The benefits of working remotely through COVID-19
Three days after joining A’Bear & Ball Architects LLP as an Architectural Assistant, Duncan Pritchard saw working protocols change overnight. Before even getting settled into the office, he immediately had to start working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak and UK lockdown and quickly created a makeshift office.
Duncan explains, “It was strange; however, as I hadn’t yet settled into the office and my new desk, it was just an extra re-adjustment to settle into a hastily arranged home office.”
Despite the challenging times, some benefits have arisen from working remotely due to COVID-19. Duncan has noticed many personal and sustainability benefits to being able to work from home, and technology has allowed him and the Practice to adapt quickly during these unprecedented times.
Personal benefits
There are many positive aspects that come with working from home, including increased flexibility of working hours, saving time and money on commuting and having more time with family and a more manageable schedule. This can help provide a better work-life balance.
As nurseries were shut in response to COVID-19, Duncan and his partner, who is also working from home, are sharing childcare duties for their one-year-old son. Flexible working hours has made it possible for them to do this while still working remotely and even allows them to spend more time together.
“By not having the daily commute and nursery drop off, I save myself the best part of an hour and a half every day,” Duncan shares. “My partner and I previously only spent about two hours a day together and that’d be after work when we were both tired. Now, we get to spend a lot more time together and eat all our meals together.
“My son is learning to walk, and I can see him making little improvements and get to watch him grow every day. We also have a lot more opportunities to get chores done during the week, so they don’t clutter up the weekend.”
Sustainability benefits
With more people working from home during the lockdown, sustainability benefits are arising with the majority of the workforce not commuting. There has been a reduction in air pollution across the UK. In March, road traffic dropped by more than 70%, and many countries across the globe are seeing decreases in carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide of as much as 40%.
Sustainability is a top priority for A’Bear & Ball Architects. In Duncan’s postgraduate studies, he specialised in Sustainable Building: Performance and Design and has a passion for delivering sustainable designs and finding ways to reduce his environmental impact.
“I’m quite conscious of sustainability having studied it at Oxford Brookes,” Duncan states. “Given the location of the Practice and the distributed nature of building sites, it’s a necessity for me to own a car, but if I can reduce my environmental impact by reducing the number of journeys to and from work, that’s great.”
Adopting technology & adapting quickly
With the quick change to working from home, A’Bear & Ball Architects started using Microsoft Teams to facilitate regular contact with the entire team and help us collaborate on our designs and drawings. Along the way, we have overcome tech challenges and have learned to adapt quickly in order to operate safely and efficiently during COVID-19.
Duncan says, “It’s clear that the technology is sufficiently advance to make working from home as close to working in the office as possible. My home internet connection and phone signal were a bit of a barrier, but these were easily improved.”
Technology has allowed Duncan, along with the rest of the team, to work effectively and collaboratively during the COVID-19 lockdown. And working from home has provided numerous personal and sustainable benefits that may lead more people to work more flexibly in the future.
Please check out the letter from the partners of A’Bear & Ball Architects, Rob A’Bear & Damon Ball, to see the measures we’ve put in place in response to COVID-19.