Remote Working

Remote Working #

Information and tips and tricks on working from home and other remote working.

Meetings, calls and screen sharing #

Gather #

REG uses Gather for some of the coffee breaks and social events. It gives a virtual space (modelled on the office!) to wander around and have conversations with people near to you.

Note: Gather is blocked on the Turing VPN and on IT-managed computers.

Zoom #

Unless requested from IT, you will have a “Basic” Zoom account. This allows you to create meetings for up to 40 minutes (unlimited for meetings with only 2 people). For meetings longer than this, an upgrade to a “Pro” account is needed. To request a Pro account, submit a request on the IT Service Desk.

We have a persistent REG Zoom meeting room, which we use for things like coffee breaks, tech talks and co-working. See The REGistry for the location.

For larger events or meetings, Zoom also has some features for Webinars and breakout rooms.

Zoom Rooms (like those associated with each meeting room in the office) are persistent virtual meeting spaces. Additional rooms might be able to be requested from IT if required (these seem to be priced at £32/month, so some justification should be given).

For more information on how to get or use Zoom, see the Zoom TopDesk page.

Teams #

Note: We mostly use Zoom for meetings and Slack for messaging in REG, but others at the Turing use Teams more heavily (e.g. the business team), and some projects have meetings there.

  • Get it from the Microsoft site. There is also a mobile app.
  • Make calls, group calls and share screen straightforwardly within the app.
  • You can find your VoIP number by looking at your “My Office profile” (office.com, then click your profile picture).
    • Ask IT for one if you don’t have one.
  • Calls to this number will ring in the Teams app.

Some notes on using Teams #

Teams has several ways to share text and/or live voice and video with others:

  • calls
  • chats
  • meetings

Calls and chats are between you and one or more of your “contacts”. You can put your contacts into “groups”, which are distinct from “teams”.

The most versatile option is a meeting. The way to make one of these in the Teams app is on the calendar tab (obviously!). It must be associated with a calendar event, and can be joined by people who are invited or by sharing a link. The meeting itself has a chat associated with it. It exists before and after the duration of the meeting, so can be used to set up persistent meeting spaces.

Wellbeing tips for remote working #

Remote working brings different challenges. The work-life boundaries are less clear and some people struggle with lack of connection. Here we collate tips that the group has found to positively impact their wellbeing while working remotely. At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns, having wellbeing tips proved really useful, see below: For more information on Wellbeing in REG, see the Wellbeing page.

  • Delineate the start and end of the working day. A huge challenge is separating the working day from life outside of work, especially if both happen in the same location. Suggestions that might help bound work to working hours:
    • Simulate a commute to allow your brain to switch off. For example, go for a 20 minute walk, run, or read a book.
    • Have separate work clothes and non-work clothes.
    • Tidy your laptop/screen away if you are using the same space for relaxation.
    • If possible use a different device for leisure activity to your work machine.
  • Finish on time. Without the impetus of having colleagues around you clocking off it seems easy to work later than usual and eat into your relaxation time. Take a 1hr lunch break, and finish on time. If you are finding that you are repeatedly doing this then there is an issue with your workload that needs to be corrected. Reach out!
  • Talk. Many of us have missed the casual connection you get with being around people, and when you are working alone it is easy to forget the you are part of a team. This point is just a reminder that you work in a team that genuinely cares about the wellbeing of every member of the group.