The way we work has changed forever.
With an increase in the number of people working from home due to the spread of Covid-19 across the world, some advice from the experts may come in handy.
Director of Support at Shopify, John Riordan, a company whose entire Irish workforce of over 300 people works remotely, was appeared on this week’s episode of JOE’s business show, backed by AIB, All In. He explained how, in his experience, working from home involved various stages, with week 3, where many people are at with the imposed working from home reality that we’re in, a big milestone.
“What typically tends to happen in Week 1, people are trying to get used to new surroundings. It’s classic new employee, ‘where’s the bathroom?’, ‘where’s the photocopier?’, and all that, in an office environment,” Riordan told host, Yvonne Redmond.
He continued: “You’re now in a home environment and you’re trying to work out what/where are the basics. Week 2 is, ‘how am I showing up at work?’, and, ‘how am I communicating with my lead?’, and, ‘how is my lead communicating with me?’, ‘how are we interacting?’ It’s kind of Week 3, which for a lot of people would be coming up now, the challenge is ‘okay, I’m now isolated. What am I doing?’”
Riordan also talked about how many people may struggle because they have to work from home, and they may find it difficult for a number of reasons, one of them being self-doubt.
He said that having so much time to yourself may cause certain people to question the work they are doing, and question the industry they’re working in as a whole.
But for others, it could well be the making of them.
He said: “All of us who work in the remote world will tell you that one of the challenges is self-doubt, and it’s almost like an imposter-syndrome, or self-doubt. ‘Am I doing the right thing?’
“It’s not for everybody. Let’s be super clear about that. Remote work, or working from home, is not for everybody.
“But there are plenty of people, there’s a good chunk of the people who are now in this forced remote experience, who are going to actually revel in it, and are going to choose that this is the way they want to go forward.”
