Loud dogs, late-night emails and too many taquitos — remote workers’ regrets
Some workers thrive on the constant buzz in an office. They need the soft hum of machines, the low din of cubicle chatter and the collective movement of co-workers to feel like they’re actually at work. Take that employee and stick her at the kitchen table or in the corner of the basement and the vibe is completely different.
Tasks that seemed simple in the office can be time-consuming at home. Some of the things you take for granted during the day — casual conversations with co-workers, easy access to your manager — are still possible, but when your workspace is a desk at the end of a hallway, those engagements take place in different ways.
But for today’s newly christened remote workers, there isn’t much time to settle into the new space. There’s work to be done — so avoiding common work-from-home pitfalls is key to a smooth transition out of the office.
To help new at-home workers steer clear of some of the usual missteps, we asked experienced remote employees about the biggest mistakes they’ve made when working from home and for some guidance on how others can avoid the same fate. Here’s what they had to say:
“Not calling people back and not responding to their emails and messages. I’m sorry but when you’re in the office and your boss emails you at 10 in the morning asking for a quote or something, you don’t wait until 3:30 in the afternoon to respond. When people do that to me, I assume they’ve spent the previous five hours screwing around instead of working and it drives me nuts.”
— Michelle R., Chicago
“Not muting the phone on conference calls.”
— Norm Dziedzic, engineering manager, Park Ridge, Illinois
“Eating garbage all day long. I have two sons in high school and they can put food away like you wouldn’t believe and never gain a pound. We buy them every frozen snack under the sun — pizzas, taquitos, chicken fingers — and it seems like they’re always something cooking in the oven. Since I started working from home in 2017, I’ve put on nearly 30 pounds and at 49, it’s hard to take off. Just because there’s food around, it doesn’t mean you should eat them. Buy healthy food, hide the bad stuff and eat right.”
— Brad T., Niles, Illinois
“People think they can get away with not working. Big mistake. Your work needs to get done and if you let everyone else on your team down if you’re the weak link or the part of the process that breaks down. Someone’s always going to be a slacker when you work from home. Don’t let it be you or you’ll ruin it for everyone else and eventually, yourself.”
— Dean B., Grand Rapids, Michigan
“Not clearing and designating a dedicated work area.”
— Joanne, New York
“Not staying in touch with your co-workers.”
— Mark Des Biens, Crystal Lake, Illinois
“Not taking breaks or taking too many breaks. It took me a while to figure it out. I would work for hours or I would watch a movie in the middle of the day. It took about two years but I finally have a balance, I think. I take 10-15 minutes every two or three hours to stretch, have something to drink, play with my cat, just something to break the monotony.”
— Alan J., programmer, Carson City, Nevada
“Not separating work from the rest of your day, whether that means constantly checking email or messages, even at 10 p.m.”
— Nick C., South Elgin, Illinois
“Working well past your normal quitting time. Sometimes, if I’m not interrupted or don’t have something else to do, I can work until 8 p.m. without even noticing. That’s not who I want to be. Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you don’t have a life.”
— Rebecca R., medical records specialist, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
“I think not setting up enough talk time to align on projects. Just this week I’ve seen it happen a few times where projects were started with unclear guidelines and they needed to be changed on the fly. When remote working, lean toward over-communication rather than under-communication.”
— Erik Hale, learning & development specialist, Alameda, California
“Working too much. Making yourself available at all hours by responding to emails immediately, even if someone sends something at 11 p.m. Working from home can set a dangerous precedent because you work where you live, so people — including the workers themselves — just assume it’s all rolled into one day. And it shouldn’t be. You need to have hours where you’re off-limits.”
— Harrison W., Los Angeles, California
“Not moving. Sitting in the same position for hours on end. Get up and walk around. You take for granted how much incidental walking you do at the office, whether it’s to get something off the printer or go talk to a co-worker. It’s important to not sit in the same position all day and to move around.”
— James P., Bloomington, Illinois
“Forgetting to drink water. When I’m at work, I get up every hour or so and if I need water, I fill up my little thermos-water-bottle thing and go back to my desk. But for some reason at home, where I work two or three days a week, I don’t do it that often, if at all. Then at the end of the day, when I feel all creaky and out of it, I realize that ‘oh, I didn’t drink any water today.’”
— Paula E., Sarasota, Florida
“Not paying attention to where your dogs are when you’re on a call. If that means putting them outside for a few minutes or in a different area of the house, do it. You can use the mute button all you want but if someone comes to the door and your home office is in the front of the house, you’re going to have to excuse yourself from the call to get your dog under control, then apologize once you return. And it happens all the time with some of my co-workers — maybe two or three times a call. I don’t understand it. It seems like a no-brainer to keep your dog in a different room when you’re on the phone.”
— Amy P., Mount Prospect, Illinois