Filling the GAP in HR Services: Eight Whole Hours
I’ve been spending a lot of time on Zoom recently.
I’m sure you have too.
But when I say “a lot of time”, I don’t mean a 30-minute team meeting and a pub quiz in the evening.
I mean hours and hours and hours – an average of 7-8 a day to be precise.
I guess it’s pretty unsurprising: when your business is all about people management, you expect to be busy, and when you can’t physically see clients, then Zoom is the next best thing.
Anyway, when I first started the calls, I came to the sobering realization that my study – which provided the backdrop for every call – was not a pretty sight.
Pre-coronavirus, the study was the business equivalent of the box room – bung everything on a shelf and sort it out “later”.
But with later being “now”, I had no time to do anything about it other than hide it.
I quickly came up with a short term solution, putting some flip-chart paper over the shelves with some logos glued on.
But as time went on, I became less and less happy with that backdrop.
I realised that rather than a blank, branded background, it’s more interesting and real to see where a person actually is, when you’re face-to-face with them on Zoom.
I realised that I couldn’t and shouldn’t hide my shelves forever.
So, last weekend I bit the bullet, took down the flip-charts and started turning out.
And what a lot of junk I had accumulated, most of it kept “just in case”.
By the end, both the recycling and black bins were full, my son had acquired a webcam that I had put on the shelf and forgotten about, and I had loads of space on my shelves – in fact, so much that I could then move my business books from the other room to fill the gaps.
So thank you to the Coronavirus for making me do something that I had not found time for in 8 years, and which will make my life much easier going forward, as I can actually find everything now!
