Reflections on a year of working from home
When we logged into Microsoft Teams from our kitchens and dining tables on Tuesday 17 March 2020, we didn’t realise we were starting a new working life.
The first few days were novel, new.
Seeing what colleagues looked like on screen, talking to circles at first until more and more cameras were turned on.
Creating temporary workstations, thinking we’d be back in a month.
My working life fitted into a plastic tub and everything was packed in there at the end of the day. Once that lid was snapped on, there was no reopening it!
After 8 weeks, I realised I’d outgrown my dining chair and only a laptop screen. Excitement came in the form of my ‘real’ office chair arriving, already adjusted to fit, feeling like a ‘piece of the office’. My migraines were eased with a proper monitor. It didn’t fit in the box, but it got its cover on at night.
Weeks turned to months and we worked through the seasons.
The commute became a walk.
In summer, I changed my living room around during the week, and back at the weekends. It gave me a better backdrop and a view.
Eventually, in late autumn, I committed to the spare room and desk.
My acceptance of homeworking was mirrored by my furniture moves.
We moved from novelty into routine and the pattern of the working week resumed. Morning catch-ups, meetings, lunch breaks. Better lunches. Eggs! Toast!
We thought we wouldn’t need holidays then realised that we did more than ever. The joy of screen-free days and unscheduled time.
Lunchtime activities became more creative — a workout, reading, calling a friend. Batch cooking. Lunchtime TV. Getting ahead for the week.
Our clothes became more casual, our gifs more descriptive.
Conversations came in waves — someone’s ‘up’ was another’s ‘down’. We levelled each other. Laughing on the days we didn’t think we could. Being ‘up’ that day and being able to lift someone else. Never knowing who might need it so trying to always support. Calling colleagues we hadn’t seen for a while just to check in and chat.
Quizzes, team drinks, the Christmas party. New colleagues to get to know. Will they be disappointed when they meet the real us? Maybe not, we probably look better off screen…
A year through the screen, and somehow we were better connected.
Life events: a Zoom wedding, news updates and elections, training and webinars, exhibitions and conferences. Sitting in the chair, we were everywhere.
And although we’re still sitting in the chair a year later, there may be more opportunities to get up from it this year. And maybe even to try out a different chair for size.
