Reinventing oneself to work seamlessly from anywhere has been one of the great opportunities out of the global pandemic.
Right now I am currently based in Singapore, where I was born and raised. I work remotely for Madden, a Sydney-based company with clients based in London, New York, Sydney and Chicago. My permanent home is in Christchurch, New Zealand.
When they said the workforce was changing, they were not kidding! Humanity has had a difficult few years, to say the least. Yet, as we head towards the halfway point of 2022 and into the third year of living with Covid-19, I find myself optimistic about what the future holds.
Reinvention is a progressive dynamic. If you had told me three years ago that I would be working across three time zones in my professional and personal life, I would have gently asked if you were feeling all right. Yet here we are! I’m quickly learning that what I had previously thought was unfeasible – working productively across borders and continents – is not only very feasible but has also given me the unique opportunity to grow and expand my skill set in a way I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do.
Flexibility, agility, and communication are all universally needed in a workplace, but working remotely demands a heightened level of all three. Sending an Outlook invite just to have a quick chat with my co-workers sounded strange before but has come to be a regular and needed part of daily work life. It might be a little out of the box we are used to, but – what is the box anyway?
One of the things that drew me to Madden was its philosophy around integrity and the culture of independent and flexible working styles. We take walks in the park and calls with the team at the same time because regardless of location, our work will get done, and done well – an idea that the conservative corporate world of ‘Pre-Covid Times’ may not have been as open to.
That same principle has allowed me to work from a tiny flat in the heartlands of Singapore, serving clients around the world. Talk about time zones! Madden may be boutique, but it punches well above its weight in terms of the clients it serves, the results it delivers, and the opportunities it offers.
I have learned so much over the past seven months. On top of diving into the complex world of financial services, I’ve also been learning about Australian media, politics, and culture – not something you’d usually get out of a new role! I have the bonus and privilege of being an outsider with an inside view into the issues that Australians face on an everyday basis, how those feed into aspects of work and home life, and what that means for communications professionals like ourselves.
The nuanced media and financial services landscapes in Australia make it such a unique space to work in, and the specialised knowledge and expertise needed to be an effective PR practitioner in such a space cannot be overstated.
This is a time of great uncertainty – inflation, geopolitics, Twitter bans, you name it! – but also, I think, a time of great opportunity. We don’t know how things will shape up, but what is certain is that the way we work is changing, I would argue, for the better. The more options we have for working styles, the more lifestyles and situations can be accommodated, and the more talent companies can open themselves up to.
Though we have spent the last two years hunkered down in survival mode, we’re now in the home stretch – fingers crossed! – with borders opening and restrictions lifting. As we look to what the future holds and try to shake off the cobwebs, it’s clear that the agility we’ve all gained over the past few years of reinventing ourselves – including working remotely – will remain an invaluable asset.