Looking forward to the peace of my office

I’ve been working at home since March 10th. I’m very used to this and a home office set-up that really works for me. That said, I’m actually looking forward to getting back into my ‘real’ office next month.

I’m my own boss, so I can decide where and when I work. I’ve been delivering all my work online for months, with barely a hitch. Except for having to use Microsoft Teams with some clients, which is actually janky as all hell.

I’m moving to a new office early next month (excitement!!) and once that’s complete, I’ll restart my normal routine of going in at least three days a week.

When it comes to COVID-19, I’m not worried about a return to the office

For a start, I have a large office, all to myself. I won’t have any clients coming in to see me in person and will be working in a very, very quiet building. My commute will be very quick and easy and won’t involve extended time spent on the London Underground. All in all, I couldn’t be luckier.

Work aside, the reason I’m looking forward to a return to some semblance of normality is that I’m living opposite an enormous building site right now and the noise is driving me insane. The developers have permission from the council to work every weekend, so the noise is pretty much seven days a week. I’m bored with the noise and tired of having to apologise for it to clients.

It’s made it difficult to record interviews for my work podcast and even more difficult to deliver presentations online. When working alone, noise-cancelling headphones play their part (thank you, Bose) but I can still feel to vibrations of the drilling! I’m just grateful that London’s heatwave has passed – having to keep all the windows closed due to noise turned the apartment into a sauna.

And the noise hasn’t been constant, making it even more difficult to adjust to it. We’ve had the ground-thumping piling phase, the ground excavation phase, the (apparently) clanging pieces of metal together phase and, all throughout, the builders screaming obscenities at each other phase.

It will also be nice to get back into some kind of routine.

My work routine since March has been a little different, with some self-selected reduced hours. I haven’t had a holiday, but then again I haven’t worked a five-day week in months. If it weren’t for COVID-19 and the ensuing mayhem, I’d be in Tokyo right now, sipping a glass of something bubbly on the 37th floor of the Hilton Tokyo in Shinjuku.

In reality, I’m sipping a rapidly cooling coffee in my living room, just before starting work.

I’ve got quite a bit of work to get through in the next few months, so it will be nice to have a permanent base of operations outside my home once again. It makes coming home in the evening all the nicer.

But for now, the noise continues.

(Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)