MODERN FAMILY

RADIO and TV presenter Jeremy Vine has been speaking this week about how he is “terrified” about working with his wife for the first time in their 18-year marriage.

Having worked with my husband in the same office for more than 20 years, and at opposite ends of the dining room table for nearly six months, I think he is probably right to be a bit scared.

While working different shifts at opposite ends of the day in the same office has helped immensely with raising a young family, it is not always like a scene from a Richard and Judy show.

Jeremy has joined forces with his wife Rachel Schofield, who is also a journalist, on his Channel 5 show as his usual co-host Storm Huntley takes some time off.

Despite having more than 50 years of broadcasting experience between them, they have never worked in the same office before – until now.

Chuckling to myself after reading their concerns about who was going to make the cups of tea and how it would all work, I popped my head up over the computer to ask my “better half ” the all-important question: “What are the advantages of working together?”

After looking like a rabbit who had been caught in the headlights, he gave the question some thought, actually a lot of thought as he pondered if it was a trick question, and then tried to work out what the right answer would be.

Finally deciding that I make a very nice cup of tea, and it is good being be able to catch up in the office, easier to make plans, he quickly, desperately, tried to change the subject and steer the conversation on to safer ground.

He conveniently forgot about the time that I caught him telling his colleagues how he did 90% of the housework (which he claims was a joke), and it is not always possible to say you are too busy to phone the bank when he knows exactly how much time I spend “talking about work” with colleagues in the office rest area.

Having worked together for so long, it is difficult to remember what it was like before, but working together from home in such close proximity during lockdown has been a whole new experience.

After a difficult first week back in March of readjustment, computer issues and what the right way to teach long division was, we have settled into a new working environment where the benefits do outweigh the negatives.

With Wales’ first local lockdown now in place and cases rising again, it looks like this is a situation we are going to have live with for some time to come. While some are keen to get people back to city-centre offices, the reality is that normal services will not resume for a long time.

We are very lucky to both be able to have the flexibility and ability to be able to work together, and to be able to work from home.

All that is left for me to do is take some advice from Rachel and get making the tea written into the contract.