AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
Toby Aldred is GM at Saatchi & Saatchi Mosman:
How are you dealing with the silence?
I enjoy a good office corridor natter, but I suspect we’ll come out the other side of this realising how powerful for the mind a moment or two of silence can be.
So silence, such as it can be found between phone calls/ the Cavoodle yapping/ partaking in Covid-call bingo / teenage door slamming / the road that runs directly past my desk, is golden.
What’s the upside?
1. When the weather is dry I’ve taken to working outside, it takes me back to the good old days of revising for school tests under a tree, only this time I’m actually doing work.
2. Everyone is so genuinely happy to see each other on Skype, not only is this enrichening for the soul but conversations are becoming more open and less defensive. In many ways the removal of body language and posturing is allowing better decisions to be made, that focus on the work.
3. Pre-Covid the advertising industry had already reached a point, eloquently put by my Publicis Groupe CEO Mike Rebelo where we needed to "adapt or die". This moment has taken that out of the realms of opinion forming into reality, for Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney that’s meant a whole manner of things from proving that flexible work is achievable even for traditional creative pairs, that our resources team is brilliant and knows exactly what to do when you give it a chance to lead and that running and winning a pitch virtually is a new norm.
The downside?
“All the people, so many people and they all go hand in hand, hand in hand through their parklife.”
Blur 1995
I miss our agency Parklife.
How are you using the commuting time saved?
I no longer have to decide between walking the dog or morning exercise. I can do both and still have time to brew a strong cup of tea before work gets underway.
I am looking forward to being back in the office because …
It will mark the beginning of a whole new un-written chapter in life. That all of us can play a part in writing.
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