The Hidden Costs of Working from Home | Part 1 of 5

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By now you’ve probably read a lot of articles about working from home. At first it was a temporary, emergency reaction to the pandemic. Four months later, it’s beginning to feel less temporary. And people have adjusted to the most immediate changes. Now is when the hidden costs begin to emerge.

From an individual perspective, you’ve had to carve out a workspace at home, adjust your hours to accommodate children at home, learn to avoid the kitchen, and figure out how to stay focused and prioritize amidst the chaos. Bravo!

But as the adjustment period wanes, the irritating and unarticulated issues arise–haphazardly and intermittently. It was Mark Zuckerberg’s callous remarks about Facebook’s impending work from home pay policy that got me thinking about the subject.

As an individual, as a manager, or as a governing board, crisis is your opportunity to get it right. Crisis is when your sins, inefficiencies, and weaknesses are bare for the world to see. If you relied primarily on in-person events, you are facing a cash flow crisis right now. If you lack equitable pay policies, you may face a moral reckoning with your employees and your donors.

From this context, if you are considering broadening your work from home policy long after the COVID-19 shutdown is over, now is the time to think it through and be the shining role model you always knew your nonprofit could be!

COVID-19 could be your great opportunity to mirror your mission through the better treatment of your employees.

In this five-part series, I’m going to examine some of the hidden costs of working from home. My goal is to give you–an individual or a manager or a leader–the opportunity to recognize and begin to address these hidden costs. And quick! Before the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world cut your pay!

Beware the Dual Dangers to Productivity: Training and Security

Technology and productivity can often be at odds of one another in any environment, but especially at home. At home, the trade-offs in technology choices are often not deliberated or voiced as frequently as in the office environment.

I might work with two monitor screens at the office, but prefer the one laptop screen at home because it means I can change rooms easily in a small space with children. Or I might be stressed and significantly less productive with a laptop and no-one has made it an option to take the office hardware home.

And then there is the reality that some of us adapt to new software and hardware much easier than others. Assuming that everyone will find the right YouTube DIY video for them and quickly learn is begging for a productivity dip!

Shortcuts to learning software are risky. Technology glitches always happen at the worst possible moment!

I get the email notice that there was an attempt on my email account that was blocked. It houses all my work calendars. *GASP* I check that it’s a real issue and then pounce into action, updating passwords. I identify and fix the likely weak link: my browser.

Crisis averted I go about my daily business until…

I’m an hour from home, my 92-year-old friend is in my car and we want to call ahead to be sure we manage our outing safely during COVID-19. But my search app won’t work. And neither will the app for maps. It’s HOT in Florida. Time ticks. Frustration mounts.

I take a deep breath and I realize it’s because my phone is no longer “logged-in” to my primary email account–-because I changed the password.

Managing software takes TIME. I’m not getting any younger, but I am on the receiving end of exponentially more software to learn. If you want people to work from home (or, heck, in the office), how can you better accommodate the learning needs of all ages and types of employees? You have the perfect testing grounds during a crisis.

Unfortunately, it’s also the perfect predatory playground for sinister, unknown forces just waiting to capture your organization’s data for ransom, or worse.

Don’t fool yourself that the risk is low. Digital Guardian examined the data of nearly 200 customers in its Managed Security Program and issued a Data Trends Report that will have you biting your fingernails.

There are plenty of resources and software solutions you can purchase to help secure your organization and its in-office and remote employees, but during shelter-in-place, you are in the perfect training grounds to realize that is not nearly enough.

Yes, of course, you need better passwords, but for example, have you given employees a password manager and created a culture of tip-sharing on how to use it well on all devices? Especially in chaos, something as simple as password protection will break down at the user level. When my dog is going bezerk over the doorbell ringing and I’m creating a new password before I answer the door, rest assured it will not be the best encryption effort.

Another example of how easily security breaks down is actual software use practices.

When I first started using a cloud file storage many years ago, I was so thrilled to be on top of my data security game! Every contractor I hired was given account access so that no client file would ever be stored on a local hard drive–where I could not control its security.

Too many years later, one of my contractors was struggling with the software. I walked through the process with her. That’s when I discovered that all this time she had been accessing through her browser, downloading the files to her laptop and then uploading them to the cloud server. So much for security!

Sometimes these breaches are poor training, but sometimes it’s that the secure process is less efficient for a particular employee, or the hardware they are using does not support the software you want them to use.

When everyone is thrust into a new environment at once, it is the perfect time to uncover these hidden security breaches and create pathways to reduce the issues. Your solution could be better and more varied training. It could be access to IT consults to help employees configure (and use) their devices appropriately and securely. Or it could be as simple as having the conversation and explaining the risk. Behavior might be the biggest security risk–working from home or the office. Better communications go a long way to averting and solving problems, significantly lowering risk.

Summary

Working from home can lower costs for employer and employee, but if the hidden costs are not recognized and addressed, both parties might not realize some of those savings.

Many times, you can use free or existing systems, such as leveraging your internal intranet to create curated learning resources for different types of learners. If you use Slack for messaging, you can create a #SoftwareTips channel to help everyone stay safe and secure.

Like so many things, the solutions don’t have to be expensive. If you take the time out to plan, you can create a remote environment that provides significant autonomy and customization, with lower costs and higher productivity.

Additional Resources

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  1. Pingback: Your Career: The Hidden Costs of Working from Home | Part 2 of 5 | Jennifer Filla

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