Lockdown Reflections – Moving Firm during a Pandemic

One year on from lockdown we have asked a number of staff to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of the last year. Laura Ann Duddy, a solicitor in our Property Team, provides her perspective on apple growing, DIY and starting with Drummond Miller during the pandemic.

When the lockdown was announced last year I breathed a sigh of relief.  Not because I was worried about the virus, but because the idea of working from home seemed like a much-needed break from the exhausting 9-5 we were all regulated to. I know that might sound selfish, but this was at the very beginning before we could know the long term impact.

The relief quickly gave way to disappointment. I had been due to start a new job that was closer to home and offered working from home as an option. However, the lockdown meant that my start date was delayed and I was furloughed for 4 months instead.  

I attempted to learn a new language (I got as far as the third online class), grow apples (they were inedible), and do some DIY (still not finished). Turns out all the things I thought I was too busy to do, I actually just didn’t want to do. Having worked full time since I was 15 and studying in between, I was at a loss with zero responsibility.

I was then offered a different opportunity in July last year with Drummond Miller, and although I had been looking forward to the role I was expecting at another firm, it was too good an opportunity to turn down. It was odd meeting people via email. Personality can’t always be gauged from an email or a phone call but eventually, this just became the norm. 

Working from home made the transition a bit easier, the days didn’t seem as long and the weekends didn’t feel quite so necessary but it was difficult getting through certain tasks without being able to quickly turn and say “what do you think about this?”  

Being a conveyancer, the property market quickly exploded and the 4 months of furlough became a distant memory as I worked late nights and weekends just to keep up! I know every department will have its own version of a similar story, but it has certainly been unprecedented!   

As restrictions ease it will be interesting to see how we adapt, as we tentatively go back to “normal life” – a bit like when Dorothy cautiously leaves the house and finds herself in Oz, all that colour and wonder…but I think at the very least we will be grateful to be able to do the things we took for granted before, even a Monday morning commute (maybe).