Working from home: the highs, the lows, the chainsaws

Adapting to the New Normal

While video calls and remote working were already a frequent part of life at a management consultancy, 2020 completely dialled back the physicality of being in the same room as colleagues and clients. It’s hard to define exactly what we lost, what we still don’t have back; but we feel it, especially as the year draws to a close and we realise it may still be a long time before we see some of the people we work with every day.

We adapted quickly, since agile teams and technical solutions are our daily bread. Our chairman has strived to preserve a feeling of community and team spirit. From online coffee breaks to a virtual beer break (the alcohol is real thankfully) on Friday afternoons, we have continued to bond and grow as a team despite the physical separation.

However, the transfer of collaboration to Zoom and Teams has not been without its moments of‘teachers having technology failures in the classroom’. Add to that kids bursting in with gleeful faces of disruption, boisterous pets, and some incredible floating objects as people get swallowed by their custom backgrounds.

So, we decided to end the year with some personal stories from our team, who have shown a great sense of fair play by sharing their most amusing, sometimes embarrassing, moments in team calls. A way to remind us that life goes on and everyone has an equal chance of making a fool of themselves in front of a camera.

The one with a chainsaw

A Managing Partner had a bit of a shock earlier this year when her elderly neighbour, who does some work in the garden (every Monday, whether she wants it or not), started banging on the window during a client call. It was an important call, so she tried to ignore the neighbour, as usually he wants to know how to send an email or where Facetime has gone. As he kept on banging, she started to lower the blind, as inconspicuously as possible, and he followed it with his head until the room was almost in darkness. Eventually he went round to the front door and started banging there. When her husband answered the door the neighbour asked if he could have a plaster because he’d accidentally cut into his own leg with a chainsaw. Suffice to say, he needed more than a plaster and was rushed to A&E.

The one with a kiss through a window

Passion is reserved for sports matches and glimmers of sunshine here in the UK. Across the channel however it is possible to show public displays of affection. On a call with one of our French partners, there was a certain amount of stunned silence when he got up, went to the window and kissed a mysterious lady outside the window. We later found out it was his wife, but he has remained coy about it (playing up to stereotypes we suspect) and when questioned about it in another meeting replied: ‘was she blonde or brunette’? Our new dating capability launches in spring 2021. It will be entirely managed out of Paris.

The one with the bathrobe

One of our new associates gave a novel introduction to the team when he joined a call in his bathrobe, not realising his camera was turned on. To make matters worse, it wasn’t even an ‘on brand’ Cambridge MC bathrobe. To be fair, I suspect that during 2020 there is a rather large group of people who have made a similar mistake. It only happens once they say.

The one where the boy fell into a pond

One of our Managing Partners was in a call with about twenty of the team, with her backdrop being the garden outside. Suddenly there was a descending cry of ‘Muuuummmmmyyy!!!!!!!’, as her ten-year-old fell from the tree he was climbing and plunged straight into the pond. Silence from him, silence from the team, ‘I’ll be right back’ from the mum.

The one with the Brazilian farmers

One of our more unusual projects this year was a training project set up by one of our Managing Partners. He wanted some of the team to play angry Brazilian farmers so that researchers could practice talking to angry Brazilian farmers. Two of our team went to great lengths and dressed up in whatever it is Brazilian farmers wear (all I know is there was some significant involvement from a series of floppy leather hats). It went very well, and we are thinking of branching out into other nationalities of grumpy farmers.

That brings to a close some of our best anecdotes this year. We worked hard and we have come out stronger. We have high hopes for next year and will keep on smiling as we hope you will too. Best wishes to you and your family from everyone here at Cambridge Management Consulting.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!