The pandemic may be in our rearview mirror, but a lot of us are still hybrid working to some degree. Education Executive’s Laura Williams reflects on some of the insights about remote working from the Big SBL survey 2023
In the last Big SBL Survey, many of you were working from home at least part of the week or for occasional projects, but a larger number of you wanted to work from home and felt this wasn’t an option. While you see the many benefits of working from home, you may have discovered that your Head or SLT are flat-out saying no. Why? Because they don’t understand the benefits of it enough!
I’ve worked from home almost entirely since I started coaching SBLs in 2016, and over the years I’ve discovered that it is others’ fear of the unknown that prevents them from giving staff the go-ahead.
Think of it from your own perspective. When you’re in the dark about what your team is doing, you can’t delegate or plan, you can’t know if they are overloaded (or underloaded!), you don’t know who’s struggling and who is ready to step up.
Your Head likely feels the same about your desire to work from home. They won’t be worried about your productivity but rather about being “out of the loop” and about not being able to access you so easily! So, what can you do about it?
Self-report
It may seem a no-brainer but dropping your Head an email at the end of your work-from-home day with a quick summary of what you’ve achieved can help them feel informed.
Make a list
Again, straight forward, but it really works! A lot of SBLs I talk to have said that their school only allows work-from-home for specific projects, but if it’s a free-for-all at your school, have a clear list of to-dos so if you’re challenged, you can present your plan of action.
Use a task planner
If you are working across a MAT this can be particularly helpful, but it can work great for larger teams. There are so many free options out there, like Trello, Asana, ClickUp and more, so it’s a question of finding what works for your team. If everyone is on board and updating it, all of you will have an easy overview of how everything is progressing, wherever you are all based!
Reassure your Head that though you aren’t on site, you are contactable via phone and email. They may not need to contact you at all, and they likely will try and avoid doing so unless it’s absolutely necessary but sometimes, this kind of explicit reassurance can go a long way!
From conversations I’ve had with the SBL community more generally, the jury is still out on working from home. Some of you love it, some of you hate it, some of you don’t get a choice in the matter. Some of you feel disconnected, but some of you find it easier to concentrate without the non-stop interruptions.
It’s about finding a balance of home and office time that works for you and the needs of your school, but hopefully, you’re now armed with some extra sprinkles of persuasion next time you broach working from home with your Head.
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