A new way of working for our displays team

In the current climate of Covid-19 lockdown, we find ourselves facing different levels of disruptions when it comes to business. Gone are the face-to-face meetings with customers and colleagues, or the quick shouting across the office for a bit of advice or where is, what if and can you help?

But isn’t it amazing how people have adapted to a new way of working in a very short space of time. For Anders and Selectronic, with the very recent business of merging two companies, this could have come with a lot of challenges. Two teams, strangers a week before lockdown, find themselves working together, learning from each other and trying to integrate two businesses via the power of Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and we are all doing it rather well.

We asked one of our colleagues, Steven McGough to tell us his experiences of this very different way of working and for somebody used to sitting behind a desk in an office in Witney, to now working full time from his home – how has this changed his methods, relationships with his customers and colleagues:

As many of us now settle into “the new normal” there are less people available to talk to, with companies being shut, employees being furloughed or people just not wanting to talk about the business you would have been talking to them about just 6 short weeks ago.

Changing the Conversation

Zoom, Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and LinkedIn mean now is not the time to stop talking, but to change the conversation.

My focus has always been to look to build strong rapport and deeper connections with people, I believe projects are won and lost on relationships and now is really the time to show how genuine we are as human beings.

I have found myself asking very different questions than I would have imagined, and rarely about the projects – this doesn’t seem so important at the moment. I want to know how people are, how they are managing working from home and their hopes for the future.

The mood is generally refreshingly positive, and more interestingly DEFIANT! People are refusing to feel beaten by it and that strengthens my own resolve. People still want to talk about projects, and this time in lockdown is actually giving people time to be creative. The world may be at a pause, but our minds are still active. Project focus will change, but new ideas are coming all of the time.

Self-Discipline and motivation

Wellbeing and downtime

In between work it is important to manage your own well-being, something we are encouraged to do on a daily basis by our team. I have two cats and three pet ducks that are always more than happy to make an appearance on any conference calls, and actually make more sense than me sometimes!

Eating has become less of a bad habit and more of challenge to keep me from the fridge, common sense suggests if I open the Pringles I should also finish them!

I do miss the guys in the office, but now together with my new colleagues at Anders, I do feel incredibly positive for the future as we all move together to the “new normal”.

I was due to run my 4 ^th London marathon in April, but sadly and correctly this was postponed until October. Covid-19 has shown that where there is a will there is very much a way, and I was able to complete the 26 miles on my own via a virtual app. I was even sent a medal!

So, in summary, the show really must and is, going on in these challenging times. It is important to stay positive because we really do have so much to look forward to and be extremely appreciative for. Contact us if you need any help for your project!