The return to offices may be one of the last things to happen, but as more of us are vaccinated and the fear of crowded spaces subsides, it will happen, although it may never return to the old ‘normal’ of a five-day week. Niamh Hennessy spoke to eight office workers about their time at home and what they are planning to do once restrictions are lifted.
'1,800 employees moved to remote working within 48 hours’
Marian Ryan, consumer tax manager,Taxback.com
Living in Tipperary and working in Kilkenny meant Marian was spending up to 20 hours a week commuting. That all stopped once the pandemic hit, but Marian struggled to separate her work life and her home life.
“Once the Government called for the schools to close, we made the call that it was safer for all of our colleagues to move to remote working. This decision was made on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, and within 48 hours, over 1,800 employees globally were safely working from home.”
‘Long hours’ defined Marian’s pre-Covid working life. She would face either 30 minutes stuck in traffic in the car park, or she would choose to work late to avoid the traffic.
“My pre-Covid working day would start at 7.45am when I got into the car to head to work, and finish at 7.30pm when I returned home.
Three hours a day commuting wasn’t something unusual in pre-Covid times, but it is something I have become acutely aware of now that it is no longer a part of my day.”
Marian misses the office. She has found the social isolation and physical distance from people has been tough to cope with.
“Zoom coffee breaks and teams meeting are great, but they will never be as effective as a face-to-face meeting or a chat in the staff canteen. I find people can hide their true feelings and struggles very easily online, whereas if you are in an office or meeting with someone, you can tell very quickly if they are having a hard day or are struggling.”
Like a lot of people, Marian struggled with her work/life balance during the first few months of lockdown.
“This was completely down to my own habits rather than anything expected of me by my employer. Because I was working from home, and there were such strict restrictions on our movement, I found it hard to disconnect and log off. I found myself logging in at 7.45am, when I would have usually left for work, but struggled even more with logging off in the evening.
"After a few months and after building myself a separate workspace in my home rather than the kitchen table, I put a better structure in place. I now have rules in place for myself that I log on no earlier than 8am, I make myself take regular breaks in the day, and my laptop is shut no later than 5.30pm every evening.”
When you live and work in the same place, it is hard to put a personal boundary in place between work time and personal time.
"For the first few months I was conscious of the laptop in the corner, and felt as though I wasn’t being productive if I wasn’t online, and found it hard to switch off completely at the weekends. However, after a few months when it became apparent that home working would be the ‘new norm’, and with the addition of my home office, I was able to create a healthier work/life balance.”
The traditional ‘9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday’ is no more, according to Marian. She points out that if someone has a personal appointment during the week, they now have the flexibility to attend their appointment and make up the hours later that evening.
“Many of my colleagues with young children who had no childcare during the pandemic were able to split their working day, with a large break of four hours off in the afternoon. Many then completed their day’s work at night after they had spent time with their children and put them to bed.
I think one of the greatest lessons from the pandemic, for us as employers, is that we have learned to place even greater trust in our employees to work and get a job done.
"Generally people want to work hard and be productive, and if we are proactive and put measures in place to help people to do this, we can see great results.”
Marian thinks that her working life has changed completely since Covid, and she does not expect it to ever return completely to the way it was. Before the pandemic,
Taxback.com was already piloting remote working for their 200 Ireland-based staff.
“I plan on having a healthy split between working from home and in the office. The pandemic has been challenging to say the least, but it has also been an education for employers. It has shown employers how hardworking and robust their employees are. I think it has also opened people’s minds to new ways of working and made the employment marketplace more competitive.
“No longer do you have to live in Dublin or the commuter belt to work in one of the large multinationals based there. Now, if you have internet access and the qualifications, you can be living in Donegal and working from us in Taxback.com based in Kilkenny. We have had so much negativity in the past 18 months, I think it is time now to focus on the positives that have come from all of the changes.”
In the future, Marian sees her time split between working from home and the office.
“The vast majority of our time will be spent working from home, but we will meet in the office once or twice a week to catch up on the week gone, make plans for the week ahead, and to brainstorm and share ideas.”
'It was the biggest challenge I’ve encountered in 10 years of teaching'
Maria O’Connor, assistant lecturer in musicianship at Cork School Of Music
The corridors of the Cork School of Music were a hive of activity pre-Covid. On any given day, there could be 50 staff members working and teaching in the building, in addition to hundreds of students that pass through its doors. Like most other buildings, the doors closed in March last year and everything moved online. This was a massive undertaking for the college.
“Once staff members had a chance to get their head around lockdown restrictions, we moved all our classes online and teachers and lecturers began teaching from home. Looking back, you realise how enormous this undertaking was for all involved,” said Maria.
A musician’s life is always busy and changeable and before Covid, Maria would be in the office teaching classes, attending rehearsals, performances, and gigs.
“There was a lot of travelling and a lot of commuting but it was certainly never boring,” she said.
“I’ve been teaching music for almost 10 years now and this was definitely the biggest challenge I’ve encountered. From the perspective of cello teaching, it was the simple parts of interactions that I missed, like being able to tune a student’s instrument for them.
“Parents had to learn how to do this and the string-selling business definitely did well with the amount of broken strings that ensued.”
Maria said that for her personally, one of the worst parts was not being able to play music with friends and colleagues.
“There were so many cancelled concerts and gigs but I hope that we are turning a corner and that live music will resume soon. From a teaching perspective, I missed seeing my students every week.
Because online teaching was so new, the volume of work required for every online class was exhausting at times. Something as simple as correcting students’ homework could take a huge amount of time, especially when the technology was being difficult.
“I never fully realised the importance of a pen and paper until everything went digital,” she said.
Although Maria points out that many people in the music and teaching industries adapted very quickly to the changes, nothing will beat having people together. The doors of the Cork School of Music are open now again but many restrictions are still in place to ensure the safety of staff and students.
“For many people in various industries, I think that there have been some huge improvements to work life that hopefully will continue long into the future. The ability to work from home has created so many opportunities for people and the lack of a commute will definitely contribute to a higher quality of life for those who can continue to work from home.
Musicians will, however, always need an audience. Nothing beats the excitement of a live audience and the energy that you get from them as a performer.
“Online teaching has been invaluable, but it is not a long term replacement at the moment. Musicians and music students need to be able to play and sing together, unmasked and at close proximity.
“I hope that this will return soon.” She was amazed at how quickly both colleagues and students adapted to the situation.
‘People visited the gallery from Malaysia and Canada during lockdown’
Mark Flynn, production manager of the Glucksman Gallery, UCC
The walls leading to Mark Flynn’s office are decorated with beautiful artwork from amazing artists. It can be hard to leave such a beautiful space, but like many other people, once lockdown hit, Mark’s workplace became his home.
Working from home can be very difficult for the creative sector and as Mark points out it was hard not being able to meet artists and colleagues face to face.
Personally, it was the small things, like not being able to grab a coffee with other members of the team or not being able to meet face to face with artists to discuss an install, these were the hardest pills to swallow.
"We still functioned extremely well, but that disconnect was difficult,” he said.
Although the Glucksman Gallery nestled in the heart of UCC is known as one of the city’s most exciting creative spaces, it is also the workplace for seven full-time and four part-time staff members. Once Covid hit, staff had to work from home and move everything online.
The education team set about producing a series of online family workshops called 'Creativity at Home', and the gallery’s retail and development manager redesigned their online shop and put lots of products online for sale.
The curatorial team created a series of off-site and online exhibitions and Mark spent the first lockdown working on the UCC Art Collection database and creating their Covid-19 action plan.
Strangely, even though the gallery doors were closed, the pandemic helped us to reach a wider audience.
"Our artists’ talks and curatorial conversations are now all held online and recorded. We have people attending our talks from all over the country and abroad. It’s great.
“Pre-Covid we obviously welcomed lots of visitors to the gallery, and I really missed that. We hosted weekly in-house workshops, talks, concerts and events, alongside our exhibition program.
"Our program is still as packed as ever, we’ve just moved our events online for the time being with people tuning in from Malaysia to Canada to West Cork. But with the recent easing of restrictions, we can now welcome people back to the galleries in person.”
Mark said it was a huge learning curve for everyone and there was an adjustment period.
“We also had to look at the layout of our exhibits, reduce touch points, create one-way systems, and devise crowd-monitoring systems. All this was new and took time to implement and get right.”
The Glucksman has reopened to the public, and Mark is hopeful about the future.
“As the restrictions continue to ease, hopefully we’ll be able to increase our visitor capacity and gradually hold larger on-site events again.
"I’d love to host a large wedding sometime soon! For the time being, we will move ahead with caution and optimism.”
‘I can’t wait to get everyone in the office around a table again’
Aimee Connolly, owner of Sculpted by Aimee
The beauty business was a tough one to be in during a global pandemic, and Aimee Connolly was initially afraid of the unknown.
Much of her day would have been spent at events or sitting around a table with her staff brainstorming and testing new products and ideas. She was nervous about managing her business remotely, and there was also the worry about how she would source her supplies. Her business has grown from one person to 14 people over the last three years, so she had a lot of managing to undertake.
“Working remotely was a huge change for us as a team. We also had to deal with the fact that many of our stockists were closed for long periods of time and we also had to shut down our store in Dundrum.
“Even in pharmacies, our products were often not available for sale, given that they are non-essential.”
However, the pandemic has shown Aimee that a venture into the unknown can work out, and it was very much business as usual once they adjusted.
While working remotely, Aimee and her team focused on the online side of the business and also moved their make-up academy online.
We worked extremely hard as a team and managed to significantly grow the business despite the pandemic.”
But Aimee misses the buzz of the office and having her team around her.
“It’s great that we can do so much virtually, but I really miss face-to-face interaction. Obviously the situation was unprecedented and none of us had any control over what was going on, which made me feel very anxious initially.
“The first month was extremely worrying, but after that I got into the zone of ‘let’s control the controllables and roll with it’. I’m hoping that, going forward, we can take the best bits of remote working and being in the office, and create a hybrid model. It’s been great getting feedback from employees on what worked for them and made their working lives more productive and happier.”
Aimee has also found some positives from being away from the office. Before the pandemic, she worked seven days a week as the business was fairly new and she wanted it to succeed.
“I was at a pivotal point in establishing the brand, so it required a lot of energy and I was lucky in that I didn’t have many commitments outside of work.
“I didn’t mind putting everything into my work as I love it, and the success the brand was achieving really drove me on.
“For me, it was slowing down. Now I generally take weekends off and I love Saturdays now. I also got into exercise, it has been amazing for my head and managing stress. It was also great to be at home more so I could prep healthy food and not eat on the run.
I was in a bad habit of prioritising work, and grabbing whatever was to hand to eat, and it was doing my digestion issues no favours.
"Now I love home-cooked meals and have shocked myself by trying some interesting new dishes.”
Aimee previously took for granted how much time she spent with her team, and she has really missed that. She is now looking forward to getting back in the office.
“I’ll hopefully get to go on a few trips for a little change of scenery, and I will also be visiting South Korea where our main production factory is.
I am looking forward to feeling the atmosphere lift again, especially around our area in Dundrum, and seeing the lights on in our Dundrum store after what seems like forever.
"It will be great to get everyone back in the office too.”
One thing that will remain from the pandemic is the virtual services and events she has built up.
“It’s great for those abroad or in different counties who in usual times would not have been able to access our services. It has been a real highlight for me to be able to reach and interact with these consumers.”
‘I never worked from home — but now I’ll be doing it all the time’
Pat McEvoy, trainer and duty manager with Otonomee
Working in a contact centre with several departments under one roof meant that the office was central to working life for Pat McEvoy. He went into the office every working day and remote working was never a big element of working life at Otonomee for its 80 employees.
However, it proved to be so successful during the pandemic that Pat and many of his colleagues will be transitioning to working from home on a full-time basis.
“In the shared services team that I am part of, we were last to transition to a working-from-home solution.
"Our office was kitted out very quickly once the pandemic hit. Signage was put up, along with wipes and hand sanitiser being provided. Where it was required, we sat 2m apart and followed the same practice in meetings.
We saw the numbers of our other teams onsite dwindle as they were moving to a working-from-home solution.
"I think we were lucky in shared services as we got to work in the office for a while longer which gave a sense of what we were used to."
However, home soon became the office for Pat and he believes he has adjusted very well to the transition.
“Maybe if you asked my family, they would give a different answer,” he jokes.
Pat sees many advantages to working from home.
I cycle to work, so not getting wet on the way to work is quite nice.
"Our kids are at the age where they can walk home from school on their own, so working from home means we don’t require afterschool care. Again, if the kids are sick, we don’t need to organise someone to look after them or time off work.”
However, Pat does miss the social interactions with his colleagues and said the chats they had before work or during their lunch break are now things of the past.
“Virtual calls are really good and help you feel connected to your teammates, but having a chat or a joke with someone in person can’t be replicated,” he said.
“I think normality is now being redefined, and more companies are taking into account a work-life balance of a hybrid between office and work from home.”
‘Some of the best ideas come from a chat over a cup of tea’
Nuala O’Connell, community development officer with the SECAD partnership
Much of Nuala’s working life before the pandemic involved travelling to meet community groups in Cork. She loved chatting to people face to face, having a cup of tea and discussing what they needed.
However, once the offices closed, Nuala’s working life moved to the online space like many others.
“At the time, we were running a community training programme in eight towns, most of which were in the evening. When the training was moved online, this meant the time commitment from volunteers was lessened.
Instead of arranging babysitters and lifts, participants could just move to the kitchen table to attend a training session.
“This allowed people to attend sessions that they couldn’t have previously, and their ideas could be included in the discussions and plans which were being prepared.”
However, Nuala is really looking forward to having more face-to-face interactions with her clients.
“I think for the type of work we do, it can be really important to build a relationship.”
Pre-pandemic, Nuala’s didn’t work online much, but she feels that she has learnt a lot of lessons from the last year.
“I think that we have learnt that the online learning environment has benefits, particularly when we’re working with volunteers who may already be time-poor.
The world of work has changed, but hopefully we can take the best parts from the current situation and our pre-Covid environment for the future.
“Many of the organic discussions over a tea break at the training sessions don’t take place, so we have tried to find spaces for people to communicate in different ways to make sure their voices are heard.”
She thinks that people will have a greater appreciation of the positive elements of their own areas in the future.
“For many work tasks and discussions, the online environment works really well. However, I think that once restrictions are fully lifted, we will look forward to getting larger groups of community members together from different areas to discuss their ideas and to have that chat over a cup of tea.
"Often some really good ideas come from that.”
‘Office life has changed forever now for working parents’
Stef McSherry, founder of Kinderama
The stress for working parents pre-pandemic was something Stef witnessed first-hand in her business.
She runs various classes in creches and schools, and believes the pandemic has shown us if a parent says they can’t come into the office in future, employers know now that’s OK, and working from home is possible.
Before offices shut down last year, many employers had a fear of allowing their staff to work from home, with issues around trusting people to do the work assigned, and supervision.
“I think many more people will now have access to a hybrid way of working,” says Ms McSherry.
Parents will be able to say: ‘I need to work from home today’ and that will be OK. That can only be a positive step for working parents."
Pre-pandemic, she said there was a lot of rushing around for her.
“We used to visit seven or eight different schools in a day, so you can see why it was non-stop. Then all of that stopped immediately.
"Like a lot of businesses, we didn’t know when or how we would get back to our real-life classes, so we got busy taking our classes online.”
They filmed their classes with a green screen and made all the scenery and characters come to life.
“It took a couple of weeks of sheer panic, a couple of months of planning and preparation,” said Stef.
She spent hours and hours in front of her laptop in the attic and has loved all the new skills she has learnt.
‘I did not miss sitting in traffic for hours’
Noreen McKenzie, financial advisor with Sherry FitzGerald Financial Services
Working from home was something Noreen always did, but she is now planning to do it a bit more.
“I believe that remote working will become more acceptable as it has proven to work and productivity has increased as a result of flexible work practices,” she said.
I think businesses would be crazy not to accommodate remote working where possible as it will lead to efficiencies across all aspects of business, reduce office overheads and will also lead to a more content workforce."
Before the pandemic, Noreen worked in an office with 13 people — but they all moved to a fully remote working environment once restrictions were introduced.
“We moved to 100% remote working and all client meetings were conducted via Zoom.
“It has been a positive change for clients and for us conducting meetings via Zoom, as it saves them substantial time commuting for face-to-face meetings.
“Pre-Covid, we had the capability to work remotely and I would work from home from time to time, but nothing regular.”
Noreen said she is now planning to work from home more regularly, maybe two or three days a week.
She hasn’t missed the commute to the office and sitting in traffic for hours during the day.
“I did miss the interaction with my colleagues, but it was hard having to juggle childcare, homeschooling and work.
"That was very challenging.”
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