Recently - before the kids went back to school, our wifi went down. It became the toughest challenge of lockdown so far. Forget not being able to go out for a meal, or meeting up with more than one friend at a time, or having family round for supper – when the broadband went down our family’s human rights had been seriously breached!
I’ve run my own business from home for 10 years, my husband has worked from home for the last 12 months and up until two weeks ago, the children have been home-schooling since the beginning of the year. Our home hub operates four laptops, one printer, numerous video calls and of course Google classroom. On reflection it’s amazing the tech hasn’t fallen over before now. However, once BT told us we could be waiting upto four working days for things to be fixed any, ‘reflections’ went out the window. Trying to run all our tech requirements from a mobile hotspot tethered to your phone just didn’t cut the mustard. And that’s before the kids had even tried to use the PlayStation!
This got me to thinking. Why is the connection tech provides us, so important? For me, it’s one of the things that has kept me sane. I might not be able to get out and meet clients face-face but at least I can video call. For my children, creating Minecraft worlds with their best friends isn’t as good as seeing them face-face but it does give them the ability to socialise – hearing them shouting and laughing with their friends online makes me feel less guilty about all the time they are spending on screens.
Here’s a quote that resonated from Dr Damian Scarf, a psychologist who specialises in developmental psychology: “It’s our connections with those around us, the groups we belong to, that bolster our resilience. The number of groups we belong to not only bolsters our resilience, but is also protective against developing depression, can be curative of existing depression, and helps to prevent depression relapse. Even when you're old, groups are critical. The more groups we belong to, the slower our cognitive decline.”
The same holds true in the workplace. Much of the work I’ve supported organisations with during the pandemic has been about ensuring connections are nurtured and maintained. Whether it’s been running an engagement survey, introducing a regular check-in framework or delivering virtual workshops around effective feedback – the common thread running through my work is connection with others and making sure it is meaningful and rewarding.
If you're interested, we had to wait three days for the wifi to get fixed - we decamped to Grandma's (and her superfast broadband connection). So what's the moral of this story? Keep your connections and groups going – they will keep you sane. This image pretty much sums it up for me!
This got me to thinking. Why is the connection tech provides us, so important? For me, it’s one of the things that has kept me sane. I might not be able to get out and meet clients face-face but at least I can video call. For my children, creating Minecraft worlds with their best friends isn’t as good as seeing them face-face but it does give them the ability to socialise – hearing them shouting and laughing with their friends online makes me feel less guilty about all the time they are spending on screens.
Here’s a quote that resonated from Dr Damian Scarf, a psychologist who specialises in developmental psychology: “It’s our connections with those around us, the groups we belong to, that bolster our resilience. The number of groups we belong to not only bolsters our resilience, but is also protective against developing depression, can be curative of existing depression, and helps to prevent depression relapse. Even when you're old, groups are critical. The more groups we belong to, the slower our cognitive decline.”
The same holds true in the workplace. Much of the work I’ve supported organisations with during the pandemic has been about ensuring connections are nurtured and maintained. Whether it’s been running an engagement survey, introducing a regular check-in framework or delivering virtual workshops around effective feedback – the common thread running through my work is connection with others and making sure it is meaningful and rewarding.
If you're interested, we had to wait three days for the wifi to get fixed - we decamped to Grandma's (and her superfast broadband connection). So what's the moral of this story? Keep your connections and groups going – they will keep you sane. This image pretty much sums it up for me!