As we continue to work from home at Affinity, as a follow up to our Sales Support Apprentice Tom's recent blog about his experience of working from home, next up is our one of our Account Managers Elliott Armitage who has been with us for over 4 years now.
“Much like many other organisations, our staff have been operating remotely in keeping with the government’s guidelines to try and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
I get up in the morning as I normally would, put the kettle on and some bread in the toaster. I am at my desk for 10 minutes to 9 and start to archive any old emails and create an action plan for the day. Currently my desk is the dining room table.
For the first couple of weeks of lockdown, I set about contacting all of the clients I look after to make sure they know that we are still open as normal with staff working remotely so they will still get all the support we normally offer. We do send communications out, but I wanted to make the effort of speaking with people and seeing how the current situation was going to affect them.
I have also been on education overload attending several product training webinars to try and gain some more accreditations and general product knowledge of the newer services we are providing such as Mitel phone systems and Veeam backup solutions. They are both very similar services to other products we use but you can never know too much.
Now, for the past couple of weeks, the vast majority of my time has been spent managing requests for thermal screening cameras as it is an area where we have had a lot of interest.
Where my home life is concerned, I am planning on getting a new bike so I can start cycling and enjoying the outdoors more as it is an activity I love when the weather holds up. The weather since lockdown began has been generally good, so I really want to take advantage of this as I find cycling a very calming activity. I have also decided to use the time I have to start learning French again spending at least 30 minutes a day using Duolingo and online resources to help me.
I'm also quite a social person and generally out with my friends’ lot, a hot spot for us is The Blind Monkey pub which we usually visit a few times per week including every Tuesday for the pub quiz. I also spend a lot of time with my partner at her house over the weekend and during the week.
Since none of the above can happen now, I am having daily calls with my partner as she is in lockdown with her family. My friends and I have regular group calls/video calls and play games online together to help us stay close. We have also been taking the time to deliver our own pub quizzes which we do every Tuesday at the usual time and set up mini prizes for the winner.
I have been regularly speaking to family members, more than I normally would, and it has really put into perspective how much my friends and family mean to me.
Like many others, I have a lot of family and friends who work in the NHS. I am so proud of what they do but I can’t help but worry as I’m sure many others out there do. Both my mum and my Dad tested positive for COVID-19 last week which we found out after they attended the new screening facility in Don Valley, but, luckily, they are both in good health and now isolating at home.
As I live nearby, I have been helping with dropping shopping off when they need anything. I am very grateful to all the key workers out there who are really keeping this country running and they are doing a fantastic job at the most difficult of times.“
