The soul of any company is its staff – people like you and me, the nuts and bolts that keep businesses in motion. But we’ve been rocked to the core by our new Work From Home reality. Our usual connections have been severed – the new normal is no picnic.

Working remotely puts us under extraordinary pressure to complete our regular workload and joint projects in isolation from each other. We can’t drop by a colleague’s desk or do a departmental stand-up or share a post-weekend-catch-up coffee. Or can we?☕

Wetu is as Wetu does – we seek solutions in technology. All our in-person work chats and meetings have found a new forum in our laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Where there’s an Internet connection, there’s a way.

Here are 6 sane, dignified ways to be a great virtual colleague in the digital landscape:

1 Mind your video The purpose of a video chat is… to SEE each other. Check the lighting around your home office space or choose a more suitable location for those calls. Try better visibility and less of a vampire-in-lockdown look.

2 Dress professionally (from the waist up) It’s okay to slum it in your superhero gown the rest of the time. But if they’ll see you today, consider your teammates who have to look at you and take what you say seriously. Put on a decent shirt.

3 Mute yourself Video chats are awesome when we’re not all shouting over each other. Pretend there’s a talking stick to pass around – when it’s your turn to talk, unmute, and when you’re done, mute up! Heavy breathing is also off-putting.

4 Be punctual Good time-keeping matters more now that we can’t keep tabs on each other in person. Make your work hours known to your team and be on time for meetings. A deadline is a deadline, and due dates are still real (not a virtual maybe).

5 Make links easy to reach You want super fast access to docs you’re currently working on, reading and referencing, or to share with teammates. Pop them on your desktop or use the project management boards on tools like Jira, Asana or Trello.

6 Speak when spoken to Take regular breaks and succumb to home distractions, but always check who looked for you after you stepped away. If there’s a message, answer it. If you missed a call, return it. Share an emoji! A team player doesn’t go dark for hours.

These are practical things we can all do to combat the distance, disconnect and depression caused by the COVID-19 crisis. #TogetherInTravel 🤗

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