The Biggest Threat to Remote Working isn’t Procrastination
The Coronavirus has changed office culture forever. Almost half the UK population has worked from home this year. Businesses nationwide are all thinking the same thing.
Why are we wasting money on office rent?
Working from home is here to stay whether we like it or not. Many are concerned that people working from home will be less productive due to procrastination and distractions. In fact, it may be quite the opposite. There has been a surge in companies with plans to make remote working permanent, as well as studies that have shown workers are perhaps more productive from home. This shift has highlighted the need for employers to think seriously about their workers’ internet connections. This is where Prestige can streamline connectivity for home workers allowing for office-like communication with our 4G connection solutions.
Recent research suggests that we are losing on average 30 minutes per day or over 130 hours per year due to connectivity issues. No doubt this has been compounded by the fact that the likes of Openreach have been unable to enter customers’ homes in order to fix connectivity issues.
Unreliable connections will force you to be the buffering buffoon in Zoom meetings. It means being late to the party when keeping up with company updates. The frustration of spending entire afternoons trying to upload your completed work.
All hope is not lost though. Most people just put up with these issues even though they may result in serious problems at work and mounting stress. But we have some ideas up our sleeve.
Many office workers decided to partially escape the rat race by becoming commuters, just using the city for work whilst enjoying the slower pace of the countryside. The only problem is that the slower pace extends to our broadband connections with speeds that dwarf in comparison to larger urban areas. But, with strong 4G coverage living in the ahem end of nowhere means stress-free unlimited browsing and downloading for all home workers.
A quick life-hack to beat slow speeds is to plug your device directly into your router using an Ethernet cable. This will enable you to get the most from your router without the efficiency losses of WiFi. You can also schedule bandwidth intense activities such as software updates for the evening so that they are not affecting your workday. Make sure no applications are auto-updating throughout the day as well. Don’t forget to do the same on your phone as this can affect your connection too. You don’t want to be misunderstood in a meeting because of a Tinder update!
Whilst working from home you may now also be joined by other family members. It is important that nobody is using devices for streaming, gaming or downloading when you need critical bandwidth for important activities such as meetings. Speak to your family members about sharing your connection so that connectivity never becomes an issue for those that are working.
An even better solution that overrides both data-hungry family members and slow Wifi speeds is a dedicated 4G connection that only you have access to. As broadband connections are being used more than ever it is important to have a backup connection for those crucial crunch-time moments at work.
Being addicted to productivity is a healthy addiction in our book. If you want to carry on working whilst you use the bathroom, why should your connection stop you? We have all been in that situation where we reach a certain part of the house and the WiFi logo disappears rendering us absolutely lost. A WiFi signal booster is a great way to daisy-chain your router’s connection to other parts of your house and beyond. Who are we to stop you sending emails in the tub? Maybe hold off on the Zoom calls in there though, at least until your next promotion.
One of the best parts about working from home is you are no longer being watched (we like to think). This newfound freedom is allowing us to set our own timetables. Imagine, you now have the freedom to get your work done early and spend a cheeky part of your afternoon sampling that new flavoured gin and finishing another season of your favourite Netflix series. Are you going to let a bad internet connection take your freedom away?
We thought not.
