partners and improvising in this lockdown economy is a challenge they like to get their teeth into! In record time, for instance, the new home inspiration site of Quality Wellness Resorts has already been realised and other initiatives have been launched.

More calling, directing, emailing and sharing everything on Discord makes us not bored these days!

Tips & Tells.

Working from home can be challenging if you are not used to supporting digital tools, which is why we like to offer our approach briefly:

1 All our colleagues received a workstation to take home, equipped with laptop, monitor & all necessary accessories.
2 Some colleagues chose to also bring their ergonomic office chair, if one was not available at home, it was provided.
3 All Cube colleagues also received a "home office survival kit", which included a beautiful office plant, Cube t-shirt, coffee/tea, goodies and a free mibo.
4 We will keep the same working hours as before, and will also try to make a working day exactly the same as far as possible.
5 Make sure you are present on Discord (group chat) & reachable by phone.
6 Make sure you have extra clarity & explanations when dealing with work tickets.
7 We also digitally have our weekly stand-ups and Friday afternoon drinks to which we have even added a quiz in recent weeks.

After all, a well-appointed workplace is essential if you want to be productive. That you are less productive with your laptop on the couch is quite logical. A quiet environment with a good desk, natural light and screens at eye level is ideal. Complete your temporary office with a plant or two, as these have been proven to help with concentration, memory & stress!

Good posture is just as important. Be good to your back and arrange your workspace so that you can sit properly. Keep a straight back and make sure your feet are flat on the floor. In this 2-minute video, a physiotherapist explains it to you. Best of all is an enclosed space; if this is not possible, especially avoid the bedroom. This will prevent you from associating this space with any work stress.

Your rhythm & rituals around the working day will help you work from home. Don't stay up 2 hours longer now that you don't have to travel, don't sit at your laptop in your pyjamas and break up your day into manageable chunks. If you manage this well, help the workaholics in the office, for example, by reminding them to take a short coffee break now and then!

Regularly stand up, stretch & stretch or walk around. For example, make your phone calls standing up or otherwise add movement to your schedule. I have the good fortune of a dog, so I go for a small walk every two hours for some fresh air.

Are you working with a ticket system such as Trello, Jira or Gitlab? Then it is especially important now to be as clear as possible with all explanations regarding how to pick up and resolve each ticket. Miscommunication is already a tricky package in normal circumstances, anything you can do to reduce this while working from home is nice.

Simulated togetherness.

Missing social contact, and breaking up your daily rhythm, make such a period working from home seem very difficult & long. Hence, we try hard to maintain as much continuity in this as possible, despite the obvious lack.

We were already used to using Discord on a daily basis, but 100% communication via these chat sessions certainly proves to be a new challenge. Special voice channels have therefore been set up so that a short chat can easily take place in between. Colleagues also sometimes meet on these channels during breaks for a virtual tea wreath and a dose of normality.

The Vrijmi-digi-boquiz!

Having the whole company in a video call is a bit different from being all cozy in a group, a quiz lends itself perfectly to serving as a thread while leaving enough room for collective commentary.

The kahoot quiz that was integrated into the digital Friday afternoon drink in no time is a great success. New fellow quizmasters every week using far-fetched questions to bring some life to the game, a delicious grand prize every week.

Need help?

Not everyone can pick up all workstations & processes and simply move them to employees' homes. We are ready to offer help in thinking along with solutions, digitising processes and setting up online support.

Say hi@cube.nl

Anyway, we wish everyone much strength, success and health in this strange time.

Hope to see you soon in Oldenzaal!