AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
Natasha Payne is group director of digital operations at GroupM:
I manage the Ad Ops team, who work on client brands across GroupM agencies. They are a team of 11 technical specialists, who for most of their day are working in multiple platforms ensuring that all digital campaigns are tagged and tracked accurately before going live.
What’s the upside of WFH?
I am relatively active usually, so I tend to be up early and exercise before work. Now we are WFH, it means I have a lot more flexibility to exercise at different times of the day.
Some days it’s nice to wake up a little later than usual, as I’m normally up at 5:40am so to get some extra time in bed and do some exercise from my living room, or a solo coastal walk or run if possible, is perfect.
I’m also taking advantage of a full hour lunch break, so I get a good break in the middle of the day.
The downside?
It’s a lot easier to be glued to your desk whilst working remotely, with not much movement during the day. Video Conference meetings are an amazing way to keep us all connected, and continue working relationships and business as normal, however
some days I can be in back-to-back meetings, which means I could be sat down for a couple of hours. Since we started working remotely, I’ve set an alert on my Garmin that vibrates after one hour of inactivity and reminds me to ‘move, move, move!’ We’re also doing team challenges via an app which help to keep us all motivated.
How are you dealing with the silence?
When I’m not in meetings, I use Spotify to groove and sing along to throughout the day.
It provides a bit of atmosphere in my apartment and helps block out the building work currently happening around my neighbourhood.
How are you using the commuting time saved?
I’ve been making a good effort to cook myself breakfast, whilst listening to a podcast, or catch up with family back home in the UK. I am grateful to have more time on my hands to do these things at the moment, and form good habits that keep my mental health as strong as my work performance.
I am looking forward to being back in the office because …
The culture is one of the teams’ biggest strengths and I’m grateful we were able to adapt to an agile world overnight and maintain that strong team spirit. Every morning, we’ve continued to run a scrum at 9:30am and discuss critical work and priority campaigns to identify and manage resourcing needs and continue to support and service the agencies and our clients during this unprecedented time. But, I really miss the energy and banter that comes from working in our office. Being surrounded by a smart and passionate team creates a great atmosphere so I’m looking forward to getting back to that.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.