The Impacts of Working From Home

by Pia Bhopal

With businesses being encouraged to return back to the office, I have been thinking about lockdown and the impact of working from home.

It has been busy! Greens Solicitors had been over the months before lockdown moving to a system less reliant on paper which made the transition from office working to home working (within minimal notice) a lot easier. Post, bundle and notes were already being saved on to the system so we were pretty much ready to go.

Working during lockdown was slightly different for me as I qualified during lockdown. It meant that I did not get to enjoy the usual cake and lunch in the office with my colleagues, and I am glad that I was not moving firms. However, it is strange to have entered lockdown a trainee and leave a Solicitor.

Greens wanted to ensure that we did not lose the sense of team or family that we have at work and arranged for there to be a Skype call at 3pm each day. Sometimes these were fun other times it was repetitive but overall it was good to keep in touch.

Initially I thought that working from how was great. No commute and I could make a nice lunch and not be tempted by all the cake that seems to be in our work kitchen. However, quickly everyone settled into working from home and I noticed that because the world was working from home there was a sense that you were always available. Everyone knew you couldn’t go out so early morning and late evening advocates meeting became more and more common.

The emails being received and sent were non-stop and days were becoming longer and longer.

Greens didn’t want any of us being nervous back into the office so we have been going in regularly for a few weeks. This has meant that I can really compare working from home and the office and there are pros and cons to both.