With the grim prospect of no foreign travel this summer, we’ve got no choice other than to holiday at home this year. Forced to use up my precious annual leave on a staycation chez moi, I’m determined to make the best of it. While these holiday at home ideas won’t compete with two weeks in Santorini, they may help to make holidaying in your own pied-a-terre on the costa-del-home feel that little bit more special.
I never thought I would say this but I miss my commute. When working from home was first announced, ditching my commute to work was the biggest cause for celebration. But now ten weeks on, I’m amazed to find that my feelings have changed. While I’m loving having more time and money at my disposal, there are also some surprising things that I miss about my commute.
It’s incredible to think that we’re now into our ninth week of remote working. Freed from the shackles of the commute and the constraints of office life, we now have more freedom than we could have ever imagined. But adapting to these remote working pros and cons brings its own challenges. Here are my top 5 tips that I’ve learnt over the last nine weeks that have kept me sane during lockdown.
A few years ago, I wrote a post on random acts of kindness you can do in the office. Fast forward to 2020 and life has turned on its head with us all now working from home. Who knows whether this will be a purely short-term measure or a permanent transformation of office life. The steep trajectory of this transition can have negative consequences for our mental health. As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re all being asked to commit to one act of kindness this week and what better time to support your colleagues working from home by showing them a little kindness.
With no end in sight to lockdown, we’re all getting a little jaded with making banana bread and crocheting blankets. As cabin fever sets in, we can still travel in our minds and fantasize about doing all the things that we previously took for granted. Here are my top thirty things that I can’t wait to do once lockdown is over – some a tad surprising even to me!
“You better come and get your laptop – we’re shutting the office due to the coronavirus pandemic” barked my boss down the phone. A pang of shock rippled through me with the realisation that coronavirus had finally taken hold of London.
After a knuckle duster Brexit ride last year, we’ve now been tossed out of the frying pan and into a fire of pandemic proportions. And nowhere are the impacts more apparent than in the office. With the prospect of working from home becoming the norm for the months ahead, Coronavirus is radically changing the way we work. While nobody would have wished for such a contagion, there have been five surprising silver linings that could shake up office culture for the foreseeable future.
Hailed as the new wonder treatment, salt cave therapy is now all the rage amongst stressed, burnt out London office workers. Claiming to work wonders on the skin, reduce stress, cure insomnia and even improve your mood, is this saline wonder treatment all it’s cracked up to be? I ventured out of central London to find out.
In common with many offices across the land, my company offers two days per year for employees to volunteer at the charity of their choice. Being a sociable bunch, we opted for a team volunteering day. But with an endless supply of good causes, who to choose? Being food lovers who love the indoors this time of year, we chose a team volunteering day at Hackney Food Bank. And what an eye opener it turned out to be.
Cart marking is one of the oldest traditions in the City of London and is still upheld to this day in an annual parade of vintage carts. The cart owners apply for the honour of being officially “marked” in the Guildhall Yard. It’s one of those events that always makes people stop and stare without having a clue as to what it’s all about. Often mistaken for a film shoot for the latest summer blockbuster, the cart marking ceremony is as old and mysterious as the City itself.
