Remote and hybrid work aren’t a temporary fix anymore – for a huge share of us, home is simply where the job happens now. Whether you’re fully remote, splitting your week between the kitchen table and the office, or just started a new role that lets you skip the commute, the basics of doing it well haven’t changed much. Here’s what I’ve learned from years of doing this myself.

Contrary to what may seem, working from home is not so easy. Quite recently, moreover, I already wrote about it in the Home office light and shadows. Now I would like to expand on this topic a little.

Work from and communication

Working remotely for a long time, I have gained some habits/solutions, which are important to me and make it easier. Of course, they do not make sense to everyone, but I hope that some of them will be useful to you:

Hardware to work from home

• I know many of you work from home on a laptop, but if you can, connect an additional monitor. It really makes a difference. Personally, I can’t imagine working without two monitors – I use IIyama for players myself: G-Master GB2560HSU
• Install a good camera and buy dedicated headphones with a microphone if possible. Sometimes when I talk to people, I can barely recognize them on the screen or hear them. Personally, I recommend the Logitech Brio camera. The price is high, but it is sensational, and the Windows Hello option makes life a lot easier. And if you can survive a poor camera, working with a bad microphone is a way to nowhere

A few simple rules that make the difference

• If you’re not talking, turn off your microphone. On the one hand, it reduces noise, and on the other hand, it avoids surprises like a child demanding dinner
• It’s worth having a mobile phone with applications that you use for communication. It happened more than once that something on the computer stopped working, and I ended the call on the phone
• Turn on video during calls. Personally, I feel odd when I can’t see the person’s face on the other side of the microphone. Man is a being who draws a lot of knowledge from the face of his interlocutor.
• Remember time zones (and common sense) !!! Just because you work until 20pm doesn’t mean that I feel like it. Those who know me know that I have always cared about working hours, even obsessively. Home Office does not mean I should be on the phone and at the computer constantly. We know in IT sometimes there are crisis situations, but for God’s sake it can’t be permanent!
• Remember about the delays. It’s such a charm of all these chat programs 🙂 . Speak calmly and slowly so that your recipient has a chance to understand you
• If you are doing a large conf call/ webinar, it is worth having a second person to help you. In the sense you speak, but the other person supports chat and enables/disables the microphones of the participants. It really helps a lot
• Before you start, make sure that everything works
• Do not work on the toilet. Work should not cause gag reflexes, so the dinner plate next to the keyboard looks weak

Microsoft Teams Rules when you do home office

I’ll admit up front that I’m a fan – don’t crucify me for it, but Microsoft Teams works really well for me. When you’re working from home and most of your collaboration happens remotely, it’s one of the best tools out there for group work, if not the best.

In my previous work, I could never understand why Teams are not widely used, despite having a license. Fortunately, the new company and new rules :). Now for me, it is a basic tool for communication and cooperation, meaning more often used than email.

• Working with Microsoft Teams is very intuitive. Starting a conversation or chat is a matter of one click. A dozen or so months ago, many issues could be attached. It just works right now.
• Everything is in one place. For me, as a person who works with people from all over the world, it is very important that after adding someone to the team that person has access to the entire history, events, and documents. You do not need to resend the heap of files, some of which you will forget.
• They are constantly being developed. In fact, I am not exaggerating to say that now it is one of the most important Microsoft products. Microsoft Teams is an application with immense potential for modification. And apart from the available extras, you can always create your own. It is worth mentioning the possibility of automation using AI. The sky is the limit 🙂

Work is not everything

I’ve said it many times: I don’t know why some managers assume people working from home are just sitting around doing nothing. Honestly? In my experience it’s the opposite. Working from home makes it dangerously easy to lose yourself, both when you’re working and when you’re supposed to be off. Remember to step out of the house every now and then – even a short walk or an hour on the bike can do wonders for your head.

Staying secure while you work from home

Working outside a corporate network means you’re also responsible for your own first line of defense. A few habits go a long way: keep your home router’s firmware updated and use a strong Wi-Fi password, avoid handling sensitive work data on public Wi-Fi without protection, and use a VPN to encrypt your connection whenever you’re on an untrusted network, such as a café or shared space. I’ve written more about choosing and setting one up in my VPN guide.