AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
Paul Sharp is creative director at VCCP.
How are you dealing with the silence?
With two kids home-schooling and impromptu DIY symphonies crescendoing at any time from the various neighbourly environs, silence is not really part of my daily WFH experience. On top of this the nature of remote working means every small conversation that would have been a passing word or informal chat in the office is another book-it-in-vid-conf. In a way we’re talking more now than we ever were before—but so much of that is naturally about tailoring and reconfiguring our various business dialogues to the situation.
What’s the upside?
I definitely see a few positives that come from this way of working. Curiously, there are social advantages to it; where before we may have taken our proximity to one another a little for granted, now we are literally reaching into one another’s homes to communicate, and with that comes a greater degree of ‘seeing’ the person we’re connecting with.
It also forces us to hone those communications between us, perhaps more so than before, to be more considered in our interrogation of the problems in front of us, so as to be more efficient with our working time.
The downside?
Organic banter is not really something that can happen in this new normal. There’s less, “I watched that (….) series on Netflix last night, you seen it yet?” And no, “Fancy a wander down to City Edge (Best Sandwich Bar in Surry Hills and round the corner from us).” So yeah, I miss the agency community. But we’re doing stuff to combat this—we have “Wellness Warriors” who’ve been setting up everything from 15 min yoga stretches to vid conference drinks and trivia sessions. Even story-time ‘hang outs’ for staff and clients’ kids!
How are you using the commuting time saved?
Sadly my commute was also my daily work out, I’ve been cycling to work for years. So now I have to compensate for that by taking Izzy (the prettier one in the pic) for a run round the park at lunch, which, coupled with making lunch rather than paying a super-streamlined sandwich operation to supply the goods means, on aggregate, I’m not really saving a whole lot of time.
That said, with the home set up, I do tend to just up and get at it rather than the usual morning rituals. Strange thing is, before I know it, it’s 11am and I haven’t even had breakfast. And as for the lack of moving around… I think we’re gonna be seeing a whole lot of OHandS questions firing around in the not-too-distant future!
I am looking forward to being back in the office because…
You can’t beat proximity for working as a team. Sure we’re all smart and adaptable, but the ability to holler over to a colleague a few desks away and get an immediate update or sense check is always going to be better than booking in a 5 min ‘Hang Out’ or waiting for a ‘Slack’ response.
Hang in there world!
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