A Line in the Snow

The December struggle is real. 

Let’s imagine for a second that this is not 2020. It’s that glorious nostalgic year of literally nothing of global import, 2019, and the festive month has hit. Irrespective of your daily working life – whether you commute the 9 to 5, work from home, devote your days to caring for your home and family, work back shift, work night shift, work all the shifts, gig the sh*t out of the gig economy. Whatever it might be, December hits and va-va-voom, the to-do list goes nuclear. 

In order to remain on Santa’s good list, we make our own less-good lists. Presents, food, shopping, end of year accounts, the “Things that have been Ignored” since January, social events and family socialising. It’s endless, it’s exhausting and it makes the festivities a bit, well, frustrating at times. 

And now, this year, we add the real spice to the mixture. The Home Office. Here at Compass we have mastered the remote working, capsule digital team efficiency since 2014. Digital comms, zoom (or at least Skype back in the day), email and WhatsApp, working in your leisure wear, making synchronised cups of tea. All this and more and it’s been our best mode of working across a team that stretches the geographical bounds. That said, this year has meant that EVERYONE is on the same high-speed bullet train. 

If you too work from home, it’s likely that all your colleagues, your clients, your company and your favourite coffee barista are doing the same thing, sadly. This has its upside of course, but it also lends itself to a mentality that means the “open for business” sign is constantly hanging on the metaphorical shop door. Hands up if you’ve responded to midnight emails, if you’ve woken at 5am to the ping of a WhatsApp, if you’ve scheduled Zoom calls when you’re multitasking making the kids tea. It’s been what we’ve needed to do and what we’ve all done throughout this eventful year, but at some point and for some time, the line has to be drawn and the lines of communication closed. At least for a little while.

Here at Compass, we’ve made it company-wide and compulsory. Everyone will switch off at 4pm on December 23rd without fail. No sneaky gmail notifications, no extra minutes to polish the February content matrix and most certainly NO ZOOM CALLS. For a short time and for the benefit of our mental health, and our family’s funny wee Christmas faces, it has to be a temporary “Do Not Disturb”. The blue moon screen on our kids sleeping aid of choice.

For as long or as short as you can manage, take a break. Switch off. Cut the cord. Admittedly, this is an exercise that we can all complete at any time throughout the year, but Christmas does give us a Santa shaped excuse. Most (home) offices will be closed, no decisions will be made, nothing can happen that can’t wait a few days. 

Give yourself a break, draw a line in the snow and recuperate from what has been an exceptional year. Reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly. Enjoy the company of your family without checking a screen. Come back bigger bolder and brighter – we all know that absence can only make the heart grow fonder so ghost your emails for a while and you might even grow to love them a tiny bit more come January.