From home to work

I returned to work yesterday after two months off on paternity leave following Emily’s birth in July. Those two months of wearing shorts, not trousers, T-shirts not shirts were (Emily’s virus aside) wonderful.

Towards the end of my leave, I started thinking about and investigating the world of work again - discovering interesting buzzwords like “social enterprise” and “curation” brought up concepts that I was keen to try to implement in our office. I also checked my work emails to make sure that I wasn’t going to be overwhelmed when I got back.

Whilst checking up on my work emails from home, I noticed a slight reaction of repulsion as soon as I saw a drawing of one of our tube products - this continued when I returned to being “live” at work, too. It’s not the greatest sign for motivation, although the holiday blues are bound to be at work. I fear my lofty ideas will not survive being dragged down to the product level, into the muck and brass of a metal-forming automotive supplier’s life; yet it is at this product level that these lofty concepts need to work, and work seamlessly. Without the product, concepts remain simply that; nebulous ideas.

So - my challenge is to compartmentalise the day-to-day grit (quality complaints, validation testing, drawings updates) into chunks of “done” and to leave myself time, room and mental energy to devote to improving the way that we work. Whilst also giving myself some time to get back home to enjoy my family life.

It is a battle - improving our communication, knowledge distribution and search capabilities can improve work itself - but I do feel that ‘loving’ the product would make it one battle more easily fought.