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Remote working: What it’s like being the virtual new girl
June 2, 2020
Throughout my working life I’ve started a new job on several occasions and first-day anxieties have consistently centred on: will I arrive on time; what should I wear; where will I be sitting; and will everyone like me? Regardless of career progression, the core worries have been constant. Until Covid-19 intervened.
When I accepted the role at Pumpkin, January was doing what January does – being a bit dull and dreary, with friends abstaining for dry January and everyone feeling the post-Christmas pinch. The first Coronavirus death in China had only just been reported and – with hindsight, incredibly naïvely – it seemed a long way away. I was wrapped up in planning my final magazine in my previous job while mulling the challenges and expectations of my new one.
But by April, when I was due to start, the whole world had changed. It’s not often you can write that sentence and not be accused of ridiculous exaggeration. As the nation went into lockdown, remote working kicked in. And so it was that my first day in the office for Pumpkin was incredibly similar to my last day in the office for my previous employer – physically at least.
Starting a new job remotely has meant several things. Arriving on time and where I was sitting were no longer issues. I still put on my work clothes and lippy, but I’ve done that throughout lockdown to mark workdays from weekends.
Apart from those I knew before, Zoom has been the only medium by which I’ve met my new colleagues. One advantage for someone who’s not great with names, is the virtual name badges at the bottom of each screen have saved my blushes. Instead of swapping one post-work pub for another, I’ve swapped WhatsApp groups.
And new job excitement has been more welcome than usual – it has added stimulation and interest to a life otherwise largely devoid of both. It strips out the incidentals of work, which has advantages and disadvantages. You focus on immediate priorities, dealing with the task in hand, asking only what you need to know, and just get on with things. This is fine for me now, I’m not sure it would be so easy for someone just starting out in their working life, where more handholding is needed.
So up until last weekend, I’d have said the hardest thing about starting a new job remotely is not being able to just raise your head, ask a question, get an immediate answer and move on – instead email trails inevitably follow what would otherwise be an innocuous query.
But on Saturday I cycled with my family into the centre of London to witness the deserted streets first-hand – and the route took me within a hair’s breadth of Pumpkin’s offices. I couldn’t resist a short detour, to show my family where I would have been working. And standing on that empty street it hit me, what remote really means – being distant, having little connection.
I have not worked in communications to be disconnected; I have not lived in this city for most of my adult life to be distant from people. I love the hustle and bustle of London town, working side by side with people, chatting to workmates and collectively sitting together, discussing problems and strategies.
So, I will work remotely with my Pumpkin buddies, we will all do what’s required to stay safe and healthy. But I will delight in the end of remote working when that time finally comes.
Jane Bainbridge, Head of Content