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“Teleworking is not a solution for all employees,” explains Martine Bordonné, project director at Orange France's HR Department. The health crisis linked to Covid has democratized the use of teleworking in order to limit interactions between workers and the spread of the virus.
During the various periods of confinement, the exercise of teleworking was strongly recommended and encouraged by the health authorities on various occasions.
According to the Ministry of Labor (DARES), 7 out of 10 workers regularly telework at the beginning of 2021. And 8 out of 10 remote workers want to continue working remotely, but at the same time reducing their intensity.
Many companies now allow their employees to telework occasionally during the month. Indeed, generally, a quota of teleworking days is granted to employees per month or per week.
However, remote work is not for everyone. Certainly, it brings multiple advantages such as greater flexibility, time savings, and greater autonomy.
However, it can be a source of stress or anxiety, and can even reduce productivity. The good practice of teleworking therefore depends on various factors, related to both the individual and his work environment.
It is therefore legitimate to ask ourselves: is teleworking made for me?
We will see the necessary conditions that must be met in order for teleworking to be productive and experienced positively by the worker and that, therefore, he can exercise it.
1) Are you organized?
First of all, being well organized is essential in order to structure the exercise of teleworking. The schedule when teleworking is not the same as when working from company premises. In fact, when you work from home, the hours spent
to our professional activity are not always the same and may vary.
Teleworking actually allows greater flexibility in schedules, but it is necessary, however, to be able to establish a framework in order to clearly differentiate between the hours dedicated to professional life and those dedicated to personal life.
It often happens that some employees have difficulty distinguishing, which sometimes leads to overtime work, because the individual has difficulty disconnecting, or, if not, missing hours.
A schedule that distinguishes between hours of work and rest is therefore to be expected. For example, it is recommended to plan a quick morning walk around your neighborhood before going to work, as well as breaks during the day to get some fresh air in particular.
This allows the employee to be more efficient and productive in their work, and to better enjoy their working day.
Organization is a guarantee of motivation. Indeed, being organized allows you to remain regular, even if you are not surrounded by colleagues who, by working next to you, encourage us to do the same.
This sense of organization is also accompanied by a certain discipline and rigor. Indeed, as managers and managers are no longer side by side, everyone must now “prove” their work by their results and availability.
Read our article on management through trust in hybrid mode
2) Are you autonomous?
Second, it is necessary to be autonomous in one's work.
When you work from home, first and foremost, you work alone. Our colleagues are remote, and sometimes not always immediately reachable.
We must therefore be in a position to manage the various missions that have been given to us without immediate external assistance.
If teleworking is carried out on an occasional basis, it may be wise to discuss, the day before a teleworking day, with your manager on the various points on which you need to make progress the next day.
Teleworking is therefore well suited to people who like to work alone, “in their own corner”, because this is how they feel most productive.
In addition, you should not have to work often in a team, because teleworking limits the productivity of group work. It is better to go to the office on days when you have to collaborate on a project with colleagues.
Also, you have to feel comfortable with remote means of communication such as Teams, Slack... It is not always easy for everyone to be at ease with colleagues when it comes to holding a videoconference meeting or writing a message without appearing “cold” and/or “authoritarian”.
Finally, teleworking can be synonymous with loneliness and isolation, it is therefore necessary to have the personality that goes with it, in order not to be depressed or to have other social interactions during the day. Now, more and more companies are encouraging their employees to meet up to telework at the home of one of them or in coworking spaces near the workers' homes.
Read our article on the benefits of coworking
3) Are you more effective alone?
Thirdly, teleworking is positive for employees who seek above all to make their working time profitable. Indeed, for some employees, breaks to go get coffee for example and chat with a few colleagues are experienced as a painful waste of time.
Likewise, meetings that are too long and last longer than scheduled can hinder the productivity of some individuals. Teleworking, by avoiding these times of beats and breaks, allows you to feel fully in control of your time and therefore generates a feeling of greater productivity.
4) Do you have a suitable environment for teleworking?
First of all, it is imperative to be able to telework well to have an adapted environment.
Of course, it is possible to work from a coworking space or from a café, but the vast majority of remote workers work from home. You should therefore ideally benefit from a home large enough to have a dedicated room, or at least a place to work in a quiet place.
In addition, it is important to be able to isolate yourself from other inhabitants of the home so as not to be disturbed during your working time.
Regarding the equipment necessary to telework, your employer must provide you with the same equipment that you have when you work from the office, i.e. computer, printer, screen, internet connection and to the company server...
See also the article on the rights of the teleworker in terms of equipment
5) Have you recently joined your company?
Second, you have to master the subtleties and code of your business. Thus, teleworking is not always easy for the latest arrivals.
Generally, companies do not allow new hires to work from home. Indeed, it is difficult to get to know your collaborators through a screen.
In addition, the feeling of belonging to the company is less than when you work and meet your employees in the office.
However, if your company does not prohibit the practice of teleworking, but you have just been hired, it is more than recommended to promote face-to-face work as much as possible in order to be able to communicate as best as possible with the other members of your company.
6) Are you disciplined and thorough when working alone?
Third, it is essential to be disciplined in the way you work. Indeed, when we work from home, multiple temptations can distract us, whether it is the desire to put away personal papers, to get ahead with household chores or even to rest.
On the one hand, this lack of discipline will result in hours of poor quality work, but also a feeling of guilt associated with not having been able to work well.
When you are at home, you are more free in your work, because no one can directly verify your progress, but it is important to be responsible.
It is up to everyone to know each other, and to know under what circumstances one is more able to telework and in which others it is best to go to the office, in order to successfully accomplish his missions and to achieve his results.
In a few words
Working from home is good for you if you are organized, disciplined, and thorough.
In addition to these productivity criteria, relationship management is added. This last factor depends on each person, on their temperament. Indeed, some feel more than others the need to see their colleagues often and are very quickly tired of the possible feeling of loneliness that remote work can create.
To work remotely, you must therefore have the skills in relation to the way you work, but also the will. Under no circumstances can your employer force you to telework, unless this has been written into your employment contract, and except in exceptional circumstances (as we have seen with covid).
If you telework occasionally, some tools can help you be better organized and manage your week, especially to meet up with colleagues when needed. This is the case of M-Work, a software application for managing remote work that allows, among other things, to declare your teleworking days and to know those of your colleagues.
Thanks to M-Work, many colleagues appreciate being in the office on the same days and managing their week as best as possible from their different workplaces.
Are you interested in our app? Do not hesitate to contact us!
