What Should You Watch Out for When Working from Home (WFH) During the Pandemic?

As the COVID-19 alert level rises to Level 3 and possibly Level 4 (lockdown), many companies have begun split-shift controls or launched work-from-home (WFH) arrangements and other epidemic-prevention measures.

We have specially compiled the problems that home workers often face during the home epidemic-prevention period, and provide solutions for your reference.

1. Be Careful About Exposure During Video Conferences

**If you need to connect by video for a company meeting, be careful about exposure. Before filming, check whether the background is clean and tidy. You can buy a backdrop or the now-popular influencer tapestry wall hanging.

When you don’t need to use the camera and microphone, also remember it’s best to manually check and turn them off to avoid leaking images or sound. If you’re afraid you’ll forget, you can prepare a sticker and place it over the webcam. The advantage is that keeping it on normally also prevents a hacker from peeking into your life one day.

Also, regarding video conferences or school video classes, there is currently a big problem: the authorities have not unified a single workflow, leaving everything in a state of neglect. Yet we consider ourselves a year ahead in deployment, and we pride ourselves on being a technology powerhouse. As a result, we still see a music teacher filming YouTube himself, with the father’s view count higher than the students’, and even the cloud database not being set up, leaving teachers to figure out how to send and receive assignments via Line or Mail, each with a different approach, so not only are teachers confused, students are even more confused.

If you are a teacher, I suggest you ask your school whether it can integrate with the Google Workplace for Education mechanism, or learn to use the integrated products from the company ZOHO.

2. Always Back Up Your Data

Because your current workplace is different from the office, there is no dedicated IT staff to handle maintenance and rescue for you, so when working you must remember to frequently back up your work items.

Don’t trust your own computer hard drive and NAS. If you can upload to the cloud, upload a backup as much as possible. For example, Dropbox, Apple iCloud, or Microsoft OneDrive, and so on.

If the work software you use provides auto-save backup and save functions, be sure to enable them. Setting the auto-save interval to once every 3 to 5 minutes maximizes protection of your hard work.

3. Organize Your Network Equipment

If your home only has the 4th cable TV broadband network that you applied for yourself or that the community provides, you should now have discovered a big problem: “The 4th cable TV broadband network speed is far from enough, the network speed can’t go up, or it’s extremely unstable, making you want to smash your keyboard.”

If you weren’t on a contract originally, hurry and switch to Chunghwa Telecom now. Applying for the 100Mbps fiber generation is already plenty, and the sense of network delay or interruption rate will be much smoother than 4th cable TV broadband.

If Chunghwa Telecom is still offering a MOD discount, you can apply for it too, so you can cut off the 4th cable TV entirely and watch a bunch of movies and series for half the viewing fee.

4. Stay Self-Disciplined in Your Behavior

Work when it’s time to work, rest when it’s time to rest. A common problem when working at home is that once you’re absorbed, you keep working continuously.

And with no one to chat with, it’s hard to distinguish work time from rest time. Of course, the opposite is also true: we keep resting and forget to work (laughs).

A friend of mine even complained that a certain school required teachers to stay in front of the camera for a full eight hours, and they’d be nagged if they stepped away even a little. This seems quite inhumane, since these are extraordinary times and the director’s approach must also be more flexible. There will inevitably be many differences between working in the office and working from home. Otherwise, should the higher-ups subsidize the water, electricity, internet, phone, and tissue expenses incurred while working from home?**

Remember to exercise and keep your body active. The health warm-up exercises you learned as a child are very useful. You can also wear a smartwatch and enable the sedentary reminder so you get up and move around every so often.

5. Keep a Dedicated Private Space at Home

The biggest trouble when working from home is often the spatial distance. You are now likely gathered together with all your family members, but friction between family members tends to arise more easily than outside, so each of you should keep some distance and give each other some space.

If there is a spare room at home, it’s best to use it as a dedicated workspace, and agree with your family not to enter and disturb you casually.