by Lianna Soffe

I am the Brand and Commercial Manager for Ruby Hammer which is a fabulous job, with an incredibly understanding MD (Ruby).

I have a home office in our basement however with the children being at home too it is not practical to work in a different room to them, so we have also set up an office at our beach hut in Whitstable. With no electricity I have to charge anything electrical overnight and take along extra battery packs but you cannot beat the view, the office attire may be a tad unconventional though.

This is the first time in my life I have embraced routine, we have a set timetable which includes schoolwork, exercise, music lessons and virtual socialising. There are some days that are more of a challenge than others particularly when it comes to zoom calls and having them appear in a wetsuit in the background (they know this is the time to ask for anything). Ruby is excellent as an employer and is happy for me to be completely flexible focusing on task completion rather than set hours.

My husband attempts to pick up the slack on days filled with meetings though the day-to-day schooling is left with me. 

The children found it particularly difficult to adapt at first as home time was always treated as adventure time, whether travelling, going out or crafting together. They have learned that just because we are all at home it doesn’t mean that this is just an extended holiday, they still have to learn and they have to respect that we are all on different timetables.

I love my job and I love my children and know I am in an enviable position, but I have had my struggles with working during Covid. I would love to be the Mum playing with her children or being more interactive. I think rather than enjoying the work to say I am coping would be a better description. 

We have a very small team but are checking in with each other regularly, in particular with members of the team who live alone. We have been trying different apps to track work such as Trello and Monday and are trying to find the one that works best for us as would like to continue having WFH flexibility.

Do you have a work soundtrack? 

I have loved listening to uplifting dance music from spotifiy playlists to virtual festival Fridays with Glitterbox and Defected Records. 

Do you think the experiences of this period will change how you work in the future?

The biggest difference for us will be the number of video calls rather than waiting for meetings particularly with international customers. Lockdown has meant that we have had to get creative in how we test products and share information - previously we could wait months for us all to get together but with everyone working from home some decisions have been easier to make.