Stay Healthy While Working Abroad
Working remotely can offer the best of both worlds. You have the freedom to choose your environment and tailor your space to support creativity and productivity. You control your schedule, which can feel empowering, while still benefiting from teammates to collaborate with and a manager who handles payroll. In many ways, it truly feels like a win-win.
At the same time, remote work can sometimes feel like the opposite. Being constantly online, monitored by a boss you rarely see, and juggling work and home life in the same space can quickly become overwhelming. It is no surprise that remote work fatigue is becoming more common. The tips below can help you create a healthier and more sustainable work-from-home experience.
Reduce Stress With the Right Coverage
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Embrace Your Remote Workspace, No Matter the Size
Design magazines make work-from-home spaces feel very homey and organized. Who wouldn’t work better with a hand-carved oak desk and their very own “office” espresso machine? However, the reality of tight budgets and even tighter spaces tells a different tale. Before long, you’re working out of a corner of your bedroom, using the laundry basket to store your files.
Setting up a personalized, dedicated workspace makes remote workers feel more productive during both work and personal hours. An inexpensive storage box keeps workplace odds and ends corralled by day. Come night, they tuck neatly out of sight. A large, inexpensive art print is the perfect warm backdrop for video calls, allowing you to share a private space without revealing the interior of your home. Remote workers in small spaces, such as studio apartments, have been known to use reversible bedspreads to help transform their area and avoid remote working fatigue. When one color is facing up, the studio is their workspace. When flipped over, a different color signifies that their space has once again returned to a home.
New Realities When Working Remotely
At first glance, remote work appears to offer absolute freedom. You don’t have to get up early, and stormy weather means nothing to those who don’t have to drive into the office. Early birds and night owls alike appreciate the ability to adjust their hours to their own internal rhythms. Plus, being able to shift your lunch hour as needed to run errands or complete chores is the kind of common-sense flexibility that attracts many people to remote work in the first place. It’s not uncommon to hear new remote workers say things like how they’re going to use their coffee break to power walk around the block or that they’re going to start cooking more, now that they can easily prepare ingredients throughout the day at home.
Reality is much different. It doesn’t take much for flexibility to soon give way to pliancy when the boundaries between work and home erode. It starts innocently enough when you check emails first thing in the morning or just before bed. A willingness to chat with colleagues in their time zone soon gives way to 12-hour days, where remote workers are always somewhat online and thus on-call.
Reining In Your Work From Home Schedule
Remote workers can manage their hours by scheduling meetings for midday rather than early morning or late afternoon. They can establish dedicated blocks of time when they are offline and unavailable to complete tasks like research and editing in peace. They can also set up dedicated days where they vow to sign off at a specific time, regardless of the circumstances. Putting an older computer into service as a personal device will keep colleagues from assuming you’re free for “just a quick chat” when you’re online shopping or searching for recipes.
Remember, even remote workers need sick days and vacation days. It’s nice that you can cozily work from home with pajamas and extra tea when you have a mild cold, but you shouldn’t push through a major illness any more than a non-remote worker should. And while your “vacation” may be nothing more than a few quiet days of reading and gardening, there’s no reason why that’s not as valid a break as traveling around the world. Feel free to suggest to your colleagues that you’re participating in a silent meditation retreat in case they don’t take the hint to leave you alone to avoid further remote working fatigue.
Setting Boundaries With Co-Workers
As any remote worker with a toddler at home can attest, setting boundaries between your work life and personal life is easier said than done. However, older children can learn to respect signals that parents are busy with work. For instance, wearing headphones means “do not disturb,” and an egg timer shows how many minutes remain until it’s break time. But setting boundaries isn’t just about having family members respect your workspace. It can go the other way.
When your work-life includes video calls and semi-mandatory “tours” of your home, remote working can feel like an invasion of privacy. Let colleagues and bosses know that you’d rather play things low-key. Make a point of using photos instead of videos occasionally for online calls to break the pressure of being “on” all the time.
Embrace Remote Social Time
Even the busiest office environment comes with built-in socializing. You chat with colleagues on the elevator, in the cafeteria line, while walking to the subway. It’s hard to quantify how important this is until you don’t have it anymore. New remote workers often say that it’s been so long since they actually TALKED with another human – even though, of course, they’re talking business all day long.
Break up workplace monotony and isolation by incorporating social activities into your everyday work routine. Set up a dedicated chat thread that’s devoted to anything but work. Establish it as a place to chat about food, sports, pets, movies, and more. When possible, arrange a meeting in person to discuss these matters. An afternoon in the park or a colleague’s backyard costs nothing and allows for social distancing where mandated.
You can further break up the workday routine and add some good cheer to your virtual workspace by creating weekly challenges for everyone to enjoy. Silly Hat Day and Costume Day are fun ways to break up the usual routine. However, remember that not everyone’s sense of humor aligns with your own. Some co-workers may be so busy or stressed that the idea of coming up with a quirky hairdo might be too much to handle. Keep social activities optional and consider some low-key options for engagements, such as polls on who had the best silly outfit.
Take Care of Your Remote Employees
Managers and supervisors can foster a sense of community by finding alternative ways to replicate in-office experiences, such as Monday coffee hour or Friday’s pizza lunch. For instance, managers can send e-gift cards for take-out pizza or popular food delivery chains, allowing each person to have their own individual treats while sharing a group video chat. And in lieu of birthday cakes and other celebratory fare, e-gifts of electronic books, magazine subscriptions, or a small charitable donation are easy ways to brighten someone’s day.
Reaching Out for Help
Remote workers often feel uneasy or even ashamed to reach out for help. It’s easy for them to compare the relative comfort of their surroundings with that of more dangerous workspaces. As such, they often conclude that they have nothing to complain about. The reality is that every occupation or type of workspace has its pros and cons. You can still feel empathy for other workers while acknowledging that you need help, support, and more resources. Normalizing workplace mental health benefits everyone, no matter their circumstances.
Mackenzie is the Director of User Experience at ICI, creating intuitive, user-centered digital solutions for global insurance clients. With expertise in UX design and content strategy, she simplifies complex offerings to improve accessibility for expatriates, travelers, and international employers.
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