LISA GILLESPIE Head of Learning and Development Make UK


Lisa has been in the HR industry for 25 years in a number of roles. She holds qualifi cations in law, a post-graduate diploma in HRM, philosophy, psychology and creative writing. In addition she qualifi ed as a practitioner in PRINCE 2 and neurolinguistic programming.


HR & RECRUITMENT www.MakeUK.org | lgillespie@makeuk.org


Working from home: a dangerous occupation


I’M out in Canada visiting my cousin this week; we’ve been recounting daft stories into the wee small hours. Although we have only seen each other intermittently over the years, we realised that we share family traits including our tendency to multi-task. For a long time I kidded myself that this was a great talent.


I’ve written previously about how work is changing - how eventually we will, in all probability, automate all task-based activities and change forever how we work. For many years I have worked in environments which, due to global teams, diff erent time-zones or just geographical challenges, have required me to have meetings via conference calls. As a consequence I have found that I have developed a tendency to do other things whilst dialled in during the periods that I am not required to speak. I have taken this new skill to another level and frequently multi-task whilst on the telephone to friends and family.


One of my friends occasionally asks me if I am white-water-rafting because I will be washing dishes or cleaning the shower


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whilst on a call to him. I’m certain it is really annoying but it can be an incredibly effi cient use of time.


It does have its pitfalls though; recently I surpassed myself by setting in motion a chain of events which began benignly by being dialled into a conference call.


I was waiting for a break in the discussion to point out that I probably did not need to be on the call. I was also thinking of the other work I needed to get done but couldn’t because it required concentration. As I was working from home, I started looking for something I could do that would not distract me from the call. As I was on ‘mute’ I thought it was perfectly acceptable to go rummaging in my bathroom cupboard. I found some cotton buds and, as I simply love cleaning my ears, I removed one earplug and stuck one in. Yes, yes I know you should not try this at home and one should never put anything bigger than your elbow in your ear but I am a seasoned expert at this.


Unfortunately on this occasion something felt wrong. I removed the bud and discovered there was no cotton on the


end of it. Where was it? Had it been there when I put it in my ear? I couldn’t tell you because, of course, I had not been concentrating on what I was doing. Then I discovered something I should really have already known: you can’t see inside your own ear.


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Despite convincing myself that it was probably a rogue bud with no cotton on it in the fi rst place, it bothered me over the next couple of hours; so much so that I decided to visit a walk-in centre at lunchtime.


My cousin thought this tale was hysterical and typical of how his multi- tasking brain gets him into trouble.


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