NEWS • 31 March 2020

Making home-working work

So, we’re two weeks into working from home, and it’s beginning to feel worryingly normal. Might the Corona virus leave a legacy of new ways of working, or are we all going to be springing back to the Studio as soon as we’re allowed to? Views on this seem to vary across the team, and many seem to have mixed feelings.

In many ways, we’re very lucky as a business as what we do lends itself to being done remotely. Indeed, some of our designers and developers have said they’re getting more done without the distractions of office life. The project managers have had to make the biggest adjustment though, as all their face to face meetings have become endless video calls. I think we’re all getting better at making these calls as effective as a normal meeting, but in reality they’re just not the same.

Generally, we seem to be as productive as we normally are. Our office chat is constantly pinging away, though it’s not quite the same as being able to slide over to someone and see what’s on their screen.

Many of us have taken the chance to move out of London – to parents and in laws – made more complicated if they were already isolating. Being able to take one’s daily exercise out in the countryside is definitely a perk. Prize for best desk goes to Martin who has taken over a Caravan at his family farm in Cornwall.

Having children at home all day does make working harder, especially when one is trying to play teacher at the same time. Thankfully not many of the team are in this boat yet. Bringing families closer together may be one silver lining of this pandemic, but I think most parents will be sighing relief when schools and nurseries start again.

Overall, the biggest factor is uncertainty of how long this is going to continue for. As our office lease had finished, we took the opportunity to move out, but it’s hard to know when and where we will be congregating back together. Let’s hope there’s still a good pub opposite as that is definitely one tradition we’re all missing.

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