Meet Dave, our UX Designer
Meet Dave, our UX Designer, who has been with the company for eighteen months. He’s halfway through his third week of working from home and says that routine and structure is vital, not only to ensure that he continues to be productive and keep in a work routine but also to juggle the family now that his wife and the kids are at home too.
“I get up and try to stick to my routine as close as possible, as if I was going to the office. I get up early, shower, get dressed and start working from around 07:30. I go for a walk with the family around lunch time to break the day up and get some exercise. Despite the difficult situation we’re facing, I’m trying to stick to my normal routine as much as possible.”
Whilst we have all found ourselves in a very unusual situation, one thing we all potentially have in common is that we’re all getting creative and helping each other stave off the boredom. Dave suggests finding a routine and keeping things simple is key.
“Having some kind of simple structure to the day helps keep boredom away. It’s surprising how much you get from a simple walk or bike ride at the start or in the middle of the day. I miss driving to work and back as that 25 minutes in the car gave me good time to think and switch on or off. I’d definitely suggest to people to avoid daytime TV – aimlessly flicking through channels just increases your boredom. I was getting a little anxious last week as I was reading too much about the virus. Constantly checking news and analysing data. Now I limit my news intake to once a day at 6 o’clock.”
Since the Coronavirus hit, life as we knew it changed dramatically for everyone in quite a short space of time. As a Company, our Leadership Team took the decision to rotate staff working in the office and working from home to reduce peoples contact with each other. Less than a week later the Government announced that all staff that were able to work from home, should. Thankfully, this measure was already in place, so the company was able to respond to the new guidelines the same evening as Boris Johnsons’ announcement.
“The decision to work from home was made swiftly and as a company we’re communicating well during this time. I can’t think of anything more the company could do. I miss the people in the office and the general chit chat and banter but the support we’ve had and continue to have is definitely helping. I was meant to be flying to Australia last Friday for three weeks so having the family holiday cancelled at last minute was obviously extremely disappointing.
After all this has passed I believe the world will be a different place for the better so I’m quite looking forward to that.
If I had one piece of advice it would be to stop reading about what’s going on. You don’t know what’s true and you can’t do anything about it anyway. Focus on yourself and your family.”
