Let me put that in context. I am fortunate to work for a company that already had virtually everything in place for remote working. We had used SKYPE and Microsoft Teams, we had mobile communications and VPN; we were fully equipped. We just didn’t really take the opportunities this provided and do more remotely. Well, that was until this Coronavirus “situation” forced behaviours to change.
And we work in an industry that, whilst considered important to the economy in normal times, has largely taken a step back whilst other industries, other services, have become essential and frontline. When a Procurement officer tells you that your construction project is not being considered for Tender because they are using their staff on priority procurements; of surgical gloves, of masks, and of essential kit to keep people alive… Well, it sort of puts things into perspective.
I have two relatives who are Nurses, currently in that frontline I mentioned. They both see their vocation as a calling, but neither I suspect would have ever thought that they would be potentially risking their health and that of their nearest and dearest. Fortunately, and somewhat ironically, they are the wife and daughter of my brother, a member of our armed forces who is working from home… It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
Similarly, I have an old army colleague who works in IT for the NHS. We have had discussions on the validity of senior management sending their IT staff into a “red zone” to fix a printer or a server. It’s essential work, but if you’re a 64 year old asthmatic you have a hard decision to make. And will your decision be viewed pejoratively when this is all over?
When this is all over there’ll be no denying the heroics of a sector of society that will have stood between us and a potential catastrophe.
But, notwithstanding that… I could get used to this…
Working from home gives you an opportunity to understand which parts of your day were not most efficient. You can see where you are able to improve your productivity and reduce waste.
I’m not spending 2 hours travelling per day (that doesn’t include travelling to meetings). I can roll out of bed, do the daily 20 press-ups *, slip in to the shorts and slippers and head for the office – which is either the dining room or (if my son is at his Mum’s) my son’s bedroom with the glorious gaming station. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no gamer. But his gaming chair and 50 inch screen is a game changer – extreme comfort and EXCEL in glorious Corona-vision (that’s what I’m calling it) on the big screen. (* Note – no press-ups undertaken)
Meetings are much more focussed. Now that’s not necessarily true when we first started this regime of SKYPE and TEAMS, but little by little we have become masters at getting on and getting on with it on our virtual meetings. We are learning exponentially how to share screens with the meeting, and learning new meeting terminology like “you’re on mute”, “whose dog is that?”, “are you in the garden” and “wow, that’s quite a shirt today, Mark”. And thank heavens, we appear to have gotten over our initial lust for these meetings… I mean I’m only spending 2 or 3 hours of the day in them now…
I will admit it, I have been somewhat curmudgeonly in the past in regards reading documents from a screen, saying that “I just can’t read things like that”, and always printing these things out. I know I’m not the only one… Suddenly, I’m cured! Not having access to a printer (my wife’s has run out of ink…) and whopping screen (see above) has made me suddenly able to do exactly the thing I said I couldn’t do. I have gone from having a desk, shelves and surrounding floor covered in varied depths of paper, to having a small rucksack of papers for a few key projects at hand. Any new documents are all being read and referred to digitally. Paper- free office? It’s the future! But we said exactly the same about 5 years ago. Just goes to show that necessity is the mother of invention, and being stuck in the mud is the creepy uncle who you avoid at family get-togethers. Remember those?
There are other pastoral implications of our current situation. Community spirit has seen an upturn; my cul-de-sac is a good example. We all wave at each other repeatedly throughout the day as we go about our lockdown lives. John and Morag at no.2 tinkering in their front garden again, the girls at no. 5 out on their bikes for a half hour, Geoff at no. 6 having a smoke on his doorstep, and me at no.7 waving inanely out of the window with my headset on during a call.
This community spirit extends to work video calls where there is a degree of additional small talk, with Clients, other Consultants, even Contractors asking how you are, and actually feeling like they mean it. Does it mean team members care more, or is it that for some this might be their only interaction of the day. I’m fortunate, I have my wife and a very noisy dog, but for some who live alone the checking in at the beginning of meetings, could be the only mental health checkpoint they have. Doig+Smith have staff welfare, including good mental health, as one of their key drivers in normal times and this extends now to our daily team meetings. They are used for a check-in, to understand how the workload is being balanced, and to direct us accordingly, finished off with a daily joke from one of the team. I like these meetings, they keep a sense of team mentality; you know you’re not working remotely AND alone. It means we can keep delivering for our Clients even in these unprecedented times.
So, like I said, I could get used to this… But I don’t want to… I want us to get through this. And we will. It’s pretty obvious that it isn’t going to be easy, and particularly hard for some. The loss of loved ones will be the most significant aspect of this and no gallows-humour will dilute this. It shouldn’t. A heightened respect for our new frontline HAS to be a paradigm shift for our society or we will have learned nothing. The Economic impact is yet to be fully understood, but even the best projections look grim. How we act and adapt in the current situation will be the foundation of how we react and how we are viewed when we come out of our isolations, from our individual work stations, and from behind a SKYPE video conference. I look forward to watering my plant in the office and tidying all that paper up on my desk (and on the floor) in the office.
But the opportunity to work differently is now more apparent than ever. More opportunity to have sharper, more focused, remote meetings must be a good thing? To be more efficient and balance your work and personal life better by travelling less is another benefit (never mind the ecological impact this could have); we have worked from home effectively in a time of need, why not when it’s not forced upon us?
Albert Einstein said “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
We have quickly adapted our thinking to keep going, we have changed process to ensure delivery, and we will emerge from the other side of our Coronavirus “situation” as a changed industry, a changed economy, and a changed society.
I’d like to think, whilst I get used to this current normality, that I won’t be the only one enjoying being part of that future change.