by Andy Garner, MD, More Media Sales
We’ve always had a fairly flexible set up here at More Media Sales. Flexible working is something we’ve embraced from the beginning and so working from home was not particularly new to anyone. The whole team working from home … for getting on for 3 months … well yes that is a bit different.
There are obvious challenges that I’m sure we’ve all encountered – self motivation, working whilst home schooling, staying away from the fridge …!
But we’ve somewhat surprisingly found a lot of good things about this new working set up.
Aside from the lack of commute, only having to get your top half dressed and being able to take your lap top into the garden, one of our biggest positives has been the real ‘team’ feel about all this. Whilst there was always a danger of feeling disconnected from the rest of the team we feel that we’re almost communicating better than before.
We have a daily morning ‘meeting’ where we talk about key aspects of the previous day, plans for the coming day, targets, briefs, strategies and how we’re all coping. This is invariably followed up with a multitude of individual catchups on collaborations, brainstorms or general checking in.
There’s also a sense of, dare we say it, ‘all being in this together’. We’re all rooting for each other and working towards a collective goal – now more than ever. We’re looking out for each other, passing on ideas and generally caring.
Similarly with our partners and agencies, we’re having a lot of meaningful ‘face’ time where either a quick call would have sufficed or a several times postponed ‘real life’ meeting would have happened…eventually. It’s almost like access to people is a little easier as we all relish a little human contact – even if it is through a screen.
It’s testament to the values and culture of our team as to how quickly we were able to adapt and still produce quality work and maintain strong relationships internally and externally with agencies and clients.
Whilst the Covid pandemic continues, there is a gradual semblance of normality just starting to resume. However, one thing we’re not returning to in the foreseeable future is a return to a formal office. Whilst we can make ‘remote working’ work really well for us, we’re going to continue operating in this way. To this end we’ve decided to leave our office at Canada House behind and continue the year with the whole team working from home. Rest assured that access to the team will not be affected and when it’s safe and relevant we’d love to come and visit in person. We’ll continue to provide the best service, advice and partner access and provide unbeatable customer service.
Stay safe everyone and see you soon.
