We’ve reached the anniversary of us all packing up our office and working from home! We cannot believe it’s been a year. It’s certainly had its ups and downs. Recently we read an article in The Times, which covered how six successful women work from home, so we thought we’d share our experiences at RL Wealth!…
Amanda & Neil – Robson Laidler Wealth Directors
Well, we are still married! Neil has definitely enjoyed it more – his golf handicap has improved considerably and is regularly found hitting balls in the garden – golf course doesn’t open until 29th March. Me (Amanda), less so, meeting our team on “Teams” is not quite the same and also missing seeing clients face to face. We have never used our dining room more, previously reserved for Christmas and the odd dinner party. Bit sick of it now though and dread to think what the heating bills will be as our house is freezing! It’s also tricky when both of us are on calls. Really looking forward to getting back to the office with our team, although may do the odd day at home in future. Very happy that our Business Continuity Plan actually works and grateful to our team’s work ethic.
Linked In: Amanda Cowie Neil Cowie
Emma – Operations and Compliance Manager
Pre-COVID I had a little bit of envy of those people with a job where working from home was the norm… 11 months in, it has completely changed my perspective. The first lockdown, consisted of myself and my partner working from home together, in our home which is open plan, with no room upstairs for desks. This meant swapping between the dining table, kitchen table and bedrooms, depending on calls/meetings, all whilst home schooling my three stepchildren every Tuesday and Wednesday and having a dog who seems to want to go out into the garden at least ten times each day!
11 months on, my partner is back in the office, the kids have gone back to school (yippee!) and it’s just me and the dog left. As much as the flexibility of being able to stick a wash in (my washing baskets have never been so empty) and not having to deal with the commute into work, which are both fantastic perks, I miss the interaction with my team, it can feel lonely being at home all day, every day, on your own! I miss the face-to-face meetings with clients and I really miss my desk! I’m very much looking forward to having my house back as a home (and not over analysing the paint work daily) and having my office back for work, with little bit of flexibility in terms of work/life balance for the whole team going forward.
Linked In: Emma Purvis
Danielle – Paraplanner
The novelty of working from home has worn off now! One thing I have not missed is the commute, but I really miss dressing smart and seeing colleagues and clients face-to-face. There is no need to power dress to sit at my home working area, which is currently set up in my little boy’s room, surrounded by Lego and Star Wars décor!
Home schooling and working was not my best juggling act, I am so relieved my two children (Daisy 3 and Charlie nearly 6) are back at school. Being able to work in peace seems like a real treat, although I do miss my little shadows! Luckily me and my husband still like each other, he normally works away 2 days a week, he hasn’t had the joy of my company this much before. I am lucky we can have our lunch breaks together at home, although I am looking forward to a nice lunch in Jesmond once I am back in the office.
Linked In: Dannielle Knowles
Megan – Financial Services Administrator / Trainee Paraplanner
Working from home has certainly had its ups and downs for me! I’ll be honest, I thought I had left my call centre days behind when I left my last job at the bank, however working from home with four other family members has certainly brought all of those memories back! Aside from all the shouting over each other’s different Zoom meetings/phone calls, and of course the occasional shouting match at each other, only one sibling has decided to finally buy their own home…some would say that is not too bad going! Although I do not miss the traffic (living on the other side of the water definitely comes with its commuting frustrations), I am certainly missing the office environment and seeing the rest of the team and our clients. It can become quite embarrassing when the only face to face interaction you are having is with the DPD delivery driver (a little too frequent than it should be) so I am very much looking forward to getting back into the office, interacting with the rest of the team, and not having to look at my face on camera every day!
Linked In: Megan Dimmick