I work for Great Yarmouth BC – a fast paced and ambitious authority where officers and members work closely together and with our partners to make a real difference to the community we serve. I'm lucky, I love my job, however things are about to change as I'm about to embark on an exciting new stage in my life.
I'm 38 weeks pregnant, it's October 2019 and I start my maternity leave. I'm starting a new role – motherhood. I'm excited if a little nervous about becoming a mum alongside being apprehensive about the break from work. There are some big projects happening which I've been progressing and while my leave is being covered, I wonder where things will be at when I return.
That was then and this is now.
Little could I have imagined what would happen next. As I moved into my new role, welcoming my baby and settling into a routine so far removed from work and the office environment, a global pandemic struck. I watched the news daily as the nation was locked down. The world felt a little scary if I'm honest and I held my baby even closer at night.
I heared from colleagues how the town hall has been converted into a food distribution hub. People started working from home; what is this Zoom? And Teams? As part of keeping in touch during my maternity leave I ‘attended' a virtual staff briefing with what seemed to be an impossible number of people online, and I distinctly remember questioning how I would get up to speed with all the changes when I did return to work. And I like change – I even led the council's transformation programme in the past.
As restrictions lifted and my maternity leave was nearing its end, I started to see the enormity of what's ahead of me. I am not going to be with my little man all day and I know I'm going to miss him. I'm returning to work – and yet I'm not – working from home and only going into the office once a week. I need to learn how to use new technology, get back up to speed with the projects I left as well as understand how the council is carrying out its ongoing response and recovery work in relation to COVID-19. So much to become familiarised with in such a short period of time.
My first day back, and the town hall was so quiet it felt like a weekend visit, not the bustling offices I had been used to. My IT kit was sorted and away I went. I need not have worried; on one hand it felt like I've never been away but on the other everything has changed.
Reflecting while I journeyed home it's obvious how COVID-19 has pulled our management team even closer together. From an earlier Silver Team call earlier in the day it was clear how slick the team were at working together from environmental health to our communications department to get things done. It was like watching a well-oiled machine and a real pleasure to see.
Later, attending a Town Deal board meeting (online), there were so many external partners present – a much higher attendance, I thought, than if there had been a requirement to be meeting face to face. However reflecting on this meeting caused me to consider the challenges that COVID- 19 has brought to our local authority, and all councils. While responding to the complex needs this pandemic poses, I consider the significant pull on already stretched resources within a council that has ambitious plans for the future. How do you balance the immediate needs that COVID-19 brings alongside continuing to positively change the future of the borough?
Later in the week, when I finished a day of working at home, I turned my computer off and stepped straight into the lounge to see my baby boy. It strikes me how working from home more often can bring about a better work life balance. Prior to my maternity leave I would have been driving for almost an hour to get home.
Significant change has happened since I started my maternity leave and I have a much greater gap to bridge as I return to work, but I feel positive. In so many ways this change is clearly for the better and I for one feel proud to be back working in local government, if under a slightly different context to the one I left.
Kate Watts is strategic director at Great Yarmouth BC
