WORKING FROM HOME- WHAT CAN WE REALLY DO ALONE?

There are a number of things that I am prepared to argue about (which is why people really adore spending time with me). One of them is work from home, as I am an ardent supporter of this concept. The reason is simple. I do not like to waste time that is often lost in travel, chats, unnecessary meetings, where we don't know exactly what to say because we have previously avoided (or did not have the time) to be left alone and think.

Of course, I am referring to "needless contact" from the perspective of my current job in the marketing world, not all those jobs where the goal is to obtain a direct contact that would affect another person, and not creating an idea that should then affect many people.

I think the only reason I didn't struggle more to get my working from home privileges was due to the fact that I loved my team. With them, even wasting time was a pleasant experience.

However, now I'm not sure I would agree with my own point of view from a month ago.

However, we will not pretend that this is work from home that I have advocated for, this is work from home under obligation, which changes not only the nature of work itself and business relationships between people but the whole living routine as we know it. Due to the current circumstances, it is very possible for us to fall into the horrors of nostalgia and forging memories.

But let's point out the factors that have proven to be true so far.

DISCUSSING WEATHER AND THE BIRTH OF IDEAS

I know how to work alone and create ideas without anyone else's assistance, but even before marketing, ideas that I was most proud of came up incidentally, in contact with others, while talking about something absolutely unrelated to the main topic. From that kind of interaction came excitement, enlightenment, the AHA effect, or whatever it's called in psychology. You manage to understand something really important thanks to casual communications since you are not focused on your own need for understanding and solving your assignment. So, specifically in our business, it seems to me that the best ideas did not come from meetings we spent time at, but from our mutual chats.

THE WAY TO ORGANIZING THOUGHTS

In the silly, endless journeys I despised, all of a sudden I would jump, grab my phone and start writing. Because no matter how crowded the bus was, it wasn't so much that I couldn't hold the phone in my hands. That's why I got into digital marketing at first!

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

On the other hand, it is now much easier to have some of the necessary meetings that were previously difficult to organize because they involved spending extra time traveling. We hear from certain clients much more often and together we plan further activities and we complain and laugh about the situation since we are all in this together. I will not say that relationships have transformed, simply our communication is even more transparent and pure than before. And I'm not just saying that because we have repeatedly commented on the best methods of food disinfection.

Communication with some other clients is even more challenging, and that doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing. This situation, as they say that war does, has brought to the surface the deepest human inclinations. For some, it is a tendency to panic, for others the need to do something nice for the community, for some (for example, for me) to get the hypochondria buried in work. In this period we have learned to be even more professional under even greater pressure.

I will not go to idealization. I'm not sure the situation will not change as the stress grows. But for now, I'm proud of all of us.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MY TEAM

I speak regularly with my team, regardless of the job that is more complex than ever (which was expected for the digital marketing field), because, as I said before, these are the people I love. Together, we were able to go insane and the other day we exchanged and commented on briefs in (rhyming) verse. For me, Čika Jova Zmaj rhyming talent is not working, so, unexpectedly for myself, I was the least included in the process. I only wrote, "(swearing) you corona and all the months like this / when I'm the most normal of all the kids."

WE ARE NOT ALONE

Finally, in the midst of all the love and tension, uncertainty and fear, the work that is piling up in the virtual and the events that are being canceled in the real world, we are staying with each other via bad laptop cameras. We look at our (not so) small screens and, as soon as we escape the news, we see a flowering of creativity and humor. And small explosions of humanity in which we can all participate if we turn to those clients who want to use their position to do something important for the people. We are now more visible than ever.

Previously very popular meme said: “Introverts of the world, unite! Alone, in our own homes!” Since we are already forced to be such a (banalized) version of introverts, all we have to do is listen to this advice and work united for all people we cannot now touch otherwise than with our actions.

Author: Natalija Jovanovic