In response to the coronavirus, many employers have shifted as many workers as possible to teleworking. That is, working from home. This can be a real challenge if you’ve not had experience with working from home. I’ve worked from home for the last seven years, so I think I have some pretty reasonable suggestions to help you be successful while working from home and to help you ensure you have an appopriate balance between work and not-work.
You’ve heard the saying “the definition insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” And I think you’ll agree that this ‘definition’ is commonly true. But, what about those times when you do the same thing each and every time and get a different result? That, my friends, is the definition of randomness. And, it’s far more common than you think.
Had someone told me on the day of my high school graduation in 1977 that I would one day be an academic, in possession of a doctoral degree and teaching at the university level, I’d have warned them that whatever they were smoking was muddling their brain. Yet, here I am, forty years later, in possession of not one, but two master’s degrees, and a doctorate, teaching at a university. How did that happen?
I love to read and love to learn, so it is no suprise that one of my favorite pastimes is to wander through bookstores. I love perusing the titles, skimming a few pages of those that interest me and maybe marking a few to add to my reading list. It’s a habit I developed probably thirty years ago.
One of the subject areas I generally skim is the business management section. Learning about management styles and techniques is interesting and informative. Last fall, however, as I was skimming titles, I had an epihany. As I skimmed the titles I became aware of just how many titles purported to embue the reader with “the one thing” that they could do to be the best leader, the best manager, to build the most successful company, and … well, you get the idea. As I looked further, I found books of similar types in other subject areas. It seems that everyone one is looking for the ONE THING that gives them an advantagse. The problem was that in skimming the books it quickly became apparent that the “one thing” differed from book to book.
Virtually all businesses today are concerned about how the public perceives them. They recognize – and rightfully so, in my opinion – that customers who have a positive experience, who receive great service, or receive quality, tasty foods are more likely to be repeat customers. They also know that customers who have a poor experience are just as unlikely to return. Thus, measuring the customer experience by asking the customer to complete a survey of their experience is an important means for getting information on how well the company is doing in meeting the customers’ needs and expectations. I’m not sure all managers understand the value of the survey and the need for accurate feedback.