As consultants who have used a flexible working approach for our entire corporate existence (like, since before it became trendy, or now a necessity due to COVID-19), working from home is not exactly novel, and we have come in to the corona coffee era with more than a few relevant skills.
Not least, we are old hands at using all the tech to work with clients in distant locations, confab online rather than racking up a lot of travel time and costs, overcome email limitations to share files as needed but without ridiculous software costs, etc, etc.
And our team was already there all the way back in the time of dinosaurs, before the 2008 GFC! (But it became topical thereabouts – read more).
This time around it is a bit more of a ragtag response, because while life in lockdown is impacting upon all of us, in effect we are all out of step, and it is all but impossible to get in step. Restrictions are operating in different ways, at different times and to different extants, with reverse or repeat cycles on a totally unpredictable pathway. Goodness knows when international travel might again become routine, or even possible.
Meantime, with enforced inactivity we are working on making a virtue out of necessity, taking the time made available by the pandemic to address projects that have been awaiting attention, but not the top priority when we have a full load of client site work.
Our Managing Director is leading from the front on this – Carolyn’s nominated project to get a work-from-home dividend is writing a book!
To be based on her doctoral thesis, Carolyn has already scoped out a concept, checked it for feasibility in current working conditions, made a long list of possible publishers, done a bunch of homework on that, shortened the list to the top three options, drafted a proposal, and sent it off – just to the first choice publishing house, to see what happens.
Even better, they responded very promptly and have asked for a full manuscript – so keep the home-brew coffee hot while that gets done!