Getting work done in lockdown can be a strange experience.
Many of us have had to radically change what we’re doing, while for others it’s a simple location swap.
Our Where I Work series has been exploring the reality of working from home, looking at a different person’s working setup each weekday.
Today we’re chatting with Tom Gallagher, 38, a church minister leading Hope Church Bedlington.
While he’s in lockdown, Tom is leading the church’s congregation over Zoom from the house he shares with his partner, who works as a midwife, his two children, and a lodger.
Tom also has psoriatic arthritis, and works to promote the work of Versus Arthritis, who offer support and advice for those with musculoskeletal conditions.
Hey, Tom! How has the coronavirus pandemic changed the way you work?
My work means I do a little from home, but mostly I work in our office and community hub building. But since coronavirus I have worked totally from home.
I use a laptop, IPad and My phone. They are all mobile and I can set them up in the room I’m working in. So for things like writing sermons I just work off my lap. The same goes for pastorally working with someone, I just use the telephone at the mo.
For our small groups I’ll just use the laptop in whatever room I want to, and we connect into them over Zoom. This is the same for leaders meetings, or trustee meetings, we connect over Zoom.
For Sundays it’s more complex. We decided to go for an authentic feel, and do it totally live. Lots of churches have taken to doing pre recorded worship and messages, but we felt live was better for engagement, and also to not be over presented, just be our normal selves in our normal living rooms, bedrooms etc, was really important for a town like ours.
So we use Zoom for our worship leader, for our meeting host/s and for our speaker. Then we stream that to Facebook, and people can comment and contribute through the comments section, and we can respond!
Have you had to set up a special working space to do all this?
For Sundays I brought a microphone, but I just use the cameras on the iPad and laptop. I do make sure the light is coming in the right direction, and if I’m streaming from a room with hard floors (like our dining room) I’ll put some cushions and blankets around to stop the echo.
Sometimes my daughter helps me present Sunday meetings, and we really enjoy doing it together. I also had to do some training by watching YouTube videos and learned a little about how to set up the Zoom meeting and the stream effectively, and how to present like a YouTuber!
For the rest of our team it varies, we’ve had people host the meeting from their hotel room on the phone, and one of our worship leaders has quite good kit and sets that up in his front room. For backgrounds I try to just leave it, not tidy up too much! I want it to be authentic.
Talk us through a working day in lockdown
Every day we wake at 7.30, and have breakfast together at 8. We then have family alter where I (or my children one day each) read from the bible and then discuss what that means for us. Sometimes it’s great, they want to talk about being generous, or welcoming strangers into our home, or praying for their friends. Sometimes this is funny, like a few days ago when my nine-year-old son Thomas said the lesson was to never trust a talking snake! Or sometimes it’s a friggin nightmare where the kids are fighting with each other already, and I mean really fighting.
Then we all do Joe Wicks PE on YouTube until 9.30am. Then my kid settle to do their school work, which has been provided by the school, and I will do my emails and any admin tasks (like rotas etc). After this I’ll prepare for whatever meetings I have.
During the day I often do a couple of things with the kids, like I do forest school (as I used to teach outdoor education) or a music lesson (as I play the bass guitar!) sometimes I do the maths, or an experiment or something, but my parents (who have stayed with us during the entire lockdown, as they were visiting the week before and we decided they should just stay) do the normal lessons so I can work). Lunch is at 12.15, we all take it together.
In the afternoon I’ll make some calls around our church members, prepare any messages or sermons I have to give and try to find some time to pray (which is great as it’s part of my job!).
I do a run, or ride with the kids at 3.30. Most evenings I have a Zoom meeting, either running one for members of our church, or a meeting to organise. And I always finish the day with reading the Bible.
How do you get stuff done with all the distractions of home life?
It’s so tough to stay focussed, even more so during this time with kids at home and all the news and anxiety going round.
First and foremost I’m careful with my expectations. I don’t expect to not get distracted, or to not have to work with my kids and look after them. I don’t expect to be as productive as I could be at the office.
But to be productive and stay focussed I move around the house, I use our bedroom when I really don’t want to get interrupted, and I use our dining room when I don’t mind.
I set myself smaller working targets, so two solid hours at a time, rather than four. I’ve also spread out the day, so I do more evening work at the moment.
How are you doing mentally in lockdown?
I’ve been a little up and down. At times I have felt low, and especially after I take the medication for the psoriatic arthritis. I’ve found my faith and the exercise absolutely vital to lifting that.
I have an autoimmune disease and that’s put extra stress on during this time as it makes me higher risk to COVID19. But I’ve engaged with my faith, with others and with Versus Arthritis during this time to raise awareness about arthritis through the ‘it’s not alright, it’s arthritis’ campaign, and that’s really helped to keep me positive.
I think continuing to volunteer, to try and contribute is vital.
How are you looking after yourself?
I’ve kept my same day off, and on that day I’ve gone out for a long cycle on my own, I’ve taken a bath, etc and tried to make it seem very different to other days. It’s really helped.
But being at home has been a bit like being stuck in the wilderness. Progress is possible, but it’s slow going and you have to look after yourself! I was thinking about when I hiked in the Arizonian Desert. I had to get up early to beat the sun, I had to really protect myself with a hat and sun cream, I had to not go as fast as normal, drink extra water, find shade, enjoy the little things like funny shaped cacti and the odd goffer popping out! I also had the hope of making the green mountains. That it was going to end.
Working at home during lockdown has been similar. I’ve had to be less hard on my kids. I’ve had to be strict with waking and sleeping at the right times. Taking a proper day off. Finding fun things to do and look forward to.
Having the children helps with this. Every day we’ve gone for exercise, either a run or a cycle. We are so blessed to have a country park on our doorstep. I also make sure our living room is a no work zone! So when I go into our living room I am not at work. If I’m honest then I think I handled the first month better with boundaries than the second. Things have started to slip a little lately!
Do you have an unusual home-working setup you fancy sharing? To get involved in Where I Work, email Ellen.Scott@Metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments section below.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/22/where-work-tom-church-minister-leading-congregation-zoom-12742398/
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