AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
James Sneddon is an enterprise account director at LinkedIn.
How are you dealing with the silence?
I play the guitar, it helps me to connect with my nostalgic past, while also helping to drown out the mayhem of working from home (while home schooling two young children).
What’s the upside?
Re-discovering a simpler, slower life and having more time to hang as a family (mainly at the weekend!) So, not rushing out the door, riding bikes, baking stuff, whiskey-sipping VC chats and, every now and then, time to ‘Enjoy the Silence’
It’s interesting to see social media returning to its roots and helping to connect people to one another again too. We’re also seeing the return to a more authentic community as people’s identities are, today, a lot more than just their jobs.
The downside?
The Game of Life when all you want is Scrabble…
The blurring of moments and days into what can feel like a never-ending week. The Ground Hog reality of ‘needing to take the bins out,’ seemingly, every few hours.
There are new pitfalls in the world of work too - the first two minutes of VC calls as we lurch into the ‘usual chat’ only to find we’ve being talking all over one another. The need to spend a huge amount of time re-wording emails to tap into our ‘new world’ appropriate (“Business unusual“/ “Post Co-Vid world reality”/ “New normal” etc.)
How are you using the commuting time saved?
It allows a bit more time in the day to check out the new and re-boot old-school passions.
I’ve been enjoying Homo Deus when in need of something meaningful, compiling & sharing definitive top 10 playlists (by way of example) across LinkedIn to shake up the status quo chats.
As a family we have re-watched the whole of Carpool Karaoke for laughs and been catching up on all of the Oscar nominated films of the last 10 years+ when needing to escape the drudgery.
I am looking forward to being back in the office because…
I can catch up with all the good people, again. LinkedIn makes huge efforts to keep us connected virtually through training, work life aides, happy hour etc. but it’s hard to replace the energy and immediacy of office banter and chats.
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