CPA Practice Advisor - 33

THE MILLENNIAL ADVISOR

Office Space: You're Not Home Alone
WANDERING INTO THE breakroom for a chat around the water cooler. Grabbing a snack
from the honor-system basket of candies and granola bars. Filling the copier with more
GARRETT WAGNER, CPA

CEO/Founder, C3 Evolution Group
garrett.wagner@cpapracticeadvisor.com

paper, emptying the wastebasket into the recycling bin. These were the joys of office
life. From your cubicle or office, by the light of florescent bulbs, love it or hate it, office
ambience went hand in hand with being an accountant-no matter your title or function.

Alas, the familiar comforts have
suddenly vaporized. Instead of office
chats, a couple of children are running
around your kitchen table as you file
tax returns or close another monthend. The old office comforts...how did
we take them for granted?
As we struggle with the new shift
to working remotely, now may be
a good time to dive deeper into this
topic and examine how we can make
the most out of it. Across this great
country, remote working isn't going
away anytime soon.
If you can learn how to become
the emperor of your home's workspace,
you may find new levels of productivity
and success working from home. Many
Americans report they never want to
go back to life under those fluorescent
tubes. If you're not quite there yet,
the transformation may be that life
things around the house need a bit of
tweaking, to allow you to truly get in
a full day's work.

FROM PLAYGROUND TO
WORKSITE
If you are going to make your home
into your home office, that means

accepting the fact that you will be
spending 40 hours a week in a dedicated area. It needs to be your actual
workplace.
This means you cannot work full
time on your couch. Sorry.
You need a work area, be it large
or small, that looks and feels both
comfortable and work-like. Nearby
will be the power sources, tools and
equipment you find in any office. So,
set aside some time and perhaps a
sheet of paper to think through and
jot down what it will take to take your
worksite (and yourself) seriously.
Again, this is not changing
anytime soon.

WORKSPACE AND
GROUND RULES
Creating your ideal home office isn't
just a longer power strip, extra USB
adaptors and a spare phone charger.
The home office is about being able
to sit down and tune into getting down
to work. That means not only having
regular "office hours" and a work
schedule-it means turning off Netflix
and your housemates respecting some
boundaries. The fact is that professionals who work from home
have found they are able
to get more accomplished
at home, once they set the
ground rules.
By having a wellknown, scheduled set of
office hours, the kids and
the significant other can
respect your boundaries.
Maybe you tape a little
"Stop" sign to your door or

the back of your chair-and it signals
that you are in the "zone."
Communicating ahead of time is
better than getting all red in the face
with embarrassment later, when your
spouse walks by a Zoom call in a bath
towel.
Explain your system at mealtime,
and show-and-tell the signs or calendar you have prepared to post outside
your office space. Involve your family
members/housemates and use it as an
opportunity to create appreciation for
what you do for a living to support and
show your love.
For many, one benefit of remote
work is having a flexible schedule.
But this doesn't mean each day is an
open book. It does mean you can set
Wednesdays at 10 a.m. to go grocery
shopping when the aisles aren't so
crowded.
If you can be clear with those at
home about some simple rules, and
a process for how and when to bend
them, this may be one of the greatest
periods for families in human history.
Well, at least in as long as we can
remember.

CO-WORKERS? WHO ARE
THEY?
Last but not least, the key to working
from home successfully is to remember
that you have co-workers.
When you commit to working from
home full-time, plan on doubling up
your efforts to communicate often and
regularly with your co-workers. Having
lost time around the water cooler and
the copy machine, it is easy to forget
how much business and bonding

AUGUST 2020 ■

get accomplished through informal
brokering.
You must be diligent to create new
conversations on the phone, texting
and chat to rebuild ways to maintain
those bonds. You will need new
channels that invite people to have
creative exchanges and share ideas
or news about the business that were
lost when the breakroom went away.
Bottom line? Working at home, for
many, has proven to be more productive and healthier than office life. It
starts with creating a real workspace
inside the home, then inviting your
household to understand how they all
fit and function within that new business that operates inside their home.
Next, double down on communication channels with your team
and your supervisor. Make sure you
are connecting more than you think
you used to do. When you worked in
physical proximity, so much informal
communicating took place, you may
not realize how much got lost when
everyone disbanded. Be the one who
tries new channels, like chat and
texting, to introduce ways for people
to engage with one another, share what
is happening and just stay in touch
the way you did back in the old days.
Learn how to embrace remote
work and strive in a virtual world. Set
up your sweet spot, create a schedule
you can live with and, above all, plan
on over-communicating with your
inner-and your outer-circle at
work. If you do those three things, you
and your organization will be among
those who have this remote work truly
"figured out." ■

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