We love hearing and sharing your stories. We want to find out how people are adapting to their ‘new normal’, what changes they’re making and what they’re learning. Each week, we share a story with you, from people in different jobs (or not in jobs for some), in different places, with different experiences. If you’re interested in sharing your story, we’d love to hear how the ‘new normal’ is for you.
What’s your name and what do you do?
My Name is Nebel Crowhurst and I work in HR.
How did you start your day today?
Well, I’m filling this out on a Sunday, so it was great to have an extra hour in bed and to know that I have no real agenda for the day – other than enjoying some time with my family away from my weekday pressures of a relentless stream of meetings!
What was a typical day like for you pre Covid-19?
I like variety, that’s why I love the work I do. HR often gets a bad rap – people see HR as the ‘Fun Police’ only ever interested in policies and rules. But that’s not me. I love knowing that in HR we can make a real difference to people. We help to create workplace cultures where people can thrive and genuinely enjoy the work they do… and we definitely have fun along the way! This means that for me there is no ‘typical day’. When your job is to support human beings, you never can fully predict what is going to come at you next. Every day brings something new in various situations. A good day for me is knowing that whatever has come my way, I have somehow managed to support in finding a positive solution.
And what is a typical day like now?
So, kinda similar is some ways, with respect to the variety of unknowns that I have been faced with (like all of us!) having never experienced work during a global pandemic! But in other ways, there’s a tricky level of monotony in the fact that it’s been essential to work from home, which means my work environment doesn’t change much each day, other than switching from the kitchen to the lounge, and when the sun is out, to the garden.
What’s been the biggest change to your life (working and personal) in light of Covid-19?
Human interaction – with both my family and my work colleagues. Technology has been a fantastic enabler while we have experienced lockdown. Thank heavens we have video meeting tools, rather than the good old days of traditional conference calls, with people talking over each other and the challenge of the opening ‘roll-call’ to somehow work out whether everyone that should be on the call is there. Of course, video has its challenges too, but I feel very fortunate that we have this level of technology to stay connected with people. Even with that though, there is nothing better than being able to see someone and give them a warm greeting with a hug and have a good chat over coffee. I am looking forward to being able to bring back more variety in my day-to-day, not that I want to go back to where we were before lockdown – in fact, I am keen that in both working and personal environments we learn to appreciate what we have experienced and keep the positive elements.
How have you personally had to adapt to accommodate what’s happening?
If I think back to the first few weeks of lockdown, there was so much uncertainly and so many unknowns. This led to a lot of fear. I felt quite fearful about what we were about to face into, and I am sure many others felt this too. I had to find ways to not allow myself to get consumed by that, as it is not an emotion that serves any of us particularly well. My ‘coping mechanisms’ were a combination of using my job as a healthy focus in order to redirect my thoughts, combined with mindfulness techniques, meditation, and yoga practice.
And what have been the biggest challenges (working and personal)?
Like many people, the uncertainly of how long we would all be in lockdown, and now the uncertainly about if/when we may find medicines which allow us to not need to socially distance ourselves from those we love and care for. I found this hard, and to some extent continue to.
What do you miss most about your life pre Covid 19 (working and personal)?
Travel… both in and out of work. Seeing and experiencing new sights, smells and sounds are what makes life so interesting. I am comfortable with the idea that for the time being, we all need to appreciate traveling less, but I will be happy in future to be able to plan some exciting trips.
What surprisingly good things have emerged in your life since this began?
I think it’s so important in life not to take things for granted. I am confident we could all be a little more humble and appreciative of the things we have, especially the small stuff – like walking in nature, valuing the time you spend with family and friends, realizing that the material stuff doesn’t actually matter all that much. Slowing down and noticing the things around you, rather than always trying to speed through life. The best example of this for me, is that despite us all being lockdown in our homes and disconnected from people, we could still create the most incredible connection through the Thursday evening ‘Clap for Careers’ those few minutes every week was a signal that we are all in this together, creating a connection and showing insurmountable gratitude for all those incredible people in the NHS and care workers.
What have you learnt about yourself during this?
I have learned that I am even more resilient and adaptable that I ever realized. I have also learned that taking time to self-reflect and do things to work on improving who I am as a person is really important, but often gets left at the bottom of the list of priorities rather than at the top.
What do you hope we as a society learn from this situation?
Having a career in HR has meant that I have been able to observe and work within many many diverse and interesting organisations. The shift I would love to see, is more progression to workplace flexibility and employee autonomy. Sadly, still today there are many businesses that are run on incredibly outdated approaches such as ‘Command and Control’ management styles and traditional views to hierarchy. As well as the old fashioned view of set 9-5 working hours. I would love to see this change. Why do we all need to swarm to work at 9am, clogging up the transport systems? Why do we need to physically see an employee in the office to believe they are being productive? Why don’t employees get treated like adults who can make independent decisions? Why do we not trust more? We should trust people will make good decisions, trust that if they are working remotely they are getting stuff done, trust that by allowing people to adapt their working patterns that we get more from their contributions.
What has helped you to cope with your situation?
I feel incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful, caring, and supportive family, friends and work colleagues. Having great connections to such special people is what enabled me to keep going even though some of the toughest few weeks.
What message would you like to pass onto others?
Be humble, care more about the important things appreciate the good stuff.
Finally, what’s on your ‘Playlist’?
Favourite meal? – Home cooked roast dinner .. ideally mum’s
Boxset/film or book – Your Dream Life Starts Here: by Kristina Karlsson and The Universe has Your Back: By Gabrielle Bernstein
Things to do that just makes you happy! – Yoga, reading, time in the garden… and when we can travel more, seeing new and interesting places.
