Much has been written by many including this firm about how well we worked remotely and how we are using IT to enable us to continue to work effectively for our clients and to support and communicate with our staff. All that is correct but when businesses are having to be actively encouraged to return to their places of work and we communicate every working day with firms where no-one has returned then it feels like the right time to acknowledge publicly that we have returned to the office and why.
Obviously our primary concern like everyone else’s is safety and we have taken loads of steps to ensure that we have 
done everything we can to not only keep our staff safe but to make them feel safe. Before we returned to the office we invested in Perspex screens, signage, socially distancing, face visors and gallons of hand sanitiser. We have new procedures and a health and safety risk assessment which is being regularly updated. We are communicating with our staff and we know they feel safe because in a recent survey they told us so. We have also agreed new flexible working policies so people can and do work from home frequently when it suits them and us and we will continue with this in the future regardless of the pandemic risk. We are also very aware that at any time an individual, a team or the whole firm may need to work remotely because they have to self-isolate or there is a local lockdown and we are ready for this. All the steps we took to lockdown in the first place are still in place and we can do this really quickly. Much has been learnt from the first lockdown and we are still using many of the skills and conducting lots of meetings and events virtually but the bottom line is yes we have in the main returned to our office.
Why?
There are a number of reasons why we returned to the office and none of them are “because the government says we should”.
I think the 10 main reasons are:-
- Whilst we worked efficiently from home we do a lot of work which involves different members of the same team or members of different teams working together or bouncing ideas around and this is often quicker done by passing comments in the office then over than emails, zoom or telephone.
- We are much more creative when we bounce ideas in person than by virtual meetings which tend to be so much more factual.
- Our clients like to know that they can deliver things to us and if they need to with health and safety precautions they can meet with us.
- We are a training firm and whilst there are lots of way to continue training remotely, as we did during lockdown, a lot of training is not done in formal meetings but by demonstration or osmosis while you see and hear how someone more senior deals with all sorts of issues or guides you through them. Our return to the office has enabled us to provide full training to our trainee solicitors and apprentices but also all other staff within the firm who need support, encouragement and guidance. It has also allowed us to bring into the firm 2 new apprentices and give them an opportunity to begin a new career.
- Working at home does not suit everybody and some people for a variety of reasons were lonely or felt isolated no matter how many quizzes and communications meetings we held. Being back in the workplace has been really important to the mental health and wellbeing of some of our staff and that is really important to us.
- Some of our staff couldn’t work from home for various reasons and so to bring them back to work we needed the office to be open.
- We are lucky very few of our staff use public transport to come to work.
- It may be a coincidence but since most people have been back we have exceeded our pre-virus budget for 2 consecutive months.
- By being back we are supporting other businesses from the sandwich shop to our cleaners, from the petrol stations who need us to use our cars to the ice cream van who delivered our treats.
- Being in the office can be fun! We have missed the office banter and the buzz and the laugh about the silly little things that happen in the course of the day.
So I guess the summary is we cannot guarantee that no-one in the office will get coronavirus (no-one can do that). We can however do everything possible to ensure people are as safe as they can be and that they are as safe here as they will be when they visit the shops or go out for a meal and probably safer if current information is to be believed than when they visit the pub. There are many considerations, but the mental health and wellbeing of our staff involves more than just coronavirus, and when all is said and done we are back in the office because it works for us and we like being together.
Jane Armitage, Managing Partner, Jacksons Law Firm
