Yesterday, one of my clients asked me to speak directly with one of her clients on a matter that I would be handling for her company. It was supposed to be a one-and-done; he wanted to change a few details related to the format of his documents and it was more efficient for him to speak to me directly. It was a perfectly ordinary conversation, until he decided to switch to FaceTime about five minutes into it. Well, all righty, then – I had my hair stuck up in a bun, no makeup, wearing a tee shirt, but there you have it. We finished this call, but later on, around 6 p.m., I was in the middle of a chef salad that I had looked forward to all day, when who should Face Time me again? Dr. H. So I let the call go to voicemail. Undaunted, he called right back and this time I was ready to answer. Another Face Time. He had a few more details he wanted to go over, and we did, and he was satisfied.

I wasn’t quite as thrilled. While I was happy to speak with him and handle his changes as I had been asked to do, the Face Time without prior arrangement felt like an ambush, and calling me after hours felt intrusive. Because Dr. H. was not my own client, however, I didn’t feel that I had the right to refuse.

But here’s the thing – I’ve been working virtually for over 25 years, by my own choice, in an industry that was even back then well-equipped to do so. I am very comfortable with meeting people only by phone, email and the occasional meeting on line, and my colleagues and clients are usually quite experienced at virtual work as well. Almost instantly, though, and not by their choice, there are millions of folks who are brand new to working from home. Dr. H. is without a doubt used to having his own staff around him when he is at work. I don’t doubt that it never occurred to him that some protocols have changed.

Anyway, if working from home is new to you, and you want to be a good and considerate virtual citizen, here’s a few short list of virtual work etiquette:

Five Ways to Be Polite While Working From Home

• Know what time it is. Keep regular office hours. Make sure that you are aware of times zones and other people’s work hours. Just because you are an early riser does not mean that everyone will be happy to hear from you at 7 a.m.
• Be aware of your environment. If you already have a home office, that’s great. If your partner is also working from home and your kids are now home-schooled, try hard to give everyone their own space and privacy. If you have to share space, try letting your kids work alongside you, as if they were coming to work with you. When all else fails, schedule everyone some privacy to work.
• Appointments still matter. We all have our phones with us all the time, and we’re probably not going to be “out of the office” any time soon, but nonetheless, but it is still good manners to inquire about a colleague’s availability for a lengthy call or on-line meeting. Don’t just assume they can make time for you whenever.
• Be Professional. If you don’t have a work phone, answer your personal phone in a businesslike manner when appropriate. For virtual meetings, try to be at least business casual from the waist up. Colleagues and clients will still see you. Use the mute button in meetings when you are not actively speaking.
• Be kind to your yourself. Just because you can work 24/7 doesn’t mean that you should. Habitual virtual workers will tell you that there tends to be mission creep when working from home – it’s hard to know when enough is enough. Schedule start times, meal breaks, exercise breaks and quitting time. Life does go on, even in times like these.