Working through lockdown and beyond
A year ago, I joined the Thorntons Investments Investment Team to do what I enjoy most about investment management – looking after clients and their wealth. Better still, Thorntons Investments’ flexible approach afforded me more time with my young family. Little did I know that one year on I would be working at the kitchen table, a little fraught with home schooling two primary age children, but glad to be able to continue to work in more or less the same way as we operate from the office.
With very little time to prepare for working from home, we decamped from the Thorntons Investments offices in March to the Thorntons Investments satellite ‘kitchen’ offices and it was a surprisingly smooth transition! There are times when every piece of tech in the house is in use, the WIFI is at full capacity with multiple ‘Zoom’ meetings and we run out of biscuits (as we do in the office)! But the Thorntons Investments remote systems have been robust throughout and the team has remained in regular contact, with daily discussions on markets and macro issues, as well as a weekly Friday social call to check in on everyone’s general wellbeing.
There are certainly features of office working that I miss – random conversations with colleagues, attending industry events in person and most of all meeting with clients. However, I also appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to spend this time with my family close and safe and to continue to look after the needs of our clients, albeit from a distance for now.
So what next? Like most businesses, Thorntons Investments are making plans to return to office working safely for staff and clients and, as the same forward-thinking company that I joined a year ago, more than ever they recognise the efficiencies and productivity benefits of flexible working, which has quickly become the new norm.