Business as Usual – Working from home!

Atlas is fully functioning and working as normally as ever – from home!

…In case you were wondering.

We transitioned to working from home seamlessly as we recently altered how we work so that working from home was an option one day per week.

We are well versed with meetings via skype / zoom etc whether it’s with each other or with clients. Houseparty on the other hand …. A bit too ‘yoof’ for us.  In theory, Atlas needn’t have an actual office ‘base’ where we gather. We like it though because we (Atlas) are people … persons.

The only real change is that one team member would be in the office daily. That was me. Again, by choice. I would come to the office every day as, after many years of mum-ing, the pull of adult-conversation was too enticing. Ironically, as the oldest team member I am the most immature. That doesn’t bother me. It must be a pain for the others though!

The transition to working from home, for me personally, has been fine. At least on a practical level. But I do find lack of work/home separation difficult. I still see my colleagues regularly, albeit floating heads. And we chat via our work WhatsApp group often. Like you, our work WhatsApp group is frequently about non-work stuff. More water-cooler chit-chat  than work discussion. I pride myself on ensuring that my family’s structure remains relatively intact. Well, week one was good. We did Joe Wicks every day. School work started promptly at 9.30. A break at 12.15 to 1pm for lunch then studying in the afternoon continued.

This week, there has been less commitment to Joe and the schoolwork may start a little after 10 for no real reason. Lunch started around 11 and it’s still happening in the form of a sword-fight in the garden (it’s now gone 2). All I can think is “at least I can work in peace”. And so too, the shape of my day has mutated. In the evening, I find I can catch up on things that were difficult during the school day work day.

Week one included an early morning run 3 times a week. Week two, so far I have favoured isolation based on the argument there are too many runners and it’s probably safer for everyone if I don’t run. I will do a free Les Mills On Demand workout later. But we both know that won’t happen because conveniently I will have work to catch up on. Atlas is still busy enough for me to use this excuse ‘for the foreseeable’.

In our line of work, we are in contact with freelance translators. I don’t know what the collective noun for translators is, but I will go with “Plumage” (‘plummij’ if England based or ploomarjh if French, plumaggio… etc). Ask any plumage of translators how their work has changed recently, and you won’t be surprised to learn that they are the true professionals when it comes to working from home. They could write books on the subject. The dos and don’ts etc. Maybe there’s a market for online lectures on how best to do it? Doubtless there’s a huge variety on what works. Once normality resumes, or more likely a new normal is installed, I suspect more companies will embrace the option of working from home (we did it first, just saying. Even our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers had to pop out every day).

Of course, this piece on working from home, the transition, the fors and againsts only really applies to us ‘office-types’; where work can easily move. Everyone in hospitality is in limbo, unsure if they will have jobs to return to. The public sector has no respite. The frontline workers have an unimaginable increase in workload and pressure. This workforce already functioning on 75% when it was understaffed at 100%, if that makes sense.

‘Thank you’ just doesn’t seem to cut it. All of us at Atlas are beyond grateful to all the frontline staff.

It’s business as usual at Atlas and for that, we are also grateful!

Stay well everyone. And stay at home.