One of the most frustrating things I found with corporate life was the assumption that you couldn't look after your children and be an effective employee simultaneously - although it didn't stop my colleagues calling me when I wasn't supposed to be working as I was looking after my daughters!

It felt like a big double standard ...

When my mother was having her first round of chemotherapy I was allowed to work from the hospital to take her for her appointments and for treatments, taking calls in hallways and losing connection as the thick walls and tonnes of equipment made reception terrible, but working with a sick child sleeping on the sofa next to me was a no no!

So to have the government insisting (non key-worker) employees work from home, with their bundles of joy home from school, is a big leap for a lot of employers.

I can’t tell you the amount of business owners, who have businesses that can actually thrive in the current circumstances that are worried about how they will get their full 7 or 8 hours of work out of their employees while they are working from home.

I hear all of the talk about team dynamic and collaborative working but let me let you in on a little secret, 90% of staff give you MORE value when they are working from home. They tend to work a longer day as they aren't commuting, lunch is prepped and eaten while they work and they’ve got no colleagues distracting them.

Having children around brings an added dimension, but good parents know how to occupy their children and will plan their day accordingly - this morning my key worker hubby worked from home (he’s on an office rota) starting before 8am, so the girls and I did PE with Joe wicks and while they had their bath I made calls and set out their literacy work. When they completed their literacy, they created some art masterpieces and then after a snack, they played in their bedroom until lunch. And so the day continued until my hubby finished his work and set up the Nintendo Switch for some Mario fun, while I wrote this.

This is life for a lot of freelancers pre pandemic and so we are more experienced with the juggle, but i want to let business owners know that you can trust your staff to act like adults and manage their work and parenting responsibilities, if they can’t manage their lives you would have seen it already (you can still use your capability policy if they aren't delivering).

To manage your team remotely, there are some tips and tools that you can use to help you feel confident that your team are on top of their outcomes:

Set clear objectives with detailed outcomes
Have morning team meetings by video call
Have 1-2-1’s with your team as usual
Work from Google docs or your shared drive, so you can check progress
Use a project management tool to assign work, e.g. Asana, Monday,Trello
Gather feedback from your clients

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