WORKING WAY THROUGH THE CHANGES
The way we work has dramatically changed over the past month. There’s been a daily trend of #WFH (working from home) pictures on social media. For some, however, work can’t be done from home, so they still need to be out and about – while taking very serious precautions of course – while other roles have been completely flipped upside down. Here, people tell JOSHUA KNAPMAN how working life in Wales has changed for them – and the new challenges that come with it
THE PUB-TURNED-FRUIT AND VEG SERVICE
Matthew Davis has seen his business completely change.
The 51-year-old pub boss said his venue usually focused heavily on being family friendly, with an emphasis on food.
However, the team at the Castle Inn in Caldicot have seen their roles change drastically in a matter of weeks.
At first his staff were worried how they’d get by with the pub closing but Matthew said he’d had to adapt.
Rather than serving drinks at the bar, or cooking up a culinary storm in the kitchen, the staff now make “essentials” packages, that can be collected from the pub or delivered to those who can’t get out and about.
“We’ve got quite a lot of elderly people around, we’ve got an older clientele.
“When we said about shutting the pub, a few of them said to me if they can’t get anything, would I be able to get hold of some veg for them.
“So I said yeah, only basics like potatoes, parsnips, swede, stuff that would keep and that they could have in a little box now and again. Well, that’s spread to me now ordering in more than £1,000 of veg a day.
“Now I’m trying to pre-empt what people will run out of; first it was toilet rolls, then pasta, it’s bread now.”
He added that he’d had people calling from all over the UK, because they had family near the pub, asking if Matthew could deliver to their elderly relatives.
“We have to stop and put the phone on engaged for five minutes every now and again because one of the girls [who work for him] is crying.
“It’s heartbreaking what we’re hearing.”
Matthew added that it wasn’t just essentials, like fruit and veg, he was now offering.
“You’ve got to have a treat,” he said. “My partner makes wonderful scones. We’re selling 400-500 scones a day now – we’re having to buy them in from a supplier now.
“Everyone’s talking about them.”
THE GRAPHIC DESIGN COMPANY A graphic design company in Newport has seen a “surprisingly smooth” transition to home-based working.
Owner of Parade Design, Claire Broome, 40, who’s run the firm for the past seven years, said: “The biggest change is not having face-to-face contact.
“Instead of production meetings, we’re using Google Hangouts, so it’s quite nice to see each other’s faces. Albeit with less make-up and messy hair,” she added with a laugh.
“Other challenges include not having absolutely everything to hand. We took our 28-inch monitors home because it’s so much easier than working on our laptops but we’ve got things like a whole library of reference material in the studio – we can’t take the whole bookcase home.”
As far as work flow is going, they’ve already had a few ups and downs, as everyone adapts to the situation.
“The designers are continuing with existing projects, so we’re finishing off those,” Claire said.
“We lost some work from clients that have had to temporarily close due to the virus.
“But we have had some new inquiries from people looking to evolve their business in a different way.”
“Our clients have been very supportive and understand the challenges that everyone is facing.”
THE SEASONAL BUSINESS
Solar Buddies in Cwmbran sells a unique sunscreen applicator for children and families. As you’d probably imagine, most of their business comes in the spring or summer months, when everyone is heading outdoors.
Co-founder Kelli Behan-Aspland said: “Our product sells well during this spring/summer period but now due to this outbreak, we are seeing no sales and our usual outlets are now not placing trade orders due to the worry of cashflow.
“We sell to holidaymakers and parents for school children and both of these outlets are at a stop.”
There were previously five staff onsite, but due to the outbreak they’ve been furloughed so now it’s just the two directors left.
But that doesn’t mean they’ve put off working altogether. Instead, they’ve decided to showcase other local businesses.
Kelli added: “We have decided to open up our social media platforms to showcase how great businesses out there are and do daily shout-outs if #dontforgetus and #showthelove to keep them at the forefront of people’s minds for future reference.
“I’m unsure on how long we can sustain with no cashflow; we are a seasonal business and the majority of our summer cashflow sees us through winter time. It’s a real scary thought that we may not come out of this, but we won’t give up and we will try our hardest to secure us through this tough time.
“We won’t give up, that’s for sure, we have a great product that’s always in demand, so that makes us a viable business, I can only hope the steps we take to help our business will be the right ones for our future business survival.”
THE UNIVERSITY LECTURER
Dr Naveena Prakasam has worked at Swansea University for more than three years. She’s a lecturer at the school of management and has faced a number of challenges with the new working situation.
Dr Prakasam has changed the way the students are learning – she’s been uploading pre-recorded lectures to the university’s Virtual Learning Environment.
She said: “The biggest change has been working from home all the time, and only seeing everyone in work virtually.
“I conduct office hours, and have student meetings virtually, and I’ve been uploading pre-recorded lectures to the Virtual Learning Environment.
“They have been going well, but I miss seeing students on campus, and the vibrancy they bring with them.”
The 33-year-old lecturer added: “These are enormously challenging times for some, and depending on one’s circumstances, experiences would vary significantly.
“Most of my students have been coping well based on the interactions I’ve had with them.”
And she’s noticed a few positives to come from the unprecedented situation.
“All my students and colleagues have been incredibly supportive to one another,” said Dr Prakasam.
“Students have been remarkably understanding of the shift to online learning and teaching.”
THE PET FOOD SHOP
Claire Muscat runs a raw pet food shop in Rumney, Cardiff.
She said: “We’ve always offered local deliveries and also ship nationwide but our shop turnover is around 50% of sales.
“We closed the shop due to social distancing concerns and us having the responsibility of policing it in our
shop was becoming too much for staff, if faced with customers that found it irritating or inconvenient.”
The 44-year-old, who set up Raw Pet Supplies in 2013, said: “We’ve made some huge changes and less than two weeks in, we’re just getting into a new rhythm.
“We now open Tues to Sat for three hours to fulfil Click ‘n’ Collect orders that have been placed on our website, or by phone.
“It’s obviously increased our website traffic, and volume of online orders. The jobs of my staff have changed somewhat.”
Claire currently has nine staff, and she said her “amazing team” hadn’t found adapting too difficult.
“We’ve divided the staff into two working teams so we are exposing ourselves to even fewer people. This enables us to now run a day shift, and a late shift to keep up with the extra work of picking and packing online orders. It’s been challenging, and will continue to be so, but we are definitely feeling quite fortunate in the current situation.
“My staff team have been truly amazing and flexible in working these new hours, and a whole new way of serving customers that collect.
“Some have had to exchange more work days for shorter days, but so far, we’ve been able to maintain 100% of regular working hours so far.
“I think our mood is high because we can still work. Our days still have some sort of routine – these things actually distract us from the horror that is happening all around us.”
THE MARKETING AGENCY
South Wales-based marketing agency, Alliance, has seen some big changes. Co-director Matt Trevett, 47, said: “A couple of weeks ago we were celebrating our best financial quarter to date for Alliance Marketing.
“We had particular success winning new contracts and projects with restaurant clients both here in South Wales and further afield in London and Birmingham.
“To manage this additional workload we had created a new role within the business for a web developer and had held interviews.
“While we were aware of what was going on in China and the possible threat it posed to us here in the UK, we certainly didn’t expect it to have the impact it has.
“After Boris Johnson made the announcement about the stricter controls on social distancing and the requirements for restaurants, pubs and similar venues to close we knew we were going to be in trouble. We helped those of our clients who wanted to continue trading by providing a takeaway/delivery service to adapt their websites and promote the services via social media. I even jumped in my car and helped a Newport restaurant – Mamma Lina’s – by delivering meals for them on the Saturday before Mothering Sunday.
“The writing was on the wall though and inevitably many of them chose to close for their own safety and when it became clear their business insurance policies would compensate them.”
Matt added: “We made the decision to work from home ourselves. We are only a small team of three and pretty much managed our workloads online via various platforms anyway. The recruitment of another member has been halted and we immediately contacted Newport City Council and our landlords to apply for grants etc to help compensate us for the drop in monthly client income.
“Working from home and while also home schooling my 10-year-old daughter from Monday to Friday – her mother is a key worker and we are separated – has been challenging but without any other options, you have to plough on and do what you can.
“I make up the hours spent working with my daughter in the evening after she has gone to bed.
“My business partner and I came up with an idea for a website to help other small businesses which we created relatively quickly to help them with income generation – www. buyavoucher.co.uk.
“We are thankful that Alliance Marketing was enjoying a successful period before this pandemic. We have some savings we can draw upon and have carefully cut all expenditure that isn’t entirely necessary.”