Online Work Etiquettes : A Little Better Than Absolute Essential

Work from home (WFH) was always a wishful thought in my work-life till it became a new normal in 2020. I whole heartedly welcomed the idea but with it came a new imperative ‘virtual interface.’ I was really stiff at it and never thought I could run my vocation of trainings on it. It took me almost half a year to be comfortable but the good news is that I was getting better with every repeat training programme.

Assuming that there are many who are sailing in the same boat as mine, I thought of putting down my learnings in three categories namely, 1) The Easy essentials 2) The Difficult essentials and 3) The Complicated essentials. I will be sharing it one at a time so that we all feel safe and supported. At the same time get some doable remedies to make things easy and impactful.

Part 1 - The Easy Essentials

Start With The Starters

These are the easy essentials of work from home which I could manage without much ado . I called them ‘starters’ because these were the first to come in my to-do list. They were also important because they could set the mood for more.

Choose your Workspace

Initially this was challenging but I negotiated for the smallest room as my workspace. During work, I isolated myself and over a period of time I made small adjustments with my family members.

Set up your Workstation

This was the easy part because it involved few variations in the current set up:

• Background : I kept the background clutter free with a small plant and a wall painting on a table behind my chair.

• Light : I got the room well lit with light on my face. I l preferred facing the window for the natural light. It is always made me look brighter.

• Sound : I used headphones for all noise cancellation from outside . As active listener,I used functionalities like mute / un-mute / raise hands and chats .

• Camera : Just took a pile of books to lift my laptop to place the webcam at my eye level. I placed a smiley at the webcam and directly looked into the camera lens while talking.

Place an Invite

A polite and a formal invite to all the attendees is sent well ahead of time with objectives, agenda and programme timings to all the participants. This is followed by a polite reminder a day before the session.

Follow the Dress code

This is crucial because I one has to walk the talk. Notwithstanding that meeting is staged at home, I got dressed to address. I realised my face and my gaze matters even more when streaming online.

Part 2 - The Difficult Essentials

Be A Great Host

The following were the difficult essentials which I had to practice over and over again to be effective and impactful. I saw it as the ‘main course’ at the dinner table that is always well planned, exquisitely laid out and is highly engaging. Quite the same way, I prepared my training sessions. I stepped into the shoes of the host and saw the participants as my invited guests .

Arrive Early

It is obvious but it is necessary to mention here because arriving and closing in time is necessary to bring in the required seriousness. Arriving early also helped me to troubleshoot any technical problems which could arise during the meeting causing embarrassment or wastage of time. I also expected my participants to log in five minutes before the session begins in order to set up their videos and audios.

Introduce Self and Know others : A good beginning makes a good end. Self introduction was my first impression and therefore, I practiced it many many times. I enthusiastically told my viewers about myself and addressed questions like Who I was, What do i do and What will I bring to the table. This 40-60 seconds introduction helped me to warm up and also establish my credibility. It is quite natural that people react well when they know what to expect and what is in for them. I also invite each participants to briefly introduce themselves so that they know each other.

Design the Delivery

It needs careful scripting putting together what I have to say and how much . I have the main points jotted on a cheat sheet and kept them right in front. The way to go about was - start with a monologue, encourage dialogues and end with a Q & A session. To connect well remember the names of participants. It makes them more attentive and involved. Before I end the I always summarise and give the key takeaways with a pdf of the main points.

Give breaks

Breaks are to be incorporated after every 40 mins and indicated well ahead of time. These could be bio-breaks of 10 mins and tea breaks of 20 mins. To bring back people on time I assign someone from the team to do the needful.

Keep the guests engaged

A meeting is where people meet to participate. Therefore, all participants must be encouraged to keep their videos on and un-mute when they would like to provide suggestions, ideas, solutions and opinions. At the same time, discussions must be steered by the host so that they don't drift away to personal or controversial or unrelated topics. What still bothers me online is the multitasking habit of participants or working on other apps. Such things can be politely discouraged or be avoided.

Be a good host

This is extremely important because one bad impression or interaction can leave an undesirable taste that lingers beyond the last slide of your presentation. One may encounter some impatient or argumentative participants. To add to this, there might be some last minute technical glitches. All this and more must be handled with panache and not panic at all.

In the words of Maya Angelou,

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Part 3 - The Complicated Essentials

Embrace The Change

Till last year some people were seen doing different things and some were doing things differently. Both were right because the common goal was ‘the show must go on’. But this year in lockdown 2.0, the novelty of work from home has completely faded away. The boundaries between our personal and professional lives have got fuzzier. Many of us are falling into the trap of ‘Work From Home All Day Long’ because for many of us, job becomes our identity.

Worse still, the ever kind bosses too are giving in. In distress they are sending subtle warnings to the teams like - Work more or Quit. They are also seen giving unwelcoming remarks like, “You are working from home anyway, how does the time or day of the week matter” or “ It is urgent , so do it now, you cannot go out anyways.” The new expectation of being available 24 x 7 is a complete disregard and disrespect to personal space or personal time.

A more disquieting feature is no-one meeting anyone face to face. People are locked in their respective houses and are tired flipping screens. This feeling of despair had also grown on me. Of course, I had no shortcuts to resolve it but I started to gradually work on the complicated essential - a changed mindset. Though I am still scuffling but I could devise simple doable strategies:

Reflecting and Exercising

My first hour in the morning is my power hour which is 60 minutes of brisk walk with music or a podcast only. I take this time to reflect on things that require meaningful attention and to figure out my plan of action for the day. I do not listen to news or read newspaper because it filled me with anxiety and unhappiness. Next, I indulge in self care with ease and get dressed to get into working mode. I also built in a technique called ‘Exercise Snacking’ which are small stretch movements at the end of each of your time blocks.

Organising Work Empathetically

I really struggled with setting good routines, but it made all the difference when I could do so. Deciding on a standard start time, lunchtime, and finish time - and sticking to those really helped keep my work/play separate. I have slotted a working time from 11 am to 4 pm and I stay consistent with it with minor variations. I set easy deadlines for myself and never hounded myself for missing it. I slowed down and made no more panic calls or late night mails to my team . I started to respect their time and gave enough flexibility to them to work in their most productive hours. As a team we took a break from work on all Sundays and holidays to attend to our personal work and families.

Saying No : For me, it was difficult saying no to others and placing my needs above theirs. I convinced myself that it was okay to say ‘no’ if it interferes with my job. People at home start respecting your time and accepting your NO .

This too shall pass : I strongly believe in law of nature that when the sun goes down, stars come out. I am confident that normalcy will soon return till then we have to quietly sail together through the troubled waters. Its great to see that corporates are being generous and feeling responsible towards their people because they too believe that storms don't last long. So if you are a boss or a team member embrace the change positively and don't forget to spare a thought that every person has a painful story to tell.

Just bear in mind that it does not matter if we slow down as long as we together decide not to stop or give up.