Adam Skinner, Chief Operations Officer, OmniGOV
We have a busy household – me, Lucy my wife, Betty (13) & Violet (10). Plus Mr Brown the dog, Ninja the tortoise plus a newly hatched duck… (don’t ask)
We are hugely fortunate to have our health, a nice house, a garden, and great jobs – so I must stress any moans are very much first world problems.
Like everyone the working from home experience has had highs and lows – often on the same day. The family time has on the whole been great. I have suffered watching our girls out of school though. Lucy and I both work full time in pressurised jobs so we simply can’t do home schooling and that has been especially hard on Violet who especially likes a routine and her school friends. I will be so relieved when the schools reopen.
I wanted to share some thoughts on workplace stress – in the hope that talking about it openly might help anyone else suffering from the same thing. I have definitely been under pressure, like all of you, and at times that has tipped over into something unhealthy. Constant headaches, anger, lack of sleep – I’m long in the tooth enough to know the signs. My coping mechanisms have been to try and take regular breaks, and particularly exercise works for me. Until my bike was nicked (☹) I was loving lockdown cycle rides around the empty streets of London. I’m learning boxing in the local park which is interesting and the diversion is good. I’m very open with Knighty, who I work closely with, and we’ll often discuss this sort of thing – we both know when we are feeling the burn & being honest about it really helps. I do think working from home is unsustainable – the little chats, the commute, the walks to meetings – you come to realise the importance of these little things keeping you healthy. So I’m looking forward to the office reopening – that said I think the days of 5 days a week in the office are probably over.