We’re locked up, they won’t let us out…

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the globe, the health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance to us.

In the famous words of Akon…

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the globe, and the health and safety of our employees being of paramount importance to us, we took the decision for all our employees to work remotely from last Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

Having the ability for all our employees to work remotely means that we can continue with our ongoing projects and maintain the high standard of work our clients are accustomed to. Whilst we monitor the status of the pandemic for the next few weeks, we still have a great amount of work that can be tackled from our living rooms and kitchen tables – in the wonderful company of our children, partners, parents and pets! We agreed that this was the safest plan of action for our team, in an attempt to slow down the spread of Coronavirus and especially to keep our families and friends protected from anything harmful that us, as a planet, are trying our hardest to deal with.

Here’s an insight into how we’re dealing with COVID-19 at Reach.

The obvious factor that comes above all, is the health and wellbeing of our team and it’s vitally important that every step we take during the outbreak the health and safety of our team is our first thought – hence why we closed our office doors a week before the country was ‘locked down’. It made complete sense for us to move all our operations remotely, and we are extremely lucky to be in a position that our work can be done remotely without any compromise to timescales or quality of work.

Those of us without kids providing us with games and slight chaos in and out of work time, have been acknowledged and there are a few pointers that Reach as a company are very aware of. We have thought about the mental health of our individuals which comes as a apparent factor when making peole self-isolate. It isn’t an easy decision to force not just anyone, but our friends, to work on their own for weeks at a time – however we are all in contact every day of the week, in and out of daft conversations as well as the important ones, obviously!

Working from home, how’s that working for us?

So, working from home for us was no worry in relation to equipment needed. We have all set up our space at home, using multiple screens, laptops, iMacs, and any other material needed to get the work done. Not to forget the pets, and definitely not to forget the cows. You can’t live on a farm and expect to work in peace!

People work differently, some can work with distractions in the room, some work in silence, although there’s not really a silent time in the office so I don’t think that applies to any of our team! However, all we say is that whatever works best for each of us is great, as long as deadlines are met and work is completed throughout the day.

We have team deadlines and we also have individual pieces of work from seperate team members. These will be ongoing, just as before. Although the world has come to a halt until further notice, we most certainly haven’t. We have clients and customers in need of our magic, even when the world is upside down! A daily stand up channel has been created for us to work together and tell one another what we have going on daily, what tasks are going to be completed by the end of the day, and what we may need a hand with – this helps us keep on top of and manage what is being ticked off the list, as well as giving a push or a helping hand in the right direction.

Our 9-5 days, are still 9-5 days (sometimes longer!) and you will find us working our socks off as normal for our clients benefit as well as our own. Slack has been taking a good hammering over this past week, but our catch ups and video chats are just as important to keep our work flow intact.

We are staying safe until this all blows over, we hope you are too.