As one of EG’s analysts you’d probably expect me to use numbers and statics to give a numerical overview of how 2020 has gone for me. And you’d be right. Have I been tracking my own performance in Excel since the pandemic struck? Or have I just haphazardly mashed this chart together for comedic effect? Only you can be the judge. Either answer is probably as crazy as the other, but it has been a crazy year for all.
Professionally it has been another great year. Just before we were instructed by Boris Johnson to work from home, I had been busy fleshing out some ideas for a piece “about the seaside”. I wasn’t sure what it was going to look like, and really I was just hoping to go to the beach for the day and have one of our multimedia gurus record me talking about retail while upside down on a rollercoaster.
Alas – the message was resolute: stay at home. Three months later, the result was one of my most pleasing professional works to date, a 50-page insight into the much-needed revitalisation of coastal towns in the UK. An issue only exacerbated by Covid-19.
That work has since been used by the High Streets Task Force, Institute of Place Management and others as a reference point for town planners seeking to future-proof their local economies. That is genuinely what gets me up in the morning, and the best part of my job. And I guess it’s also testament to just how much you can get done from your home “office”. Pleasingly, I did make it to the seaside eventually – albeit in September. Video to follow in 2021, perhaps.
Some months after the release of our report I finally made it to the seaside 🏖
Cromer was bustling yesterday, the sun still drawing the punters despite schools being back and it being a Tuesday ☀️
Chips on the pier definitely a 2020 highlight! https://t.co/xdx8iNOZG7 pic.twitter.com/h54ofrFZql
— James Child (@James_ChildCRE) September 16, 2020
One of the key functions of my role is to deliver presentations. Some of you may have unwittingly stumbled into a conference room at Revo or MIPIM UK hoping for a respite from the wall-to-wall networking, only to be forced to listen to my musings in a dark, warm room. Zoom has provided me with that creative outlet – and I have been fortunate enough to be able scratch that insatiable itch to offer up opinion and intel at EG’s and others’ events.
Despite those successes, it has been tough. Everything has been harder and been taking longer. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been working as hard, if not harder, than usual. It would be negligent to pump out content all year focusing on the benefits of working from home without addressing my own personal lived experiences of it.
As a numbers man I’m used to working in isolation, mostly in Microsoft Excel, in a meeting room in Bishopsgate, for weeks on end. As such, working alone for a large portion (all) of the day isn’t alien to me. I feel for my colleagues who are aren’t quite as accustomed to solitude, it must be even harder, personally and professionally. And I do pay tribute to everyone who has stuck at it in more than bizarre circumstances.
I did make it into the office a few times in that period just after #Lockdown1.0. It was brilliant, if not sterile and devoid of the warmth you only get from “water cooler moments”, plus those little routines that bring a sense of comfort even when the going gets tough.
This is a personal account, so I’m not going to go into any depth on the pros and cons of office working, but anyone who tells you the office is dead is mad. Just because we can work from home doesn’t mean that we should. I miss my colleagues and our fabulous team. It’s harder to share in the trials and tribulations of the working week. It is harder to share ideas; it’s difficult to know what colleagues are working on, as you aren’t in earshot.
Not being together does stifle productivity, to what extent probably depends on your own lived experience. While I’m oft found buried in a spreadsheet, the best fun is had bouncing ideas off others, who help get the creative juices flowing for new ideas, concepts and long pieces, as well as supporting the wider business. I miss the banter too, frankly.
Support from EG has been superb, I can’t fault how flexible and understanding the business has been to all of us. The leadership that the whole of the company has shown has been exemplary.
Mental health has been a top buzzword this year and EG has been magnificent in making sure we all get that balance between work and life right. Not all of us have oven-ready studies to work from. It’s been tough. Remember – we have been working from home, but we’ve also been living at work.
My morning commute (which I bizarrely miss [Ware to London Liverpool Street]), has been replaced with an early trip to the outdoors recycling bin. A walk around the City at lunch is now a stroll along the river Lea. Work drinks have been replaced with less boozy Zoom alternatives. At this point it would be remiss of me not to mention my local high street, which I, like many, have frequented more regularly. It really is my hope that the swing towards localism we have seen this year is cemented into 2021 and beyond.
Minus the commuting, we’ve all had a lot more time on our hands. I’m working towards completing 20 books in 2020 (recommendations: Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman and Walk the Lines by Mark Mason), I’ve almost learnt the guitar solo to Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, and my Strava says I’ve walked about 500,000 miles this year. Not bad, eh?
As I write this, I’m listening to Jonathan Van-Tam drop another five-star analogy about the pending vaccine (something to do with trains again, apparently, we can all get on one now?). It does fill me with hope. I had been expecting to go to my inaugural MIPIM last year, here’s hoping the invitation is extended again in 2021. Maybe I’ll see you there?
To send feedback, e-mail james.child@egi.co.uk or tweet @JamesChildEG or @estatesgazette
