FATHER P. CLIP

Bringing hope, peace and unity to the good brethren of business supplies

WFH – three letters we all know very well now - but how are the good Father and his team holding up in the home office?

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t’s a funny old thing, setting up a home office; different people require different things to make themselves more comfortable or more productive. Some people just ask for the basic necessities like an operator’s chair and a desk and maybe a few desktop accessories - whereas others compile a list which may be important to them, but certainly doesn’t read like a basic office set up.

Mrs O’ Reilly - who looks after our CRM, HR, IT, EORI and PONI - does everything from a hot tub, so anything she uses has to be waterproof. Other people have requested posture chairs, even though half of their day is spent moving from room to room making a sandwich or having a quick snooze, and others have asked for a sit/stand desk so that they can sit and stand at the same time.

I tend to spend most of my day sitting at the kitchen table staring at the computer screen until the ‘phone rings when I then do laps of the garden while I’m on the call - it’s like a starting pistol for me to get up and immediately start walking round in circles. I’m happy enough about it, because it’s exercise, but I often see other people doing the same thing and wonder why it happens. Is it a throwback to the old days when we had to walk around the place to get a signal, or could it be a way of making ourselves seem busier than we are?

Our drivers have never really had time off during the lockdown, so they are very envious of the rest of the staff who seem to be having a great time of it while they are out and about every day. They aren’t actually allowed into customers’ premises to leave the stuff off and, for some of them, this is a bit disheartening because they were used to getting a biscuit and a cup of tea at reception. According to them, the lockdown has affected them the most as they have lost all of the nice things about their jobs. I tend to think it might not be that bad for them as they are only delivering a quarter of what they used to. ...I hope they aren’t spending the afternoon in Mrs O’ Reilly’s hot tub or, if they are, I hope they’re all wearing a mask.