All our worries about COVID 19 and social distancing has caused lots of people to look at new ways to work. So, I thought I would share with you a couple of things I have noticed since sharing my home office with my husband…
1. He works at a different pace to me… he is a designer, so I can see his drawing board and him perched on his tall chair. He draws a line, then strokes the new beardy look he has adopted… then sighs, leans back and then nothing… for ages!
2. He is restless – so wanders around trying to find things not to do! He says it’s creative thinking time. I get that, just not the way I do it!
3. He isn’t a people person – well he is actually, but what he is amazed at is how I can be totally professional and patient and not get ruffled when I am on a difficult call or zoom meeting! He tells me that a call like that, would derail him totally, put him off his creativity.
4. He like tea even more than me! Wow do we drink lots of tea and cappuccino’s. My daily routine has gone out the window… I usually work from home and am used to 10am and 3pm tea breaks, timed of course for filling / emptying dishwasher and washer, letting Geoffrey out and giving him a bonio…
5. He eats more than me. We have breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Biscoff’s with our cappuccino’s and he has me baking scones! I am not sure this is sustainable!
6. He is adorable, yes I have to admit, seeing him at work, something I have never seen before is quite an experience. I watch his hands as he creates beautiful architectural drawings [old school hand drawing- no CAD for him] I have noticed how he smiles when he talks to his clients, and he laughs with them a lot. He is charming and I guess this is why he is great at his job. People buy from him because they like him and he is talented.
7. He likes What’s App and Messenger – a lot! Although, a few times a phone call or zoom might have been a better option. I suggested this to him one day after he shared a message trail with me. I could tell the client wasn’t visualising what he was saying… that he just call her. He did and he had a whole different conversation than the one he thought he was going to have.
8. He isn’t keen on paperwork! He is getting me to do his admin work, I am ok with this, we are both working differently. However, I am surprised how disorganised he can be with bits of paper everywhere. My usually tidy work space troubles me a bit, the annoying thing is the eraser bits that he flicks off his drawing board onto my desk [its the perfect angle and distance] How rude!
9. He is really into ‘relaxed dressing’ for his work. So I have seen him in all kids of clothing, including his PJ’s- lycra cycling gear [he was waiting for rain to stop] and a bath towel! He normally wears either tweeds or linen suits and shirts, smart leather shoes, has a clean shaven chin and smells gorgeous… I might like him to go back to work one day – sort of miss this version of him.
10. He is surprised by how hard I work! I was not expecting this from him, he says I work too many hours, I am always doing zoom calls, he suggested I need to break more often, I guess he is seeing me at my work for the first time too! What I have decided is his version of a ‘hard day at work’ is very different to mine – it is however equal to mine, in different ways. I could never do what he does, and he accepts he couldn’t do what I do. He did tell a client that ‘I have never worked so hard, since sharing an office with my wife’ which made me smile and write this post!