Back to work?

Just a short update from me this month, for the short month of February.

I may soon have more work on my hands than there are days or hours in the week, which is obviously fabulous and a great problem to have. One fixed term contract I’m working on – delivering marketing and communications for a Dorset-based arts organisation – comes to an end in July, so I am already looking ahead to the second half of the year.

Meanwhile I’ve been contacted by a rural charity about supporting their communications, so I may well be looking to collaborate with other copywriters and/or PRs. Do get in touch if that’s you…

In other news

The Guardian helpfully rounded up some Twitter responses to a bizarre front page from The Sun on Thursday 20 January about Boris Johnson either ‘cutting the mustard’ with an end to Plan B Covid restrictions or ‘still in a pickle’ over partygate claims. I didn’t really follow it either.

Writers for The Observer last month wrote about what the pandemic and lockdowns have done for the future of work and for life in general. As someone who has been self-employed and worked before (2003-2012), this re-entry to office life does feel different, post-Covid. I think it’s because we’ve all collectively experienced the ups and downs of working for home. For me the pros and cons are mitigated by only needing to be in an office once a week at most.

It’s fair to say there have been mixed reactions to the idea of returning to offices among the many of us who’ve had the relative freedom to work from home for much or all of the past two years. (Many journalists and essential workers did not have that freedom.) Some can’t wait to get back; others dread it. Some have both reactions at different times in the week.

I cannot for the life of me remember how I found this, but Brené Brown’s podcast on The Great Awkward, which is what she’s calling the stop/start return to offices after the pandemic, could not have come at a more opportune time. It really is worth a listen, as we all adjust to ‘having’ to go back to an office – or not.

This, from the Guardian, gives us more reasons not to privatise Channel 4.

This interview with Andrew Marr by Press Gazette is worth reading, covering journalism, the BBC, politics and of course Party-gate (to an extent).

Finally, Press Gazette interviewed Louis Theroux in February. As well as watching most of what Louis has made for TV and listened to most of his Grounded podcasts, I also saw Louis interviewed on stage at the Edinburgh TV Festival some years back. He was a reluctant interviewee then, unused to answering questions as opposed to asking them. He’s obviously mellowed but I still find it interesting when a poacher has to turn gamekeeper, albeit temporarily.

That’s it and in the spirit of Valentine’s: love, y’all.