One Year On: The best things we’ve learnt about working remotely
Details: Written by Laura Cottle
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Published:
In some ways it’s been the longest year, but in others we can’t quite believe it’s been a whole year since the nation was put into the first lockdown.
It’s fair to say that we’ve inadvertently fallen into one of two WFH people. There’s A) the early morning risers, yoga before 6am, freshly sliced avocado on toast for breakfast (you get the jist) and then there’s B) those who sleep in right up until 10 minutes before the first zoom call – who only dress the top half and could quite possibly of forgotten to brush their teeth.
It’s also fair to say that it’s been a tough year for everyone, but one thing is for sure, there have been many smaller life wins the past year. Sometimes those little moments you never truly appreciated before, now are the reason for your biggest smiles today.
One of the biggest changes we faced was entire companies learning how to work remotely and TSN were no exception. It’s not all been bad though, and we thought you might like to hear about our favourite things about working remotely.
Josh Hill, Director of Apprenticeships
1) Fuel costs, epic saving for me due to lack of travel and ability to work from home, with the additional benefit of my carbon footprint. Money is a key driver but seeing the contribution to fuel emissions and how the air quality improved across the country in lockdown is inspiring.
2) Creativity. Remote working was supposed to be difficult if not impossible for some organisations, but the creativity of individuals and the focus on creating a solution was amazing and really provided an opportunity to see people a different light!
3) Quality of diet! I’m a binge eater that is the king of junk food so being at home has meant that I have eaten more healthily or at least less crap during the day (Not that you’d know to look at me! 😉)
4) My music! Definitely not to everyone’s taste, but have been able to have my tunes on
5) Lastly daylight! Its hard in the office to enjoy what daylight and sunshine we get especially during the darker months, but having that time at home and being able to see more daylight is definitely a good thing, and who wants more time on the M62 too I mean really!!!
Lauren Simpkins, Digital Marketing Executive
1) When I reflect back on when we first went into lockdown, I can see that everything was so chaotic but since then, the country slowed down from the frantic maniacs we had turned into. We learnt to work at home, we removed the stressful commute, we removed the pressures of what to wear and we learnt as team to come together.
2) We’ve thought creatively to make things work and I've actually fallen back in love with my job and I'm really enjoying what I do. I know we won’t be working remotely forever, but the process has made me slow down and appreciate the small things.
3) Oh, and I've perfected my banana bread recipe (mega win!)
Since our first lockdown, TSN have employed 115 new staff and we are committed to supporting the local economy with 44% of new starters being in the local area. Another positive to working remotely has allowed us to recruit further afield, with 56% of new starts being from outside of the local community. One of our designers is all the way from Edinburgh, pretty cool right?
Here we are in all our glory, Team TSN
