It feels like there’s been nothing but rain for the last few weeks, but March 1 officially signals the start of spring. That means its time to freshen things up with a bit of spring cleaning, including your home office.
Category: <span>Work from home</span>
Working from home is generally considered a great way to balance your work and home life, potentially increasing productivity and reducing stress levels – get it wrong though, and it can have the opposite effect and turn you into a stressed-out insomniac.
Could the negatives outweigh the positives when you work from home?
If you run your own business, you’ll appreciate the need to save money and cut costs wherever possible – but have you ever considered flexible working as a way to cut overheads?
Maybe you were forced into remote working during the numerous lockdowns of the last couple of years and found it saved your business some much needed cash when things were tight?
Employees may even have found a better work/life balance and bank balance through working from home.
If none of this sounds familiar, then it might be time to reconsider your thoughts on remote working. Not only do the UK’s flexible working laws mean more and more workers can benefit from working from home, offering the option could be the difference between hiring and retaining the best people and having a high turnover of staff.
And before you get into a blind panic about employees not pulling their weight while at home, consider that research from the London School of Economics found those who are offered flexible working are actually happier and more productive workers. Then consider the savings you could make…
Energy prices are barely out of the news these days – soaring wholesale gas prices have put household and business energy prices up to record levels. And today’s energy price cap announcement means domestic energy bills will increase by £693 for millions of households from April 1 this year.
But if you’re a business owner and you have a dedicated premises for your business, you won’t be protected by the price cap. This situation has seen some commercial suppliers put their out of contract rates up by as much as 120%.
In this instance, it makes sense to compare business energy and switch if you can get better rates. If you run a large business or SME, it makes sense to take out a business energy deal as you can often negotiate cheaper gas and electricity rates than if you have a domestic energy deal at your business premises. But what if you work from home or run a micro business?
The distractions come thick and fast when you’re working from home – daytime TV, housework, knocks at the door, and cold callers on the phone all do their best to break your concentration.
And then the cat seems to need feeding every five minutes – while there’s no doubting having a pet around the place can help alleviate the loneliness that can come with working from home, they’re not always great for productivity, but they’re nothing compared to having a baby around the house while you’re trying to work – so, if you’re a work from home parent, is it time you considered taking on a nanny?
We’ve all been living with some sort of pandemic-induced restrictions for the best part of two years now. One of the positives to come out of it all (depending upon your situation and conditions) was how work from home culture was quickly adopted.
Many businesses now offer work from home – or at least hybrid working – as standard. But the guidance on whether we all need to work from home or get back to the office is about to change. Here’s all you need to know.
With just a couple of days to go until Christmas Eve, there’s a good chance many of your staff are beginning to wind down – unless, of course, Christmas is your busiest time of the year. If things do slow down over the festive period, you might be taking things easy yourself, or even on holiday already.
But what if you need people to stay switched on over the holidays? Especially in that ‘dead zone’ between Christmas and New Year? Here are some tips to help keep things ticking over.
Employees are being told to work from home wherever possible as part of the government’s ‘Plan B’ to tackle the Omicron variant of Covid-19 – a new strain that’s thought to be the most transmissible yet.
The coronavirus pandemic has seen more people than ever working from home, and many businesses now use a ‘hybrid’ working system, where employees spend some time at home and some at the office. By the start of December this year, more than two-thirds of staff travelled to work at least once.
More than a third (36%) of British staff did some form of remote working in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics. And it’s a way working that has caused some strong debate – some have even suggested home workers should be paid less than those that travel into the office.
The truth is, working from home isn’t for everyone. But, if done correctly, it can be a great way of working and keeping a healthy work/life balance. To make sure you’re making the most of telecommuting, here’s how to work from home.
This week has seen the first of this winter’s morning frosts. If you’ve started commuting back to the office, you might have literally been caught cold last week. To help make sure you’re prepared for the worst those frosty mornings have to throw at you, here’s how to de-ice your car.
Is your home under attack from hackers?
If you any wireless devices linked to the internet, such as computers, tablets, games consoles, and smartphones, there’s every chance someone could hack your network and access your data. Even if you have smart devices such as printers and even kettles, you could be at risk of attack.
And you may be completely unaware until it’s too late.
The danger could be even more acute if you work from home and access sensitive or confidential business files via the wireless network.
So it’s vital to keep security tight – here’s how to secure your home network.