Given that most of us in the UAE are now working from home, a lot of business is happening via webcam and apps like Zoom nowadays.
If you’re feeling the opposite of productive but want to convince your work mates that you’re smashing through spreadsheets as quickly as you’re smashing through the biscuits in your cupboard (just us?), then it’s time to create a professional illusion.
Kate Watson-Smyth, author of interiors blog and book Mad About the House, says that styling your surroundings can fool callers into thinking you’re taking working from home very, very seriously. Her tips?
Choose your desk space carefully
Sit at a table, not on your sofa or your bed (even if that’s where you work best).
Tidy up
You’re going to want have the background as bare as possible. Now is probably not the time for that picture of you and your best mates on holiday in Ibiza back in 2010 to be dominating the screen.
Make sure there’s a cup of coffee in shot
It’s the productive worker’s drink of choice, after all.
Get a plant
They’re nice to look at and show you can reliably and responsibly look after something. Although Watson-Smyth adds: “Make sure it’s healthy, that way your caller can focus fully on what you’re saying rather than wondering if they can ask you to water it.”
Click here for the best apps to use for virtual socialising in the UAE and if you’re looking for more working from home tips, head here.
