Tara Powers - Working From Home For Dummies

Working From Home For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941268

ISBN 978-1-119-74849-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-74835-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-74837-3 (ebk)

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 5
3. Chapter 6
4. Chapter 7
5. Chapter 8
6. Chapter 10
7. Chapter 11
8. Chapter 17
9. Chapter 18
10. Chapter 19

1. Chapter 4
2. Chapter 5
3. Chapter 6
4. Chapter 7
5. Chapter 9
6. Chapter 10
7. Chapter 11
8. Chapter 12
9. Chapter 13
10. Chapter 14
11. Chapter 15
12. Chapter 18
13. Chapter 21

In todays modern global economy, working from home is no longer a novelty. Organizations around the world are embracing the advantages of letting employees work outside the office, and the results are eye-opening: Managers save money and resources and have access to talent outside their zip codes, while employees enjoy greater job opportunities, productivity, independence, and satisfaction. Remote work really can be sustainable for professionals who want flexibility.

Whether youre new to having a home office or youve been working outside an office for years, Working From Home For Dummies can help you prepare for working virtually and thriving.

Working From Home For Dummies helps you acquire and cultivate some of the most important attributes needed for remote work. Here, you get pointers on setting up a home workspace; strengthening important skills like managing your time, establishing routines, and setting boundaries; and using your manners in virtual team meetings. You find help with three popular work-at-home technology programs: Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. You also get tips for managing a virtual team and balancing your time between your work and your personal life, even when both take place at home.

In this book, sidebars (shaded boxes of text) provide an in-depth look at particular topics. You may find them interesting and illuminating, but they arent crucial to understanding the rest of this book. Feel free to read them or skip them.

You can also pass over the text marked with the Technical Stuff icon (see the later section, ). The text accompanied by this icon gives some technical, informative details about working from home, but you can still get the most important information you need without reading it.

Whenever we quote prices in this book, theyre listed in U.S. dollars. When in doubt about a price, check the companys website for the latest information.

One last note: Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If youre reading this book in print and you want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as its noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesnt exist. If youre reading this as an e-book, youve got it easy just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

You may have picked up this book for one or more of the following reasons:

• Youre new to working from home, and you need guidance on setting up a workspace, developing skills for success, and figuring out new technology.
• Youve been working at home for months or years, but you still want some new tips to boost your productivity, computer skills, and worklife balance.
• Youre managing employees who work from home, and you need help transitioning from an old-school setup to a virtual team.

Handy icons appear in this books margins. Heres what they mean.

When you see text highlighted by this icon, stash it in your brain, whether youre new to working from home or a pro.

The text marked with this icon may not be crucial to your success in working from home, but you may still find it enlightening.

This icon denotes a piece of advice that may make working from home easier.

Pay attention to this icon. The guidance can prevent work-at-home headaches.