I’ve been scrolling through Twitter a lot recently; which is terrible for my mental health, for sure, but since joining Twitter in June 2008 with a pithy opener; “Man, I really hope I can get my umbrella back from that kebab shop” (I did); I’ve had an interesting on-off relationship with it for over 11 years.
My work-focussed Twitter account has recently become more interesting. Partly because I’ve started following subjects and people I’m interested in — from cloud security to Brexit Leaver accounts (because you need to understand how Otherness works) but never, ever P1ers M0rgan, and this has given me wider insights and more clarity about Brexit, our PM, C-19, GCP, etc.
In the UK, we are on our second week of Quarantine. Parts of China had more than 3 months. Some of the world’s most authoritarian countries are using this period to track and imprision its citizens, using C-19 apps, or fobidding its citizens to even go to grocery stores. A friend of mine told me well over a fortnight ago that there was a real concern domestic violence would increase dramatically during this period — in the UK we have already had 9 women murdered by their partners. In Germany, a local-government finance minister killed himself due to the stress of the potential shock to his economy once this 1st wave of C-19 was over. We must stop normalising this. March was not a month, it was an era. April will undoubtedly make March look like a walk in the park (remember those?), May .. well, who knows.
Two tweets really resonated with me in the last couple days, which really follow-on from a great deal of irritation I’ve been feeling about people using the phrases “remote working”, “working from home” and “the new normal” and I’m sat trying to work in an armchair, and later at my ‘standing desk’ (a chest of drawers), hiding in the bedroom of a small flat, waiting for the moment where my 15 month old son, who, like a velociraptor, can now open doors, will realise my wife and I (in split shifts) aren’t at work, we’re in the flat all along! What joyful new challenges that will bring! There is nothing normal about this period; it’s unprecedented, it’s a shock and unless you live alone in a property where you have dedicated office space, and a little garden to get some sun on your face; it’s not a long-term solution.
“”You are not working from home; you are at your home during a crisis trying to work.” I’ve heard this twice today. I think it’s an important distinction worth emphasising.” (https://twitter.com/neilmwebb/status/1245012958415073282?s=21)
and
“PSA: THIS IS NOT WHAT “WORKING FROM HOME” IS LIKE — I’ve been working from home for nearly a year. What’s going on now is very different. Kids are home. Everything is shut down. Supplies are critical. Stress is high. Worries are high. WFH is usually more streamlined than this.” (https://twitter.com/BenLesh/status/1245374583521398786?s=20)
So, as I work in consulting, I would like to show you this whizzy PowerPoint presentation I’ve put together, with a Wow-Slide that outlines my 5-point strategic solution..
.. OK, I over-egged that a little. There is no solution for how we are working, adapting and (trying to do) coping right now. What do I propose? Honesty. Top-down. Thought-leadership style. Where we can honestly say to ourselves, our peers, colleagues and clients that Hey! I only worked 6 hours today, I’d love to have done more, I’d’ve loved to have gone outside a bit, but right now I’m trying to work fulltime, and fit a lot of other stuff into the day that as recently as a fortnight ago, would have been done by someone else. Honesty where we have conversations with our customers and clients and say Hey! We usually go hell-to-leather doing what’s right always, smiling and loving our work and our life, but right now, our folks are doing the best they can, and we’re sure your folks are doing the same.
This isn’t a call to arms, or my Jerry Maguire moment, but I am asking, if possible, for us to stop normalising this and google “allostatic overload”, to stop showing off our 4x 26" curved monitor home-office setups, and to accept that maybe, just maybe, velocity might take a hit, but no-one is taking this as an opportunity to slack-off, Netflix and.. err.. chill, or block out their calendar for 4 hours a day for “meetings” (where they’re actually getting those jobs round the house done). We are all doing the best we can.
Once this is over, we can talk about the new normal, we can all go move into flats or houses with spare rooms for offices, we can say to those customers who think it’s super-important that we are onsite in their offices 9 miles outside of Reading, a mere 2 tubes, 1 train and a 25 minute taxi ride commute from Central London (http://shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=463) — Hey! I don’t know if you’re aware that remote-working is the new normal, but our folks are just as productive working from home. THAT will be the new normal — but today, April 2nd 2020 — today is Our Independence Day!
OK, I went full Bill Pullman. I didn’t have a strong finish. But I wanted to give you a good chuckle. Stay Safe. Stay the Eff Home. Call me if you feel like you’re about to implode.
