The survey says…
A report out this week suggests 90% of workers would prefer to stay at home after Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. Only 7% want a return to full office work. Half said they would prefer to work from home most of the time.
The survey conducted by YouGov found that on the whole men were keener to return to the office than women. Maybe, men going back to the office makes the prospect of staying at home seem more tempting for women?
But this is my favourite statistic, the (probably very expensive) survey found that people with three or more children were the most likely to want to return to the office. Return to the office, more like run back to the office.
I’m not eating birthday cake every week. The jury is out as to whether that is a good thing.
Somewhere near the beginning of some set of restrictions none of us really understood fully, I was walking my dog in a local scratch of park and met a thirty-something couple with two very young children. They explained (from a distance) they both worked full-time so I was interested to know, with childcare then closed to all but key workers, how that was mapping out for them.
Without skipping a beat, the lovely young mum cheerily explained “it was fine'” her partner started work at 4.30am while the children were still sleeping, then they flip-flopped their parenting throughout the day and all was ok as they were usually always finished work by 10pm. My stunned silence and jaw drop cracked her smile. The resilience of it all exhausted me.
There should be some sort of service medal for these young parents or at the very least counselling. With schools and nurseries now open things have improved for them but it’s easy to see why parents of multiple children will be the first to sink back into their office chair with a sigh, no matter how adamant they are they can cope.
What’s different about working from home?
One significant difference is at home I have a kitchen I actually want to use and I’m only fighting my husband for the contents of the fridge. Also I’m not eating birthday cake every week; the jury is out on whether that is a good or bad thing. I’ve also never found myself standing outside, in the rain, on the one day I made it in early because something is wrong with my keycard – although I do spend a lot of time waiting my turn for the bathroom. On the whole I think I drink fewer cups of tea at home but clean up more dog puke.
The other thing that needs mentioning, is the difference in desk detritus at home. I am not saying I didn’t have some weird stuff on my last office desk, for the cleaner to dust around, but working from home takes it to the next level.
I noticed that I have the following on my desk today, among other things:
One gardening glove (inside out)
A Farrow & Ball paint tester (I still think it’s too grey)
Pair of binoculars (no idea?)
Empty box of dog wormer
A teenagers football top (“can you wash this today?”)
A cat
Does working from home stifle creativity?
I think, sometimes, it may have stifled my colleagues’ creativity if I wasn’t in the office – who would they get to do all the stuff they didn’t want, or know, how to do? Do you remember hiding in the conference room so you wouldn’t be invited to another meeting? But, an office can be a great source of inspiration and content. I do wonder if I’d been working from home would I have missed some of the ideas that turned out to be my best?
I’m actually not sure I feel any less creative working from home. Once I’ve shoved the cat off my keyboard, I can generally really get things done. Rather than stifling creativity does working from home increase it? You can peel off all the unnecessary going to work layers (like clean clothes) and just be yourself. Also it does seem to encourage multi-tasking. Or is that distraction? Anyway, when I was at work I never felt inspired to paint the office bathroom or change the tiny kitchen’s cupboard doors. So, very much more creative then.
I’m very lucky to a have a partner I can bounce ideas off
– apart from when she has Covid
Lime Communications is just Natalie and I so we can’t really justify an office as such but I’m really lucky to have a great partner I can bounce ideas off who is literally always available, apart from when she has Covid. I don’t have a fancy home office, I say I don’t, I actually did but my husband played the “I pay the mortgage” card and kicked me out when he started working from home. Now all my creativity surges from the little room behind the garage, where members of my family chuck the Amazon boxes they can’t be bothered to recycle. By happy coincidence I am also closest to the front door. I really do need to talk to them again about using Amazon less.
So maybe it doesn’t matter where you work, most importantly it needs to be where you feel more comfortable – let technology take the strain of figuring out the rest. Being given a choice seems the most sensible next step. It would seem a pointless exercise to herd everyone back to the office just for the sake of it, once we have this Covid thing nailed.
I will very much enjoying visiting clients’ offices when we can do that again but for now me and my computer and my one gardening glove are very happy right here. We have created a lot of great content from this little space and usually things go according to plan – there was just that one time when the cat posted on Twitter.
If your creativity feels a little stifled by working from home talk to us, we will most likely have some ideas to help with that. Hello@limecomms.co.uk
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