Working From The Home Office
WELCOME to Strong Studio’s blog, where you will find our thoughts on a variety of design-adjacent topics.
In this Working From the Home Office series, we will discuss how we have reset our routine, process, and outlook in a way that keeps us safe, productive, sane, and positive.
This is not the “new normal” because living in a pandemic should never be normalized. Yet here we are, over four months (or what feels like four years) later, and much of the U.S. is still working from home for health and safety reasons.
Strong Studio has been taking this time to reevaluate, reprocess, and reset the daily experience to make our workdays as engaging and productive for our employees and clients as it was in the Before-Covid-Times.
“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
– Winston Churchill
We decided early on to err on the side of caution (and science) and, on March 11, switched to working remotely. With a bit of adjusting and plenty of discussions and feedback over the past four months, we are better off for it as a company and as individuals. We’ve had more phone and video calls than ever before. It certainly doesn’t replace in-person meetings, but we’ve enjoyed seeing our clients’ homes, pets, and curious kids — there is definitely more humanization and patience these days.
We are also filling in our former commute times (up to two hours) with productivity in both design and personal activities. Multiply two hours times five days per week and that’s basically a full workday back for some of our team.
A few key items that Strong Studio has implemented during this adaption include:
1. EVALUATE
I had all of the designers take Herman Miller’s Work from Home Ergonomic Assessment which was extremely insightful — who knew live plants could have such an impact on a work environment?
2. EDUCATE
We have a saying at Strong Studio — A.B.L. (Always Be Learning). Along with digging into some of the Master Class series, some insightful discussions in our industry during Covid-19 have come from Ad Age, Adweek, Fortune, and The New York Academy of Sciences to name just a few.
3. FOCUS
Working from home has naturally removed some work distractions yet added others, but I’ve found this article from InVision helpful in developing better work habits: 12 steps to eliminating remote work distractions.
4. PROS + CONS – FROM THE PROS
One resource I have found that breaks the pros and cons down nicely is this remote work survey from PwC: When everyone can work from home, what’s the office for?
Strong Studio was quickly able to see how small changes to our individual work environments and processes have made a big impact collectively. My plants are thriving, the cat and vinyl collection have never gotten so much attention, and I’ve had meaningful conversations with people with whom I normally only interact with over email. So, will Strong Studio ever go back to an office environment again? Stay tuned!
5. MAINTAIN A SENSE OF HUMOR
You heard the saying, "If l wasn't laughing, I'd be crying." Even though this pandemic is serious, we need to keep a sense of humor and maybe pick up a new hobby. I documented the journey of my covid-coif. (sound on!)
REACH OUT!
We’d love to hear your experience with hitting the reset button — both as a company and personally. Please feel free to reach out for a call or video chat — Ramen the Cat would love to meet you!