How Some are Succeeding in Today’s Work Environment
What is the nature of engineering? Preparation, attention to details, efficient usage of tools—these are just a few traits that, generally, help engineers succeed.
In today’s altered world of stay-at-home telework, these qualities are just as important as they are in the traditional in-office/in-lab/in-person pre-Covid-19 workplace. At least that’s what we learned when we surveyed engineers about how today’s work situation has changed their day-to-day professional lives.
We asked engineers about the positives and negatives of telework, the necessary and “nice-to-have” tools, the requirements of a home work environment, and more. In sum, we learned that most agree that as far as being effective in the job, not a whole lot has actually changed.
Preparation is Inherent to the Job
Fortunately, according to most of our respondents, mission-critical software tools are just as effective in a home environment as in a traditional office. And in most cases, hardware requirements are minimal (monitor—possibly two, printer, etc.) and typically are in place already.
We have a great set of tools in place to support remote working,” said a respondent. “There are even software tools that allow an engineer to simulate being in the lab.”
Lab time is one task that likely cannot be replicated at home, but again, preparation is key.
“I have to plan time to go in to the lab, so I schedule lab time as early as possible,” said one respondent.
Whatever specific software tools your company uses, our respondents all generally listed communication (MS Teams, WebEx, Zoom, etc.), administrative (email, word processing, etc.), document reading (Acrobat or other .pdf read/edit), and job-specific software (SolidWorks, Altium, etc.) as parts of their home office.
In most cases, these can be utilized just as effectively from home as from the office.
“As far as day-to-day tasks go not much has changed and these can generally be handled the same way,” one respondent said.
