STARTING A NEW JOB DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK...

2020 was always due to be a year of change for me; I would move to a new city, live with new housemates and start a new job. That in itself is enough change to cause anyone some serious disruption in their life. Little did I know, the human race was about to be forced into hiding from the newest pandemic, and toilet roll was going to be considered one of the UK’s most precious commodities!

I started my job on Monday 16^th of March and showed up at the Mongoose office as any newbie would during these uncertain times- confused as to whether or not I would still be employed by the end of the week (thankfully I had nothing to worry about). I had one day to familiarise myself with my colleagues, so I made a detailed seating plan with a brief description beside each name which I highly recommend anyone do when starting a new job as it has proved to be extremely useful.) By the end of the day, all employees had been informed that we would be working from home until further notice in order ensure our own safety, as well as the safety of others.

Working from home has involved participating in numerous daily conference calls in order to share plans and progressions for the day, but these are also being used as a much-needed platform for keeping up morale. After a few days almost all technical difficulties had been sorted and nearly everyone was willing to turn on their video camera- a major success! Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp are also being used for more general chatting so as to avoid bombarding each other’s inboxes. To my surprise, I have been kept extremely busy.  My colleague have been providing me with tons of work including new client work,  an abundance of reading material, and some compulsory online tests (which I can happily say I have now completed). The team were also amazingly able to secure new business during the week and “improvise, adapt, overcome” as Bear Grylls would say, by switching our focus to all things social and digital in order to continue providing value and remaining relevant. This has reinforced the fact that it really is business as usual, but just from the safety of our own homes. 

Our last conference call of the week saw everyone with an alcoholic drink in hand, in an attempt order to honour the beer trolley that normally tours the office at this time; something I am very much looking forward to experiencing once normality returns. 

I feel so lucky to be working firstly, for a company such as Mongoose as it is effectively a tight-knit community that have welcomed me with open arms in such adverse circumstances. Secondly, they have not only been able to keep me extremely busy but they have reassured me that I will still be able to provide value despite being a young (albeit eager) newcomer that is keen to prove her worth.