Remember breezing into the office five minutes early with a steaming hot coffee for your work wife?
How about belly laughing with your coworkers over a celebratory lunch after a huge milestone? And then there's the time your boss slowed down on her midday walk around the office to tell you what a great job you're doing—with a huge smile.
We know there's slogging through a commute, there's the crappy office coffee you drink just to get you through that 3 o'clock slump, and there's spending hours and hours of every week in the same fluorescent-lit office, but isn't there also a little bit of romance in working from an office?
Maybe not romance, but there's human connection. There's a physical pat on the back. There's real-time, face-to-face collaboration when you work in an office. Maybe you miss it, maybe you don't. Regardless of your feelings on the permanence of working from home, you may have felt a little bit of digital fatigue and momentary lapses of confidence.
The Downside of Working From Home
Working from home is great—seriously!
As with anything, there are ups and downs. For example, many have reported suffering from Zoom fatigue, endless meetings intended to replicate in-office chatter, and an overall lack of recognition.
Since working from home, have you asked yourself the following, "Does anybody even notice what I'm doing?"
It can be difficult to feel seen when working remotely. Sure, your boss might love you, your work, and your ideas. But, maybe she hasn't had the time to express that. In short, we're all learning how to operate remotely—from the ground up. That includes your boss.
How to Cultivate Lasting Confidence While Working From Home
At the date of publish, we are just over seven months into our "new normal", COVID 19 life.
Many of us have made tiny workspaces in the corners of our kitchens, in the garage, or in our bedrooms. Working parents have navigated impossible decisions when it comes to balancing a full-time job, education, childcare, and what to do about all of it. In short, nothing is easy—and everything is hard.
But, in the words of Glennon Doyle, "We can do hard things."
In the face of an uncertain future based in our homes, we think the most important thing we can hold on to is confidence. That's why we put together 6 ways to make sure you can gather confidence to fuel your work from home productivity.
1. Create checkpoints with your leadership and/or your team
Getting feedback is tough. No, we're not saying that hearing negative feedback is tough (though that is also true). We're saying it can be difficult to get feedback to begin with. When working from home, like it or not, many of us exist in somewhat of a personal silo. We're not in the same office, hearing the same noises, or facing the same distractions.
Everyone is in their own space, doing their thing—when it comes to work responsibilities and home responsibilities.
Feedback is the key to constant, meaningful growth at work. Feedback is more than a Slack message saying "great job" or "you misspelled this word." So, how do you get real feedback? Take it to your weekly schedule, that's how! Do your work to create checkpoints with your team and/or your leadership. Create weekly, monthly, or quarterly meetings and stick to it.
2. Ask for support when you need it (and be the support when you can)
Just like asking for feedback, you'll want to ask for support when you need it.
You see, this strange thing happens when your work lives at your house with you. Sometimes, you just don't stop working—and you should, you really should. It's just not sustainable to be "at work" 24 hours a day. if you're constantly pulling 60 or 70-hour weeks, ask for support. If your work from home situation is difficult due to limited space or childcare responsibilities, ask for help.
One amazing aspect of remote work is that it can be flexible and creative. Brainstorm new solutions—either on your own or with management—to make it work for your specific needs.
3. Share your wins (and share your colleague's wins)
Work. Home. Work. Home. Work. Home. On repeat. Times 1000.
Break up the monotony by setting goals. When you achieve those goals, celebrate the heck out of them! Don't let big wins go unnoticed—whether they are yours or they belong to a colleague. It's important, whenever possible, to be human, crack open a kombucha, and celebrate.
4. Learn new skills + create progress reports for yourself
Always be learning new skills. Not sure what's the most marketable skill for your position—or for your next desired position? Easy! Google your job titles, open a job description, and highlight the skills you could develop.
Now go learn it! Job descriptions are the ultimate cheat sheet. Look at them often and keep yourself competitive with the best of the best in your field.
5. Keep your resume and LinkedIn up-to-date
Remember how you scrambled to update your resume and your LinkedIn profile the last time you were job hunting?
Don't save your achievements, updates, and professional accomplishments for your next job search. Always keep your LinkedIn and resume up-to-date and fresh. This keeps you at the top of your game—and it's a really great way to actually keep track of all that you are doing.
6. Write a confidence mantra (don't roll your eyes at us, just do it!)
Yeah, we know, but it helps!
Before creating your mantra, identify when your confidence tends to dip. Is it after a long night of work? Is it when you can't seem to solve a problem quickly enough? Is it because someone else achieved something and you're getting a little green with envy?
Whenever it is, create a mantra to pull you out of it. One helpful mantra we've been using through COVID-19 is "We're all doing the best we can." And we are. And so are you.
