When it was announced that we would all be working from home from 23rd March, I actually felt very emotional. I love my work and the team I work with and knew I would miss them all terribly.
Day 1 - Get organised: I set myself up in my little office at home which turned out to be the darkest possible room in house, no heating, and my laptop setup caused a pain in my neck!! I then proceeded to wrap myself up with lovely fluffy blankets, which of course restricted any arm movement – typing became a whole new challenge! When I finished day one, I walked through to the kitchen, still wrapped up and feeling stiff, frozen and very sorry for myself.
Day 2 - Spring into action: I knew I had to move…I proceeded to carry my entire new office into the kitchen. Problem solved. Or so I thought! Nice and bright, heating on. Work busy but still so quiet around me. I missed the team. Then my colleague Maggie suggested I put on our National Radio channel RTE 2FM. Hearing the accents from back home and the craic and chat was brilliant. I was laughing. Then.. low and behold, the bin men arrived! I sprang to the window to witness the excitement then five minutes later the window cleaner was outside. This was a busy day! Dan, our IT guy then called and helped me to rig up a keyboard. Brilliant. I could work faster. I stacked up some hard backed books which had been previously been employed to prop up my Christmas tree. Now the neck problem was sorted as the laptop had risen to eye level. Yay. Day 2 was a great day. (I have to mention here that I could have taken a monitor from work, but again, I thought I would be fine, clearly a poor decision).
Day 3 - And on we go: All set for work in the morning, work coming in and time flying past. I have to admit that this morning I had a bit of a meltdown. I missed everybody and was struggling to keep my spirits up. My colleague Georgie called as she recognised my tone in an email was not the norm. How astute is that!. She video called and I crumbled. I felt a bit out of control with my emotions. We had a chat and it really cheered me up and we arranged to have a social distancing walk in the country lanes at the weekend. I was back on track once again. Later that morning my friend called to ask if I would like to have her doggie Nina for an overnight stay. Now I love Nina and I have looked after her many times. This was amazing. I finished at 3pm and picked her up. Myself and my little buddy went for a lovely long walk on the beach. Sun shining and lots of space. Day 3 transformed into a great day.
Day 4 - Getting used to this life: A walk with Nina first thing, breakfast and back to work. My little companion never far away from me. Getting used to contact with the team via Teams and Zoom etc., life was coming back to my home. My Manager and friend, Jeralie scheduled a coffee/tea break call in the afternoon which was amazing. Time to talk, not just about work but about other things. It is normally so difficult to find time to do this but today it worked. Day 4 was another great day.
Day 5 - Life as I know it: Nina now gone home since the previous evening so only myself to cater for in the morning. Getting quite creative and even having healthier meals!! That has been the biggest surprise of all.. Why all of a sudden am I buying fruit and fresh veg!! Taking a full lunch hour (another first!) so time to whip up a spinach and chicken salad. Thinking about where to go for walks in the evening…not me at all normally but it is for now. A busy day with work and then finished off with a team quiz on Zoom. We all had our favourite drinks to hand and we were all together again and laughing. It was a great end to my week of high’s and some low’s.
I am now happy in my new little office. It’s nice and warm and bright. Regular video calls with my colleagues so I don’t feel lonely and telephone chats with clients and candidates. Tea and coffee facilities right beside me. Safe and happy with the outside world coming in to greet me thanks to the amazing technology at my fingertips. Thank you to everybody that helped me through this the first week. I really appreciate it and hope we catch up again soon, Sue.