Janet Candy is a Senior Accountant with the Bundaberg Business Services (BS7) team yet lives about five hour’s drive south of her colleagues in New South Wales. As Ulton’s first fully remote worker (though not the last), she sat down with Connect to tell us how she makes it work.
Here are her top 9 tips and tricks for making remote working, work for her and the team.
- Communicate – Janet greets her team via Microsoft Teams so they know she’s on deck and ready to work. 'I treat my working day exactly like I’m in the office.'
- Get organised – 'I prioritise each day’s work through Job Manager in MYOB. It lists what I’m working on, what’s important and what’s not.'
- Be proactive – 'If I do need help from my boss, Cris, I get onto her straight away.'
- Join the wider team – 'I always join Daryl’s weekly tax discussion meetings. It’s good to find out what’s going on in the wider team and within our industry.'
- Set up a workable home office – 'I have a dedicated space with a varied desk to make sure my posture is OK. I can shut the door and concentrate away from my family and home life.'
- Negotiate your terms – 'I’ve just moved to a nine-day fortnight. By starting early and finishing late, I can have a long weekend every two weeks. It’s been life changing.'
- Take a lunch break – 'I always schedule time for a break away from my desk for lunch, no matter how busy I am. I sometimes have a swim or a walk, so I return to work in the afternoon refreshed.'
- Find balance – 'Working remotely means you can do too much work, or not enough. Finding a healthy balance and boundaries between work and your home life is vital.'
- Switch off – 'At the end of the day, I turn off my computer and won’t turn it on until the next day. It can be tempting to keep working, but I avoid that. Winding down at the end of the day is vital.'
Left to right - Connor Silcox, Kelvin Pimm (not officially in the BS7 team, but wishes he was 😜), Cris Kajewski, Janet Candy, Nicholas Kermeci, Fiona Lawson. Insert - Leanne Smith