Working From Home And A Rant About Selfish People
Hi guys, I thought I'd talk to you today about working from home. I did a little post, a little graphic on social media the other day on my Instagram page, if you wanna have a look at it please go to https://www.instagram.com/lifeaccordingtomurf/. It's only four basic points on a healthy day at home and there’s lots more to consider however it’s enough to give you food for thought.
We've now been forced into the scenario of having to isolate, most of us are isolating due to the virus or have been sent home to work from home. How long this will be the case is unsure so lets treat this in a sustainable way. So a lot of people are gonna be working from home, probably the majority of us. Isolating can be unhealthy if we don’t focus on self care and if the isolation periods are for a long time. Having a work/life balance in normal circumstances, and let's face it, this is not normal this is unknown territory; part of that is working from home.
Unfortunately when employers talk about offering a work-life balance they seem to focus on working from home however there are so many more options and factors to offer the ultimate work-life balance. Largely this comes down to the employee to decide what is important to them and the employer not only helping to facilitate this but also taking an active role in ensuring the employee is working in a safe and healthy manner. Working from home all the time or even regularly can be unhealthy unless there is a balance of self care.
As human beings, we need to connect, we need to connect with other people, we need to connect with nature and many other things to be happy and healthy in mind. So if people are isolating, if you're isolating, or you know someone who is isolating, make sure you do the basic things, the most important thing is human contact. Don't just message people if they're isolating to see if they're okay, or to communicate with them. Obviously, you can't always do this, but schedule a time to FaceTime them, or do a Zoom call, a video call or similar. Or try and drop in on them if possible, you can do this even if they are infected, just keep your distance, maybe don't enter the house.
I've had the symptoms of the coronavirus over the last week or so. As soon as I got that dry cough, I self-isolated for, I think it's been seven days now. I've not been diagnosed, so I don't know if I have it, but if I didn't, I had very similar symptoms, I reckon I probably did have it. It actually wasn't that bad, I'm a fairly healthy person, I must admit the breathlessness isn't nice, but I think largely it's okay, so don’t panic too much about the virus.
What we need to be careful of, is looking after the vulnerable, okay? So by just spreading this virus and being irresponsible, it's gonna kill people, literally. Your actions could actually fricking kill people right now. So come on, let's be responsible about this. Don't think that you're better or smarter than the guidance that's being provided. If you're not sure, just stay home and have someone look after you. My girlfriend came to my house everyday, sometimes twice a day with food and drinks. We had a great chat, we were about three or four meters apart. We haven't had contact, aw, I need a hug! We haven't had contact for like seven days, it's not great, but the world's not gonna end. The other thing is, apart from giving you advice on work/life balance, and if anyone needs that by the way, just shoot me a message, I'm happy to help people self care whilst working from home.
I'm a business owner in both Australia and in the UK,, which means I'm responsible for people. I spoke to some business owners today, these discussions this morning, they brought on a few tears between us, we got a little bit upset, because there's a few things that I'm really concerned about. We are now gonna see the true people, who are you? You know what I mean, like, who are you as a person? We're now gonna find out. These next few weeks your true character is gonna come out. And what I mean by that, we've seen all this crazy panic buying, but I'm talking about as employees and as employers. If you're an employer and you're not prepared for times of struggle with a bit of money in the bank to make sure that you can cover times of struggle, you've been irresponsible. Because you are responsible for people's livelihoods, you are employing people.
Equally, if you're an employee right now and you're not willing to take a hit for the sake of someone else's job, you're being selfish. You're not gonna drive to work, you're not gonna be going to the pub, you're not gonna be going to restaurants, you're not going to sporting events. All of these public activities that you would normally be spending money on, you're saving cash. So maybe take a hit, maybe go to your boss and say, look, I'll take some time off, I'll reduce my hours, I'll take, even if it's a 2% pay cut just for a few months, to help someone else keep their job, do it! Don't be selfish, I've had some business owners this morning really upset that they've frozen their income to protect their people, yet their people aren't willing to take a little bit of a hit. It's not good enough.
So you know, let's come together as a society, this is our biggest test. We're going into unknown territory. So come on, stand up, show a bit of character. Let's have some decent values in this time, these really unknown times. So let's not lose focus. Let's focus on people's health. Let's get through this period. We're gonna be fine, if we all come together as a society and care for each other, and stop being selfish, okay? Take care, guys, all the best.
You can watch my related video here