My Infinity War: The Space Stone
March 24th, 2024 - 8 minute read
The Space Stone - capable of controlling space itself, providing the user instant access to any location throughout the universe if used correctly
There has been LOTS of content written around COVID and the impact this has had on businesses and people alike as we move into this new remote / hybrid world. As a result, I donât want this section to dive too much into the wider landscape and focus on data, moreso to discuss the impact it had on me, the business and my personal opinions moving forward.
The time was 2020
So letâs start by rewinding to March 2020 shall we? I remember very well that my initial thoughts led me to believe that I would be sitting on my sofa for a couple of weeks before getting back in the office. Yep, very wrong there but I am sure I wasnât the only one! After a couple of weeks, it became apparent that working on the sofa wasnât going to be something that I could continue with but with a small house, my options were not fantastic!
Work from the kitchen top
Replace the kids playroom with my office
Use the spare room as an office
Put a small desk in my bedroom and double up as an office
Options 1 and 2 were really not feasible, I had a 2 year old daughter who was at home every day and the distraction for me and my wife would have been too much. Option 3 looks like the best option here but my wife and I were trying for our 2nd and we hoped that they would come along in 2020/2021, it would work for now but it would only have ever been a short term option. We talked about whether we could put the kids in together from the start, I would rather have worked from the garden, lol! So option 4 it was, Infinity Works were amazing and bought me a chair, monitor and laptop stand and went halves on a slimline desk for me. I was set up and ready to go!
On the whole, I would say I made the best out of the situation and I am grateful that I have the space to work from home at all. The whole IW team was unbelievable and people adapted really quickly and we didnât see any visible drop off in terms of productivity or ensuring we deliver for our customers. For a time, being able to jump on video calls with work friends to have a chat was a privilege as it gave me the outside connections I was craving, something not everyone else had available to them!
But it did come with consequences.
In terms of the actual work, of course I missed the office, how could I not. I am a social person and have spent my whole career enjoying being part of something bigger than just myself and my work. But 2 personal things that were affected were my sleep and my work life balance. Letâs start with sleep. There are many studies now that talk about the downfalls of working from the same room as the one you sleep in. Whether this has genuinely had an effect on me, itâs so hard to say! But I do feel as though being able to wake up and get out of the bedroom would affect my mental health in a positive way!
In regards to work life balance, like many, it was really hard (and still can be) to âfinish at the normal timeâ, when you know that working through what would have been your commute time will allow you to get more done from your busy to-do list. Certainly back in the height of lockdowns, I was tending to work 11 hour days, if nothing else, just to feel useful and avoid potential boredom!
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the mental health and wellbeing of people around the world
The biggest worry for me and for many, was the mental health of our workers when being pushed into such unusual circumstances. Our office manager Jenny was an absolute hero through the lockdowns, arranging virtual wine tasting, chocolate tasting, game nights, bingo, delicious hampers and much more! This was hugely appreciated by everyone and I felt so lucky to be in a company that supported their people in such a way! It genuinely made a difference in not only how I turned up for work, but how I turned up for life and the interactions with my family.
Now, what COVID did do to businesses was exactly as the quote defines, âinstant access to any locationâ. Whether this be customers that you wanted to engage with or talent that you wished to hire. One thing we saw from this was therefore a reduction in the desire to place local teams with local staff and over this 1-2 year period, we found a lot of our Manchester staff working on accounts operated and primarily staffed by our other office locations. Now, this was not a problem whatsoever in the fully remote world, in fact it brought with it many benefits in relation to the company feeling more âone companyâ than ever before. Building relationships with people across the country and establishing more national communities of practices and donut chats than ever before. However, as we moved back into ânormalityâ, this does have a knock on effect on culture, the sense of belonging and office utilisation.
The time is now
As soon as I was able to, I moved to a hybrid way of working, opting to be in the office 2-3 days per week. For me personally, I have found this to be my happy place! I love being in the office, having the opportunity to really connect with my colleagues, spend too much on lovely lunches in Manchester and I actually enjoy the commute. It is only in the commuting that I tend to prioritise listening to podcasts which is something that has brought me a lot of joy and knowledge! However, having the flexibility to work from home during the week for a couple of days is awesome, for me it is a stress reliever as a couple of days where you donât have to commute, working in your joggers and being able to play some PlayStation in my lunch is ace!
I think we find ourselves in a really interesting position as the majority of people I speak to in the tech world, also choosing to work in some form of hybrid model. I know plenty of people whereby this balance is working perfectly for both them, and the business. However, I must say that I donât believe that balance is right on the whole with many opting to work fully remote (or very nearly fully).
I am 100% in agreement of working the way that gets the best out of you and not defining a blanket rule where all employees have to be in 2 days a week for example. But for the majority, I donât believe that the best option equates to fully remote working. Letâs think about the benefits we have all had from working with one another all these years:
Getting out the house and normally some form of exercise to get into the office
Mixing with colleagues and creating genuine bonds and a trust that I donât think you can quite mimic working fully remotely
Having the well needed coffee machine chats, itâs amazing what you pick up from this
Learning from others whether this be overhearing a conversation or pulling up a chair next to someone to pair on something
Getting round a whiteboard (still miss this!)
Embedding yourselves into the regional community including attending meetups, breakfast roundtables or various other events.
There is just too much good stuff here for the proâs to outweigh the cons. The problem is that people have started to create habits, some people have begun to make excuses and others havenât ever experienced the joys of working in person with one another, something I think is a huge shame, especially for people more junior in their careers.
And all this is just about the personal impact, from a consultancy perspective, being close to your customers is a key part of building long lasting partnerships and customers tend to value the ability for teams to be in their offices and I am seeing this more and more as time goes on. We have to be in a position as a business where we are able to meet the demands of our customers and so I believe there should be an expectation that hybrid working is part and parcel of being in a consultancy at times where your client is within a reasonable distance of your home office.
In Summary
In my opinion, fully remote roles are great as they give us the flexibility of hiring the best talent and provide an inclusive way of working that gets the best out of some people. However, my view is that it works best when it applies to a small percentage of the workforce. Hybrid working can still meet the demands of people who enjoy remote work, whilst also blending in all of the benefits I talked about earlier.
I hear people talk about ânot getting as much work done when in the officeâ. It comes down to what you consider work. For me personally, you may not be as efficient in relation to the outputs youâre providing in the short term, but I am convinced that the benefits that you get will improve you and your outputs in the longer term.