Overcoming Covid-19 and adjusting to working from home - what life looks like now

It’s an understatement to say that life has been turned on its head over the last few months. From work, to commuting, to socialising, like most business development managers, I too am adjusting to being at home full-time and maintaining balance.

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Kellie Parish | BDM at BM Solutions
3rd June 2020
tech hands laptop sourcing software
"The positives of not driving to work mean that I have more time to help brokers over-the-phone with new business enquiries and existing applications."

Lockdown got off to a pretty scary start for me. My husband was admitted to hospital soon after social distancing rules came into play. Even though he didn’t have Covid-19 I still wasn’t allowed to go with him in the ambulance - that was hard. He was discharged four nights later, but then started showing symptoms of the disease and we both tested positive.

It was frightening not knowing how sick we would get, but luckily we escaped with only mild symptoms and a period of total isolation. We’re now part of a Public Health England programme to monitor people who live in the same household. Keeping a symptoms diary and regular tests have become a new feature of my routine.

Thankfully, the transition to working from home has been less dramatic. I’m lucky enough to have a space I can use for work so there’s a clear start and end to my day, which is important. Although I now have to share it with my husband, it means that I get to spend part of the week working in the dining room and looking out into the garden - so I can’t complain.

Little things have also made a huge difference – my headset arrived really quickly, and work has given us free access to the Headspace app for mindfulness, which I’m finding really useful.

A weird part of me is missing the daily commute - even being stuck in traffic! But the positives of not driving to work mean that I have more time to help brokers over-the-phone with new business enquiries and existing applications.

The team has also become stronger – we’re constantly holding WebEx meetings so we can support each other, check-in and be there for each other if we’re having a hard day. We started out with conference calls, but quickly realised that it makes a massive difference to see each other. So much of this process is trial and error, and whilst there are good and bad days, overall I’m proud of how we’re coming together.

Outside of work, I can still catch-up with my friends through Zoom and treated myself to a smart watch to keep an eye on my steps. I’m able to buy my meat and fresh food locally and have more time to cook from scratch. I’ve even been trying to help my two step-sons with home-schooling, but most days it feels like they are teaching me instead of the other way around!

I know that life won’t be the same once the restrictions slowly start to lift, but I am looking forward to returning to some of the old ways of life. It’s going to be so great when I can finally hug and kiss my friends and family – unfortunately they haven’t created an app for that yet!

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