How to Earn Your Salary When Working From Home

By Sachin V Gopalan

While popular research on media is flinging around data that Work From Home is fulfilling and efficient for a lot, the fact remains that for most of us, its not easy to be productive when working from home. All of a sudden we are expected to participate in running a household when we otherwise would be inside an office or at least commuting to and fro from one.  A friend of mine pointed out recently that this should be called Work At Home, because he has now learnt many new skills and has successfully become a combination of house cleaner, garbage disposer, baby sitter and dog walker. (He was still thinking of a title-designation and I suggested Pandemic Houseband)

I think the time has come for everyone to understand the practical consequences of a dysfunctional Work From Home situation. And there is only one way to say this.

WFH does not mean Free Salary.

It’s very important for family members to understand that if their spouse is expected to continue earning a salary, they cannot be given unrelated tasks within an expected “Work”ing hours of the day. Its okay to have the same division of labor between family members as when they were still going to office, but now it comes with some flexibility that you may not be accustomed to.

Recognizing that people have a very low work productivity rate at home, many companies prefer to lay off staff or bench them for a few months or at the very least implement heavier cuts in salary, since they don't see the best efforts coming in from staff and their families. In such times, this can be a very disturbing development, often irreversible. Zero salary can become a reality for you if you are not careful and start to take things as though you are on an extended paid holiday.

Here are five practical tips for families, so that their working spouse(s) can continue to receive a paycheck.

1.     Allow a part of the house to be kept like an office area. It doesn't have to be a separate room, but it should at least be a desk, table or corner of the room in a part of the house that has the least disturbance from other family members and their activities.

2.     Create clear-cut rules about what are you and your spouse’s Work Hours. It doesn’t have to be 8 hours at a stretch, but it can be broken down into shorter segments, and there has to be some predictability to this, not at random. All activities that don't help your household to earn a salary should be done outside these newly set work hours.

3.     Dress for work in a reasonable way, you don't have to wear a suit and tie, but definitely do not be in your pajamas or birthday suit. Being well groomed and dressed semi-formal is enough and it will allow you to take video calls on short notice and in general be thinking of work matters when you are in fact supposed to be working.

4.     Making a work zone in your house helps you to avoid video bombing by your spouse/kids/grandma when you are on Video Calls for work. You may not realize it, but video calls are very intensive and energy draining. Even an unintentional entry into the room will create a distraction or embarrassment, both of which create an uncomfortable or funny moment, which it will amusing be for now, but if it happens often, will have unwelcome implications. When management realizes you don't have your act together and are not able to work properly on a given day, it builds the case for them to downgrade you.

5.     Look for ways to be proactive and ensure that you let your managers know that you are doing your best. Since you are not in the office and not under the watchful eye of a team leader, the general assumption is that you are not doing anything productive when at home. You will have to take extra effort to let your colleagues and superiors know that you are in fact being productive and have been keeping the best interests of your company on top priority.

These are just five tips, but there are hundred more if you really need them. Just remember, earning a salary in the Private Sector is not a birthright, it is a privilege given to you along with trust and it is in recognition of your contributions to keeping the company and economy running.

Make sure you earn your salary today. And tomorrow. And the month after. Because in a pandemic, this work from home situation will not just go away, it will only gradually reduce until things go back to normal. So its really in your hands to become a useful part of the new normal world.