WFH WTF* Email, Etiquette, Embargo, Expectation and Empathy

* Working From Home With The Family

As we enter the 118th day of March, or whatever it is, and the novelty of not going to work appears, in some cases, to be starting to wear thin, I wanted to put down some thoughts on what I think I have learned from being at home.

The Good

The volume and complexity of work that can get done, without any distraction (except, in my case, for the damn BullionRock phone that does not stop ringing … but I can’t really complain about that, can I?)

Coffee, water, music, lights … action! Fantastic!

The Bad

But, jeez, isn’t it lonely? I mean, I have loved being able to take my mad dogs out for a walk at first light and I have loved seeing Mrs N and our sons all day, but I’m not really ‘here’ at home when I am working ... and those that I really need to do some of the work aren’t here either, of course. Tasks that require the opinion of more than two people, which would be easily garnered in a matter of moments in a meeting room, can now drag on for hours as messages and scanned signature pages go back and forth: very frustrating!

The Ugly

The blurring of the line between my work life and my home life. If you are anything like me (with a pretty addictive personality) the temptation of ‘one last email’ before switching off the PC for the night is pretty tricky to overcome. Below is the actual record of my outbox from the last couple of weeks’ working from home. It’s not big and it’s not clever!

Email Etiquette and Embargo

Email is great, but can also be dangerous. Would love to see some stats on the correlation, if any, between messages sent and hours home worked, but my guess is that we are increasing our chances of sending the wrong thing to the wrong people, or sending the wrong tone of message, innocently or otherwise. Truth be told, I made the mental note to write this piece when, shame on me, I replied to a colleague's first email of the day (in which she was informing me of nothing more than the fact that she had established an account for a new client of BullionRock) which read, simply, “Who?”

Worse yet, the lady in question, happens to be my mother-in-law. My response fell woefully short of, "Thanks mum. How are you and dad today? All OK on the systems front now? Who is this new punter then? Lots of love from your #1* son-in-law ... "

*yes, she only has one, before you ask

So I am hereby vowing to work on my email etiquette … but, more importantly, to use my keyboard less and to pick up the phone more. Or WhatsApp or Zoom or House Party or semaphore. Please do join in, if you have not done so already.

I am also vowing to use the embargo function to hold back the delivery of emails until the following morning when I find myself tapping away after six o’clock in the evening: just because I am in full-on workaholic mode, tinged with a bit of high-functioning sociopathy, does not mean everyone else is.

Expectation and Empathy

There is an expectation that we are all ‘on the case’ all of the time. I spoke to someone who expressed genuine concern that he might miss a call to his number while he was making a coffee in his kitchen and that the caller might think he was ‘slacking on the job.’

In our own little home-work bubbles, it is easy to forget what others might be going through at the moment. At work, we get to see our colleagues and we don’t normally think about what they might have left behind at home that morning before coming in to the office.

My first few phone calls this last couple of weeks to fellow BullionRock and Ravenscroft team members revealed quite quickly that some are now juggling their jobs alongside babies, barking dogs, shouting teens, near-teens and some pretty loud TVs blaring away in the background. This sort of thing is now very much part of our daily life and not what we would choose to bring to our working environment on any normal day. But these days are not normal; but nor will they last for ever.

See you on the other side!