Like many of you, the last few weeks has been a bit of a shake up to the normal routine as offices and schools close their doors to help with social distancing and travel is restricted across the world.

Usually we don’t talk on the podcast about something that’s happening right now but it’s fairly apparent most of us in the world won’t be going back to normal life any time soon so we thought it would be worth sharing our experiences with you.

Jay and I have both been home-based for several years – I’ve been in a remote role for nearly nine years now, and some of that makes it easy in the current situation, but being home-based doesn’t mean home-bound – as both Jay and I would usually spend a good proportion of our week visiting customers and colleagues – and working usually with a mix of people who are in offices at the other end.

Even for us, it’s been a change in the way of working as colleagues need more support . And it’s been a busy few weeks making sure critical projects to enable Teams for organisations continue and in some cases are prioritised. During that Jason and I have been running the type of full-day workshops we’d usually run in person and making adjustments to make things work well for people. And unlike Zoom meetings with everyone (sometimes rather embarrassingly) feeling like they need to be on view, there’s better ways using Microsoft Teams to conduct meetings and also work really well if you are presenting from a single screen.

The move to quarantine – as both Jay and I have been in due to family members having symptoms – has also meant we’ve felt some of the impact of not being able to leave the home a little earlier than others – and in the show we give some tips on how to keep in touch, share what our employers business change teams have been doing to help make isolated employees feel less alone.

Our show notes from the episode:

• What’s life like being a home worker before and post coronavirus?
• Do we have any tips for making the day better when we’re working from home?
• We discuss the best way to run meetings and workshops using Microsoft Teams – the right etiquette and how to make sure people remain as comfortable and able to contribute as if they were in the same room.
• What’s the best equipment to get for the best experience
• How to optimise the working space you’ve got
• Tips for mental well-being based on what our employer is doing. You can listen to Freya’s session on the topic “Keeping Good Company – Connect Employees and Keep Culture Alive” here

Equipment and tips we’ve mentioned on the show include:

• Logi Brio and C930e Webcams
• Logi Conference Cam Connect
• Senheisser, Poly Voyager Focus UC and Jabra 510 speakerphone
• More Teams Certified Devices
• Sarah Lean’s tip for presenting PowerPoint remotely from a single screen, whilst still seeing Teams meeting chat and video 
• My blog on using Companion Mode including how to use it as your webcam and speakphone device alongside your Teams meeting on your laptop

You’ll find Episode 42 above, and at our podcast site, on iTunes,Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Google podcasts and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed. If you’ve got any suggestions for what you’d like to hear on the next shows, let us know. You’ll find us on Twitter as @SteveGoodman and @jaywyn