Working remotely: Before 2020, work was mainly defined as a 9 to 5 activity. You would leave the comfort of your home to go work in an official set-up and return at the end of the day.

This structure was turned upside down in 2020 when employers and employees were forced to adapt new modes of working amidst the global health pandemic that ravaged the world.

Remote work was highly encouraged and adopted. But even after the end of the pandemic, remote work has established itself as a reality in the modern work arena that isn’t going away anytime soon.

In some parts of the world, remote work has become a right that employees are now demanding for in their work contracts. Take the recent labour strike by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) for instance, in which the labour organization demanded for the recognition of remote work as a workers’ right.

In a deal that ended the strike, PSAC  recorded significant new protections around remote work, with the government agreeing to review remote work on a case-by-case, individual basis rather than as a single policy.

Make working from home work for you

The advent of remote work has not been without challenges. A recent survey of 2,000 employees who work remotely on company-issued devices by ExpressVPN, revealed that majority of employees only spend an average of 13 hours out of their 40-hour work week on professional tasks.

They then use the larger chunks of the rest of the time visiting non-work-related websites using their work-provided devices. Four in 10 respondents said they gambled on their company-issued devices instead of working at an average of three hours a week.

37 per cent said they spent a similar amount of time buying crypto, and 33 per cent searched the dark web. 42 per cent admitted to watching porn on their company-issued devices. All this then translated to over 1,400 working hours wasted per year per employee.

The employees in the survey were working in a hybrid system that included working part-time from home and part-time from the office. Others worked completely from home.

This survey is echoed by a report on the state of remote work in Kenya by human resource consulting firm, Corporate Staffing. This report included a survey of 1,830 employees and 258 employers from various sectors in the country.

Is There A Healthy Work/Life Balance While Working from Home?

It shows that employers fear that there is less supervision when a staff has to work off-site, giving leeway to poorly done work, which in effect means that more resources are spent on repeating tasks and wasting time while at it.

The report also shows that employers fear that their staff are less productive while working at home due to a lack of supervision structures.

This implies that when working from home, your employer will tend to put you under the microscope to ensure that they don’t lose out on productivity. To safeguard your career when working from home, there are certain things you should pay attention to. These include:

Your output

If your previous performance while working from the office was measured by the number of hours you spent at your office desk, the new routine will radically change this. The measure of performance will now be your output. “Employers are now adopting tools that track productivity and performance output more than during the previous office regime,” says Chris Herd, the founder and chief executive officer of First Base HQ. This means that you must go the extra mile to remain relevant.

Remote work will be the end for the employee who must be pushed around to get things done. “Revenues have thinned out and no employer wants to carry dead weight. Only those who deliver beyond their expected output will thrive in the new era,” says career coach and business consultant Michael Njue.

Your Technology

The new mode of work has made it mandatory for employees and employers to have the right technology, especially due to the sensitive nature of official work.

This goes beyond having internet connection, a smartphone, and a computer. You need a remote work tool that can secure your sensitive data. 

Your working hours

The amount of time you dedicate to your employer while working remotely is of huge concern to them. Don’t fall into the trap of laxity just because you don’t have a supervisor breathing down your neck.

According to Jacqueline Whitmore, the author of Business Class, you should create a work schedule that resembles the official 9 to 5 working hours. “You should make sure that you set some remote office hours and stick to them. This will prevent you from either working too little or wearing yourself out with too much work,” she says.

If you are unable to come up with official working hours due to other family obligations, in consultation with your employer, you may opt to set aside a certain period within the day for your work. For example, you may split your day into parts, such that you work from morning to afternoon, and spare the afternoon and evening for your family and personal time.

Future of work

A few years ago, you would not have envisioned the current state of work. New technologies on work and productivity will continue to evolve. According to Herd, these will mainly be around remote work. Be in the know on what the future of work portends for your career, especially on what employers are leaning towards.

For instance, Herd conducted research with over 2,000 companies on the future of work. He found out that:

• Majority of companies globally are cutting their commercial office space by 50 to 70 per cent.
• Majority of companies are allowing employees to work from home at least 2 to 4 days a week and 1 to 2 days at the office per week.
• At least 30 per cent of companies are restructuring to entirely move work from the office to home.
• Majority of companies are embracing work from home formula to cut on cost.