The COVID-19 pandemic is all that everyone is talking about right now. Many businesses and schools have closed their doors, while public gatherings have been suspended or cancelled until further notice.
Understandably, this pandemic has sparked a lot of fear.
To practice social distancing, many employers have switched to allow their employees to work from home during this time.
Working remotely can be great, but the problem arises when you begin to produce paperwork that could put you at risk.
Here are some tips we’ve assembled to work at home safely.
Make Yourself an Office
If you’ve worked from home before or if you do so on a regular basis, you likely have a designated workspace. If this is your first time working from home, you’ll want to get a spot set up for yourself. Having your own office would be ideal, but if not, you can use your kitchen table. Try to avoid using your living room because that’s usually where we have distractions, such as our TV. Avoid areas that are too comfortable, such as the couch or our bed, because then it’s a lot easier to take a nap when you’re supposed to be productive.
Implement Cybersecurity Measures
If you’ve never worked from home before, check out a previous blog, where we discussed tips on how to work from home safely.
Make sure that you use a variety of passwords for your different accounts and that you don’t use common or guessable passwords. Using unique, strong passwords ensures that if one of your accounts gets hacked, then the rest of your accounts are protected.
Never click on any suspicious links or emails, which are known as phishing scams. Phishing scams try to entice the user to click on the link, which infects your computer. For additional protection, purchase anti-virus and anti-malware software that protects your computer in the case of a data breach.
Create a To-Do List and Stick To It
While working from home provides ample freedom and flexibility, sometimes it’s difficult to maintain motivation. Make sure you set aside a certain number of hours to get work done. If needed, you can schedule breaks in between to get other things done. Making a list of the tasks needed to get done during the day is also helpful because it’ll help keep you on track.
Maintain Communication With Your Coworkers
Working from home has many benefits, but it can also feel a little lonely on occasion. If you’re used to being in an office environment or you’re a member of a team, try to maintain the relationship with your coworkers by communicating through instant messaging apps like Slack. While social distancing is being encouraged at this time, there are still ample opportunities to maintain relationships with people.
Don’t Throw Out Confidential Documents
As most people will be working from home, ensure that extra precautions are taken to protect confidential documents. If your employee has taken sensitive documentation home, ensure that they bring it into the office at a later date to place in one of our lockable containers. Don’t throw your documents in the trash or in the recycling, as this leaves the opportunity for dumpster divers to steal valuable customer information or even your own.
Shredding documents goes beyond simply shredding work documents. You have documents at home that could leave you vulnerable to a data breach, such as financial statements, credit card applications or even birthday cards! It may seem unlikely, but it is true. Birthday cards give out valuable information, like your name, age (in some cases) and address, leaving you vulnerable to fraud.
Looking for On-Site Shredding Services?
Tri-State Shredding has been providing shredding services to the Pennsylvania area for years. We provide on-site document destruction to destroy your documents on-site and worry-free.
At this time, we are still operating as normal to continue to provide quality service to our customers. If you have any questions, you can read our full statement here or give us a call at 717-233-5606 for more information.