During these uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, various companies around the globe, including those in Indonesia, have imposed a “work from home” (WFH) policy for their employees.

The WFH policy, which applies for an extended period of time and could last more than two weeks, will affect employees’ working habits very differently from a few remote working stints here and there.

Some professionals have shared their WFH experiences, practices and tips on staying productive and maintaining mental health during these troubling times.

GetCraft social media editor-in-chief Asmara Wreksono, who once worked remotely from Indonesia in 2008-2013 as head writer for a brand media in the US, asserted in a recent Facebook post that the WFH policy might be more challenging for conventional professionals who were more used to a conservative and authoritarian working style.

According to Asmara, it takes a lot of self-control and maturity to work from home effectively. It is likely that many other professionals have also realized this.

As long as leaders ensured that their team delivered its assignments on time and devised clear consequences for those who missed deadlines, she said, the WFH policy should work.

“And yet, if you feel that you have to stick your nose closely into your [underlings’ work] all the time, try and find some competent technology that can supervise their performance. You can use Upwork, which allows supervisors to monitor their underlings’ computers to know which tabs they are opening, etc.,” Asmara writes on her Facebook page, facebook.com/miund.

On her LinkedIn page, Asmara mentions that she used Upwork during her five years working remotely as a writer, which was then called oDesk.

Near the end of her post, she jokes, “But still, reconsider, are you a boss or a security guard, having to supervise your underlings that closely?”

“Learn how to trust those who work with you,” she advises. The internet exists for a reason, and its raison d’etre is more important now than ever.”

As Asmara acknowledged, however, the WFH policy could be challenging, especially when you work alone and have to remain isolated indoors for weeks on end: this alone could bore you to tears.

Enter Fika Fawzia, an Indonesian currently based in Singapore who is working as a risk analyst for Facebook. She recently posted an image of her work desk in her small Singaporean apartment on her Instagram account (ffawzia07).

Despite the space constraints of working alone from home, there are still some things that you can do to lift your mood.

According to Fika, these can include daily routines like tidying up your bed, wearing clean clothes, setting up a comfortable working station, allocating specific times for working and leisure and finally, not remaining sedentary.

“Get up from your chair and stretch... Do push-ups, planks, even dance around. If you’re not [under] quarantine status, get out of your house and walk around, but avoid crowded places,” Fika writes on Instagram.

Speaking of leisure, co-founder David Abraham of Outpost, a network of co-living, co-working and social spaces for entrepreneurs, creatives and professionals across Bali, Indonesia and Cambodia, has a few thoughts. During these overwhelming and stressful times, especially when people are self-isolating, employers needed to introduce fun to their working process, albeit remotely.

Abraham himself has worked before in similar conditions of uncertainty in other locations, such as during the Sendai tsunami and earthquake in Japan in March 2011.

“We humans need some type of [social] connection to some degree... So perhaps companies can also do a remote happy hour,” Abraham, who now lives in Bangkok, Thailand told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview. “Team members can do some virtual collective meditation sessions or aerobic exercises using Zoom video conferencing or Google Hangouts.”

“It may be awkward in the beginning, but after you’ve done it several times you’ll get used to it,” he added.

Abraham said that working remotely during times like these also required employers to introduce a personal touch to teamwork, for instance, by talking about the difficulties of the prolonged isolation that most employees will be dealing with during the pandemic.

“We have to be aware that we’re all in this together,” he stressed.

He also pointed out that communication via text and even video calls lacked the non-verbal depth of face-to-face communication, and were thus prone to misunderstandings or personal feelings getting hurt.

“Therefore, be more gentle and supportive in your online conversations. This could reduce the chance of miscommunication,” he noted.

Finally, drawing upon his own professional experience during the Sendai earthquake, Abraham advised that while we definitely needed to stay up to date with news on the pandemic, it might be good to make sure we’re not overwhelmed by news. One way to do this was to set aside specific times to consume the news.

“All the stress has already impaired our concentration, so efforts toward preserving mental health, through the above techniques, is vital,” he said.

In order to avoid letting all the stress from prolonged isolation accumulate, including from the WFH policy, businesses can also use this occasion as an opportunity to devise more clear-cut remote working policies for the future.

Telkomtelstra CFP Ernest Hutagalung has even acknowledged that remote working could be the zeitgeist of working in the future, especially among the millennial generation.

Ernest said that Telkomtelstra had applied a flexible working hour policy since 2017, especially for new mothers and fathers who needed to stay close to their newborns.

“Actually, remote working – especially for the sales team, project and operations managers who spend the majority of their working hours out there in the field – could help us become more efficient in terms of rental costs," Ernest told the Post by phone.

In 2017, Telkomtelstra had also implemented a “hot-desking” system for employees who spent the majority of their time in the field – allocating temporary desks and chairs, along with lockers – which helped the company save space and therefore, rental costs.

“During this WFH period, we conduct our meetings using Microsoft Teams, which helps us greatly,” Ernest added.

He also noted that remote working systems, during which employees came to their offices only about twice a week, had already become the norm in Europe, and that maybe Indonesia could soon follow suit.

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