Tag: power outage

Preparing Against Power Outage, Remote Workers' Greatest Foe

Preparing Against Power Outage, Remote Workers’ Greatest Foe

Working remotely is highly convenient not only for the remote workers, but for the employers at the same time. Instead of setting up big office spaces, you no longer have to worry about delaying your operations as long as your virtual assistants are set. You simply have to ensure your company’s files and applications are accessible in any unit regardless of location. 

However, the aforementioned convenience can be disrupted by many problems, such as power outages. When blackout hits, it is common that virtual assistants tend to leave work early or miss their entire shift. 

Fortunately, there are ways for remote workers to prepare against power outages. All it takes is following these simple tips:

Keep yourself updated to the power maintenance schedule. At present, electricity providers use various platforms to keep their customers notified when power maintenance will be done. You should take advantage of this, such as by following their social media pages. You may also request for updates via e-mail or SMS.

Make sure your devices are charged after use. You should make it a habit to charge your devices after use. For instance, following your daily shift, ensure that you charge your laptop and mobile phone. At the very least, you can be certain that the next day you utilize these devices, they are fully functional despite the possibility of power outage affecting your area.

It became a practice for most remote workers to only charge their equipment whenever the battery is low. This should be avoided, regardless of whether your location is prone to blackouts or the contrary.

Prepare a backup internet always. Besides charging your devices, you should also have an alternative internet connection. Power outage implies your wired internet will no longer work. 

Apart from saving credit for mobile data, if you are using a wireless internet device, you should also make certain that this is fully charged always.

It is also helpful if you are near an area, such as a restaurant or café, which offers free internet connection. This could be an option if you ran out of solutions for the backup internet.

Nonetheless, this tip goes hand in hand with the second one. Even if you have a way out from your internet issue, but your PC or laptop has no power backup, you still would not be able to work.

Maintain your generator properly. If you have a portable generator at home, it is imperative you follow the procedures in maintaining it. Aside from keeping a stock of fuel, you should also see to it that it undergoes periodic inspection for issues. Moreover, you should consider oil change, battery power check, and battery cleaning among others. By doing so, you would not have any issue using it in times of blackouts.

Set a go-to place as an alternative home office. There is a possibility that power outages may last for days, particularly if the damage is due to natural disasters. In this instance, it is advisable to find a place that you could set as your home office temporarily. For instance, an available co-working space you could rent for a short period or a friend’s house that you would be welcome to stay in for a while.

With the given tips above, you would be able to report as normally as you could despite power outages. Simply keep in mind that missing work due to blackout could mean a lot of things, such as missed deadline, attendance issue, delayed team members’ work due to your late input, and overall poor performance record. These could be prevented by being proactive in dealing with power outages.

Remote Work Life: How to Deal With Power Interferences

Remote Work Life: How to Deal With Power Interferences

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Laptops, smartphones, tablets, and PC have already been part of our everyday lives and these gadgets run on power. As a remote worker or virtual assistant, you may use all the aforementioned devices, but among your top choices would be desktop PCs. These are known for durability despite long hours of usage, convenience of use, and efficiency of operation. PCs rely on a consistent stream of power to stay on, but sometimes, your main supply may not be so dependable. In areas prone to electricity interferences, damaging a PC is likely.

To understand more about power interferences, here are its different types:

  • Blackout. This normally takes place due to uncontrollable factors, such as electrical lines damage and disruption in the power station.
  • Power outage. This is an interference that occurs during the summer commonly. With extreme temperatures and high demand for power, it is anticipated that electrical equipment may fail.
  • Power surge. This occurrence is characterized by electrical draw changes and interruptions. One good example that could cause this is whenever your home equipment or appliances share the same power supply.
  • Brownout. This is observed when power does not black out completely, which explains the name itself. There is simply a temporal drop in electrical voltage.

If you work from home, you would have certainly experienced an instance wherein a power interference occurred while your PC is turned on. Take note that this does not imply all is well simply by powering your workspace back.  A sudden loss of power in your PC could result in hard disk damage.

Should the said instance happen, it is best to run a system check when your PC completes a system start. Here are the steps you need to follow:

  1. Tap the Search button on the taskbar.
  2. Type cmd in the search box.
  3. Choose Command Prompt on the top.
  4. Select Run as Administrator.
  5. Type chkdsk to perform a hard disk check.
  6. When completed successfully, you would see whether there are problems found or the outage has not affected your hard disk.

In the instance of detected problems, Windows will prompt and automatically fix the issues. There will be an auto repair upon restart of the PC.

Otherwise, you would see the message, Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required.

There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure, so here are solutions to keep your PC from being damaged by power interferences:

  • Surge Protectors. These devices are used to keep your gadgets, such as a computer, from unanticipated blackouts. By simply plugging your workspace into these protectors, you would be able to change the direction of excess power to the ground wire of outlets.
  • UPS Devices. UPS stands for uninterrupted power source, which is a device that can protect your devices from all power interferences. What makes it more reliable is its additional five to sixty minutes of power in combination with the surge protectors’ functions. It gives your desktop PC a battery backup, providing you ample time to save your work and avoid sudden computer shutdown, in the instance of power interference.
  • Data Backup. One of the biggest risks of power interference with your computer is data loss. In order to prevent your work from getting lost, make it a habit to back up your files regularly. Apart from relying on your local system for file backup, it is also best to utilize cloud storage solutions. These allow you to save your data remotely via the internet. Even if you experience power interferences, cloud storage applications often save your work and corresponding changes in real-time. Hence, there is a higher chance for your backup to exist even if you fail to save your activity manually before your PC shuts down.

Dealing with power interferences should be done seriously if you are a remote worker or a virtual assistant. Losing your data could lead to missed deadlines and poor productivity, which are big factors that determine your work performance. With you being totally reliant on the internet and power during work, protecting yourself from associated problems with them should be among your priorities.