So this week clocks over the 18 month mark of remote working due to the pandemic. There is no way of knowing that when I shut my laptop up on the 16th March 2020 to go home that I would still be working from home after 1.5 years!

Has the past 18 months been hard? Yes.

Have they been a challenge? Yes.

The challenges and struggles have been at various levels for me and you can see through the other posts in this series how I have tackled them. I know I’ve not been impacted as much as others which I am very thankful for.

Is working from home important to me now? Yes. If I’d been asked this 2 years ago remote working wouldn’t have even come up on my wish list but now it’s important. Why is it important? Well my entire life, like many others, has changed. We have all had to adapt to changes and situations. My wife now works from home as well after changing jobs 12 months ago and seeing each other, being able to go for a walk at lunch time together, someone to chat with at coffee break etc. has been good. It’s also good that I can pop out and go and pick up the kids from school. My youngest has now started school and being able to be there for both kids is important. Being able to cook and eat dinner with family is important. Sitting in a car driving to/from an office which I don’t need to be at is not important.

But what about collaboration moving forward? We’ve seen that businesses can work with remote developers. We’ve seen that a lot of developers want to stay remote. They like the freedom and the flexibility. The biggest change which I feel a lot of businesses still need to address is the urgency of responses. Meetings which could be emails. Random calls which could be a Teams message with a potential follow up call. There are times when the asynchronous messaging through the medium of emails or chat messages aren’t being used to the full potential.

I’m also looking forward to more of the benefits of working from home as well as being at home and the flexibility of picking up the kids. The ability to go and work from a coffee shop for a change of scenery for example. I want to continue to be able to go for a cycle at lunch time. Exercise aids with both physical and mental health, both of which are important. It’s also the meeting up with colleagues if required. Having a social meetup day at an off site. Some of the things which used to happen but without the need to be in the office Monday to Friday.

Wonder what the next 18 months will have in store! Let me know on @WestDiscGolf.