If I lived on Auckland’s fringe, and it took me 45 minutes twice a day to get to work and
home again from the central city, I’d be excited to try working from home.
Ponsonby News talked to a young couple, William and Emily, who live in part of a converted barn on a family property in West Auckland. Both have had stints working at home during Covid.
William works in the music/events industry, hard hit by social distancing and venue number limitations. Emily works for a city council department. Both are normally based in the central city.
The first point Emily made was about the wasted and tiring time of commuting. It’s costly, too, running your own car. For those who subscribe to the theory that the commute is somehow therapeutic, Emily said you could go for a brisk morning walk to replicate your time commuting and maybe feel more ready for work.
Emily acknowledged that self-discipline was necessary at home and an ability to be efficient at time management, but it did allow people to use their breaks more efficiently too. It can allow time to do a little gardening or feed the chooks. If you have a dog, as William and Emily do, the pooch will love you being at home all day.
The efficiency of emailing was highlighted. Emily does bookings, writes programmes and reports, emailing her colleagues regularly. She stresses the need to keep work colleagues informed, with plenty of follow up, courtesy emails. She uses break times more effectively and saves money she would otherwise spend on bought lunches.
A potential downside of working from home is lack of social contact with workmates. Emily acknowledges that, but points out that being newly engaged to be married, she has no need for extra social stimulation. She does, however, not like to feel out of the loop and recommends meeting in person for lunch or drinks on a regular basis.
Both William and Emily agree working from home beats wandering around Queen Street during break times.
William spends a lot of time on the computer wherever he is, making bookings, emailing clients, and setting timetables. Many of his clients are normally from overseas so their absence during Covid has slowed his work down. For a time, he was on just two days a week.
Going forward, many big organisations are talking about how they will staff their offices. Many will have increasing numbers working from home and zooming in for meetings. Some companies will abandon the large city offices altogether, downsize, and relocate to suburban centres.
It’s kind of mad to have thousands of Aucklanders rushing into the central city every day, wasting time, using climate damaging fuel, and clogging roads.
William does listen to pod-casts while commuting, but would rather control his own day from home.
The last word goes to Emily, “We’re lucky there’s just the two of us. We couldn’t have worked like we do if we still lived with five others in a big house. There were too many distractions.” (John Elliott)
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