Many individuals would relish a 10-second commute and the opportunity to bring boxes in from the rain in an instant. However, despite after a year of making it work, many individuals are still hesitant to discuss remote work with their employer.
Don't wait for your employer to publish a policy on remote workers. If you want to work from home, now would be the time to ask for it. The larger the amount of employees who do so, the more businesses will recognize the critical demand for this incentive.
"But how do I do it?" you ask. Well the answer is simple. If you go into the meeting considering the company's interests as well as your own, and you have proof of your capacity to accomplish the job from anywhere, you ought to be able to figure out a solution that works for everyone involved.
Demonstrate how the company will profit.
Companies can benefit from remote work choices just as much as employees(You). Remind your boss of this by mentioning work-from-home perks like:
Because they are less distracted by workplace shenanigans, lunch breaks, meetings, and commutes, employees who work from home are more productive.
Employees who have the opportunity to work from home are half as likely to quit because they are happier with their work-life balance.
According to one Stanford study, companies can make up to $2,000 per employee extra by hiring remote workers.
Spending less time commuting saves money and the planet.
Reducing energy consumption in the office helps to conserve oil (something that literally affects all of us) and saves money for the company.
Use your critical thinking abilities.
Last year, some organizations were undoubtedly shaken by the sudden and unexpected transition to remote work. As such, some employers are likely to be adamantly opposed to permanent remote work as a result of that uncomfortable and hectic adjustment they were forced into. That being said, when you ask to work from home, be mindful of all these challenges. During the pandemic, what kinds of issues did your team face? Have there been any persistent issues with performance or communication? What solutions can you offer to fix them?
Here are a few examples of possible problems and solutions to help get you thinking.
Chaotic email chains: If your organization has been resistant to adopting newer forms of communication, try out a few and provide a list to your boss. Collaboration among distant teams is easy using chat programs like Slack and productivity tools like Asana or Trello.
Productivity concerns: Remind your boss that the previous year was plagued by plenty of unusual situations and may not be representational of how most individuals will perform if they work from home. Emphasize how much easier remote work will be when you aren't homeschooling, caring for immunocompromised family members, or dealing with a daily barrage of political and social upheaval.
Inadequate Internet: Due to the hurried nature of being forced into remote work not everyone had the proper internet speeds/ bandwidth to video conference as needed. Make a check list that includes proper software, screenshots of at home speed tests, etc.
Use Your Experience
For more than a year, you've been working from home. This equips you with plenty of evidence suggesting to your boss that you're fully equipped for remote work success.
Write a report of your performance before reaching out to show how well you've flourished working remotely and what it'll be like to work from home in the long run. Find proof to dispel any doubts they may have regarding your productivity, focus, effectiveness, and team connection.
This doesn't have to be comprehensive; in fact, if it is, it could be a bit bizarre. Simply come prepared with appropriate solutions to any problems that may arise.
What Do They Want?
No matter why you want to work from home, what will your manager or boss want to know? When you ask your boss for something, you must weigh your reasons for requesting against the company's priorities. For example, they may not place a high value on being a family-friendly company, therefore requesting flexibility due to child care requirements would be a poor selling point. However, if they do claim to be a "family friendly" company, hold them to it. Consider their possible fears as well. Will they be concerned that if you wish to travel or relocate, you'll be less devoted and eventually leave the company? What can you do to address and alleviate that anxiety?
What Do You Want?
Just figure out what you want - and why – before you just start firing emails asking if you can continue to work from home.
Are you wanting a few days a week or once every month do you want to work from home permanently? Do you want the liberty to move to Europe and never return or are you wanting to just stay home and cut costs by not commuting or shopping for fast food lunches? Understanding why you want to work from home helps you discover exactly what you want and what you are prepared to compromise on.
Understanding why you want to work from home helps you discover exactly what you want and what you are prepared to compromise on. Perhaps you want to spend more time with your family, travel the world, skip driving in bad weather, or maybe just to stay at home in sweats to look after your physical, mental or possibly menstrual health. These are all completely different types of work-at-home situations. You could be comfortable coming into the office for a few hours each morning, or you might prefer the freedom of working from a different time zone, or you might simply want to be allowed to stay at home without being punished for taking a sick day. (Especially if your company doesn't provide health insurance, but that's a whole separate issue)
Make A Transition Plan
Without an apparent pandemic and government involvement mandating everyone to leave the workplace “for a few weeks” with no warning, you have far more time to think through situations that may occur when you request to work from home and how to deal with them. Come up with a plan that will work for everyone once you understand your desires and your employer's anxieties. You may be asked to respond to the following questions:
What impact will working from home have on your team? Is your job well-suited to working from home?
How will your team maintain long-term communication? Is it going to demand new tools or training from your company?
Do you anticipate a shift in your working hours? What can the team or corporation do about it?
Please keep in mind that every scenario is different, and take the steps above to find out how to ask to work from home in a way that meets your specific objectives while also meeting the needs of your employer. The most important thing to keep in mind is to not be afraid to ask. Remote work and online business is the way of the future and Covid-19 was a great catalyst to force employers to start genuinely looking at the benefits and logistics of having more remote workers instead of traditional employees.