Working From Home: Health & Wellbeing

[AndyCr15]

Do you work from home? What do you do to ensure your (mental and physical) health? What steps does your company take to look after you?

Going out for a walk at lunchtime?
Walking meetings?
Work step/activity competitions?
Planned in virtual 'social' time?

Really I'm just looking for ideas I can use with my new WFH team...

Thanks.

 

[bloodiedathame]

Masticate furiously.

 

[The_Arbiter]

Forgive me, but wasn't the argument for home working based on well being that led to more productivity?

The obvious easy answer if this is not correct, people go back to the office.

 

[AndyCr15]

Forgive me, but wasn't the argument for home working based on well being that led to more productivity?

Not that I'm aware of. Well, certainly not in my situation anyway, my team is based in different countries. Going into the office isn't an option.

Tbh, I'm not sure what any of your post has to do with health and wellbeing? Maybe I missed something...

 

[malachi]

During lunch time I go to the gym. I can always eat lunch at my desk.

When the sun is out I go for a 3 mile run, helps with the endless meeting over Teams.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I don't WFH any longer but when I did (lockdown 1 before moving to my new job) I'd work in a much looser way e.g. I'd get up and check emails for 20 minutes or so, have breakfast and pop in the shower before the first virtual meeting. I'd then work for 2-3hrs before going for a walk / run if the weather was good, make some lunch, do another stint of work before watching TV. I may combine the TV with a brief stint on the laptop later in the evening if I wanted to get some little tasks done (and didn't want to be bombarded with Teams messages).

On the odd occasion I'd even join a call whilst out for a walk as it was a larger meeting which didn't require participation and I found the call would fly by.

I personally found that by spreading my day out and taking more breaks between stints of work I was much happier and more productive. My fitness was also at an all-time high, whereas now I have to cram everything in outside of office hours and can be a nightmare with the gyms full etc.

Did I need to sit and watch TV for an hour whilst finishing little tasks at 6pm? No, but then that was my choice and I would regularly fit that in to my "core" hours if I wanted to do something in the evenings.

I've always been of the opinion that if someone gets their work done to an acceptable standard and delivers on-time then I'm not going to kick off if they take the dog out / nip to the post office. Likewise, if they're typically contactable within normal office hours and reliable at attending meetings they're assigned, I won't demand they're constantly showing as "online". Treat people like adults and trust them to get the work done

 

[AndyCr15]

Some really interesting points in there, thanks.

Treat people like adults and trust them to get the work done

Thankfully I work for a company that I think leans this way, hence the thread I suppose. I want to ensure my team has a healthy work/life balance and generally takes an interest in their own health. Most of them are software developers, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of their out of work interests revolve around a computer too, so how can I encourage them to take on healthy activities as well?

On the odd occasion I'd even join a call whilst out for a walk as it was a larger meeting which didn't require participation and I found the call would fly by.

I was in an 'experimental' walking meeting a few weeks back, which generally worked quite well, although traffic noise caused problems occasionally. For my team, I think there is generally too much unavoidable reliance on computers/spreadsheets/Jira etc to hold a meeting outdoors unless the meeting was specifically called for this purpose. (Which isn't outside the bounds of acceptability)

Did I need to sit and watch TV for an hour whilst finishing little tasks at 6pm? No, but then that was my choice and I would regularly fit that in to my "core" hours if I wanted to do something in the evenings.

It's funny, for the last 9 years or so (when working 'on site') I would encourage my team to finish on time and to make sure they properly 'switched off' when they went home. It's interesting what you say, and makes complete sense, although I don't know I would encourage it as I would worry they didn't then relax enough. As you say though, treat people like adults and let them do what works best for them.

 

[LiE]

Workout at my home gym for an hour during my lunch break. Dog walks either side of work.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Procrastinate and tell myself that the work will still get done at some point.

 

[Freefaller]

Do you work from home? What do you do to ensure your (mental and physical) health? What steps does your company take to look after you?

Going out for a walk at lunchtime?
Walking meetings?
Work step/activity competitions?
Planned in virtual 'social' time?

Really I'm just looking for ideas I can use with my new WFH team...

Thanks.

A bit of all of that really. Although I try and go into the office a couple of times a week as I personally get a lot more done face to face with people when needing to solve problems or spitball ideas in a communal environment. Most of my team seem to prefer it so we tend to rotate a day a week we want to meet up either in London or in the office in Milton Keynes. however, since you're international it's not really feasible - that said you should try and plan a face to face a few times a year (in my opinion!).

As for when I'm working at home, I tend to start at a reasonable time c. 7-730am, gives me time to catch up on admin, emails etc...
Then I can take the kids to school at 830ish which is a nice break.
I'll make a coffee and crack on for a couple of hours.
Then I go for a walk to do errands (i.e. post office, or dry cleaning etc...) and sometimes take calls whilst I walk.
Then once back home work for another hour or so and then have lunch - where I don't check my work emails at all, and either speak to my wife if she's in, or do a little bit of gardening (literally only 20-30mins worth).
Then back at work with a few breaks to stretch/walk around the garden whilst on a call or reading reports.
I'll hit the gym for around 60-70mins.
Then do another hour or so at my desk.
then from 6pm (although I realise I'm posting this now, but the kids are not home yet today) I tend to spend exclusively with the family, no emails / calls etc... (though I do by exception take some calls post 6pm if we can't find time in the calendar, but never later than 8pm).

We do plan "non work" calls, but they can be a bit more contrived and less fun than face to face meetings. However if you're a global company I think things like pub quizzes, and things like that can be really useful. Though often I find doing non face calls, i.e. traditional telephone calls can make people open up a bit more.
You can also plan some competitions with themes, whether it's a photography, puzzles, games, whatever, it can add another element of interactivity with your teams.
I set up a "coffee with" rota with the entire company, you put your name into the pool, and it randomly assigns you a colleague that you have a 30 min chat with. It's actually surprisingly popular. The only rule is that it's to get to know one another, you can talk work related stuff, but we encourage that it's not to do work per se.
Other things that are popular are group meditation sessions.

I think physical activity is the most important one for me. Even when I'm in the office, I'll get up walk around and chat to people rather than email them. Or just go for a walk if I'm trying to solve a problem etc...

 

[malachi]

I think physical activity is the most important one for me. Even when I'm in the office, I'll get up walk around and chat to people rather than email them. Or just go for a walk if I'm trying to solve a problem etc...

This should be important for everyone but many forget.

 

[Freefaller]

This should be important for everyone but many forget.

It's easy to do so for some when they're at home. Some people have always been active so tend to find it hard to sit still and not do something!

 

[DB_SamX]

I sometimes go swimming at lunchtime. My cat also asks for cuddles often so that makes for a nice break. Cuppa in the garden, when sunny, is a bonus.

 

[Semple]

We have virtual social calls a couple of times a week, not everyone attends, but it's nice to have a chat about non-work related stuff.

I think the key thing is being able to switch off from work. Which can be difficult when working at the same place that you live. It's handy having a room as a dedicated office, if you don't and you work in different rooms around the house you'll eventually struggle to differentiate between home and work.

 

[throwaway4372]

I've been doing wfh for about 5 years, my comments:
- I use my home desk also for work because there's no space in my house for a dedicated work desk. This does blur the lines between home and work. It's also quite annoying shifting gear around every day. There defo needs to be a 'home office gear allowance' for those with the space. Maybe they get a standing desk or better chair, for example.
- At first I used it as an opportunity to be healthier, ate clean food, got more active, went out walking a few miles every day, lost a couple of stone, felt great. After a while I got lonely and depressed, stopped walking, started eating my feelings, and gained 5 stone. Now I'm back to trying to eat healthier and walking daily - but tbh it's not rly working the same way it did the first time around.
- I've worked for 3 companies in this time, they've all been broadly the same in how they handle meetings and coordinating work. Zoom, Teams, Jira, etc. People generally don't arrange meetings/calls between themselves the same way they'd just randomly chat in an office, so you don't get to know each other. If you're a single person, you end up knowing nobody. It's a lesson that work people are not really your friends or family, they disappear from your life when you leave the company.
- I defo think there should be a 'health and wellbeing allowance' for people to use however they want for their own health. My best health spend was some bluetooth headphones and a Spotify subscription, which makes walking less tedious, but it could be a gym membership, healthy food subscription, etc.
- I've never had a problem with people hassling me outside of work hours. It's important to switch everything off at the end of the day. Easier to do if you have a dedicated room for working.
- I did have a problem with being misunderstood because more communication is writing, and I come across differently in writing than in person. No idea what to do about it, just an observation. Tips welcome.
- Assuming the remote working thing sticks, I'll be moving up north for better housing value, currently paying well above the odds for a fairly naff new build down south. Moved to this are after graduating for work, which was necessary at the time, but maybe isn't anymore.
- Cars are getting really expensive, so maybe in the future I won't bother having one.

 

[peterwalkley]

Worked from home for ~20 years (software developer), so lockdown was pretty much "Welcome to my world".

- Getting out for a walk (or gym if that's your thing) is really important. You need to be NOT stuck at a desk for 9-10 hours. I work it round calls, so not a fixed time of day.
- A dedicated space is essential. We chose this house because there was an obvious "office" room downstairs for me.
- Good broadband. These days *usually* the problem is the office end, not the home connection unless you live somewhere really rural.
- "Kit" to suit. I have 32" monitors, Aeron chair, mechanical keyboard, jabra wireless speakerphone etc all paid for myself over the years. I "budget" that as not spent on fuel, train tickets etc. The company would buy some of it, but not as decent a spec as I have.
- I don't do "walking calls" and nobody I work with does them either. They don't work imo: you need access to a screen to check stuff and background noise kills calls.
- I have a weekly 1:1 with my line manager which we use as a catch-up and general chit-chat. Other colleagues its more ad-hoc based on needing to pick brains, steal code etc.
- Social events generally only work for those who don't have families or are extrovert / competitive enough to participate. I avoid them wherever possible - I'd rather do other stuff instead. YMMV.
- I treat the time flexibly to work round who I'm working with. For years the end-customer was in South America, so mornings I didn't start until later on and I knew most of the action would be in the evening. Currently working with German customer, so its 7:30 -8 start, but very rare to be contacted after 4pm
- "out of hours" does happen, but not at any frequency I'm going to whine about. It comes with the territory and if it does end up with an all-nighter then there'll be TOIL taken within a week or 2 to balance it out.

I still think the biggest win is not wasting silly time on a commute. And my coffee is way better than any I've ever had in an office.

 

[HangTime]

Personally I think it's important to acknowledge that people are different, so what works for some may not work for others. For example, 'virtual socials', activity comps etc will appeal to some but not all. Some people might be disabled or whatever so probably quite welcome being able to stay at home rather than being forced to leave their house to participate in something not strictly necessary for work.

I'd say one of the biggest things is eliminating use of messaging apps for non-critical things outside working hours. Emails are fine, if I send someone an email out of hours I don't expect it to be read until they are working again, but IMs are somehow more invasive. If a Director sends a message some people don't feel like they can just sit on it for 14hrs or whatever.

One thing I've found works quite well is having a 'buddy' system where staff are paired up some a randomer and just engage in chat once a week. Complete mix of work and non-work related, having a general moan about stuff, this is basically the replacement for the conversations you used to have with colleagues in the kitchen/pub. There's variations on this like randomly pairing up for 'coffee dates' but I prefer having a consistent partner rather than just having awkward conversations introducing ourselves and then never speaking again after that.

 

[Rroff]

One thing my employer did during the pandemic for people working from home, as part of a catering budget, was some decent employee discounts on healthy eating places like Hello Fresh. Don't think the scheme is still in place now though.

I'd say one of the biggest things is eliminating use of messaging apps for non-critical things outside working hours. Emails are fine, if I send someone an email out of hours I don't expect it to be read until they are working again, but IMs are somehow more invasive. If a Director sends a message some people don't feel like they can just sit on it for 14hrs or whatever.

We use WhatsApp extensively at work and fortunately so far people, even director level, etc., have been really good about not abusing it. One of the problems they found though when trying to move people off it to a semi-in-house Yammer based system was that some managers were abusing the important/emergency message feature which over-rode user notification settings to try and bother people into replying over what was really mundane stuff - one of several reasons people refused, understandably, to have it on their personal phones.

Personally I find WhatsApp to be a powerful tool which has significantly increased the efficiency of my team - but it does need strict policies in place to not require a reply out of hours unless someone is in an on-call capacity.

 

[AndyCr15]

Wow, some great stuff, thanks.

I set up a "coffee with" rota with the entire company, you put your name into the pool, and it randomly assigns you a colleague that you have a 30 min chat with.

We have the same. Do you have software that does the random element for you? They tried to use a Slack plugin, but it was limited, so they just use a Google Sheet and rotate the names at the moment.

We have virtual social calls a couple of times a week

It's interesting you have them so often. I wonder if I should create a couple of 'drop in' hours. People can come and chat about anything. Work, or social.

Maybe they get a standing desk

I've been on the verge of ordering one myself this last week. Does anyone use them? I do spend most of my day at my computer desk now, so it makes sense I should stand now and then. I think the biggest thing putting me off is the mess I've created around my current desk would need tidying up and organising!

Now I'm back to trying to eat healthier and walking daily

And this is one of the big questions, what would help motivate this? How can I encourage this in my team...

I'll be moving up north for better housing value

Another thing I've been thinking about. I've lived in London for the last 27 years as that's where I've worked( and earnt a small amount extra as 'London weighting') but now I could work from anywhere in the world... why would I pay London rates etc?! I do have friends down here, so I either just try and move a little north (which is still pretty expensive tbh) or I cut strings and move closer to family in Shropshire or Cambridge and almost 'start a new life'.

 

[Semple]

Wow, some great stuff, thanks

It's interesting you have them so often. I wonder if I should create a couple of 'drop in' hours. People can come and chat about anything. Work, or social.


And this is one of the big questions, what would help motivate this? How can I encourage this in my team...

Another thing I've been thinking about. I've lived in London for the last 27 years as that's where I've worked( and earnt a small amount extra as 'London weighting') but now I could work from anywhere in the world... why would I pay London rates etc?! I do have friends down here, so I either just try and move a little north (which is still pretty expensive tbh) or I cut strings and move closer to family in Shropshire or Cambridge and almost 'start a new life'.

Ours are 30 minute slots but do regularly go over. They're not attended by the whole team, normally just a few regulars and others pop on occasionally. Sometimes they don't happen if another meeting gets arranged at the same time.

As for motivating your team, I can't recall if I read on this thread or somewhere else, but if most people have Fitbits you could set up a weekly work challenge for most steps. If you get a small expense budget you could reward the winner with a £5 Starbucks voucher to go get a coffee or something. Everyone gets involved when there's something to be won . Ultimately though you can only do so much to motivate your team to do more exercise.