AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
Adam Furness is managing director for APAC at Impact.
How are you dealing with the silence?
What silence? I’m working from home with my wife (Sophia), two girls (Chloe 12, Helena 9) and a dog Benji. Silence is not a word in our house unless it’s before 6.30am or after 10.30pm. There’s home schooling, dance classes, piano lessons and quite often four Zoom calls going all at once. We’ve also introduced a ‘happy hour’ with one of our neighbours on our front balconies.
Distanced drinks with neighbours
What’s the upside?
Connecting with my family! Daily ISO walks with Sophia, bike riding with the girls between meetings and dinners all together. Board games on the weekend, Lego for school projects, making pizzas, mini triathlons in the backyard inclusive of a few laps of the pool, star jumps and shooting hoops. The occasional family exercise class has been fun too.
The downside?
No face to face interaction with my team and no hotel buffet breakfasts. Is it wrong to choose hotels by the buffets they serve? Work is also busier than usual, which is a nice problem to have, but the already blurred lines between work and home have definitely got blurrier thanks to the eight hours of Zoom calls each day.
Culinary skills improving
How are you using the commuting time saved?
My commute was either via the Ferry or Bus. I’m not really saving time because the time was used up podcasting, learning Greek (Sophia is Greek and will be laughing here because I’m hopeless), listening to missed meetings or training sessions and catching up on emails. I’m still doing the same (including being hopeless at learning Greek).
I am looking forward to being back in the office because…
I miss the banter, hanging s**t on our Sydney-based account director, Sam Morton and engaging face to face with our APAC team. First thing I’ll be doing when we get through to the other side is head to Singapore and China to meet our new recruits and celebrate navigating the storm.
The dog is exhausted
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