Walk through Rye station car park a little over a year ago, and by 9am there would not be a space to be seen – the whole area packed with commuters’ cars. Today, with many workers still on furlough or having to spend part, or all, of their time working from home, the car park is barely a third full on most days.
The combination of modern technology and the arrival of Covid-19 have changed the lives of many of us. Working from home – which seems set to become far more common even after the virus - in theory sounds ideal, but is it really? Has the kitchen table turned out to be the best place to write a complicated report while one’s partner is trying to prepare a meal?
And what about the inevitable Zoom presentation when a small person decides that is the ideal time to come and ask mummy or daddy to read them a story? There have been some hilarious examples of this both on social media and occasionally in news programme interviews.
But despite some of the obvious difficulties, it is possible to make your home also the place of work and to do it successfully.
In a new book "WFH Working From Home, How to build a career you love when you’re not in the office", journalist and broadcaster Harriet Minter explains in depth just how to make this work. For many years a local to Rye, although for the time being living in London, Harriet has written a detailed, but entertaining, definitive book on how to make the change from office to home without either breaking the bank or ruining your career.
From the practical considerations of how and where to set up your office space, to defining your objectives, setting a routine and whether working for yourself or maybe remotely managing a team within a large organisation, or acing that vital job interview on Zoom, she brings her own personal experience of years of homeworking to all aspects of the life of work outside the office. Short questionnaires on personal motivation and goals, scattered throughout the book, further help to answer the question of whether homeworking is for you.
This is a valuable read for all those whose cars no longer sit in the station car park five days a week and perhaps never will again. I just wish it had been written 40 years ago when I first started working for myself. The book is available from Amazon and all good booksellers.
