Confessions of a SmartWorking Intern: Week 2

Chloé

“Would you like milk and sugar with that?” Oh, yes please. The 6:15am Cork to Dublin train- filled with daily commuters, ambitiously typing away and glancing around to see who could possibly be more tired than them. At one point, I heard a lady joking with her colleague when asked does she work long hours as well as commuting, “Well do you want me to lie?!” she giggled.

So yes, as exciting as it was for me to travel to our Dublin office to meet the Abodoo team, I can’t say the 5am start was a struggle for me because I’m not bleary eyed from doing the same commute every day!

Don’t get me wrong, I really admire people who do commute daily and commit their time to travelling. But there was something somewhat calming about being able to work from my own laptop at home-and in my favorite café, for the majority of the week before going to Dublin on Tuesday. I just thought to myself, surely there is more to life than drinking filter coffee on a jam-packed train?

All in all, it was a brilliant day and Thomas and I were so delighted to meet Louise and our new intern, Flavia. We usually work up to the last second on every Zoom call we have so it was a novelty to be able to have lunch and enjoy each other’s company. We brain stormed a number of projects we have coming up before going for lunch in a Lebanese style restaurant not too far from Stephen’s Green. To curb the early food coma, we headed back to the office for a coffee and one last brain storm. Mouth watering at the thought.

This week followed the hybrid model of SmartWorking (part working from home, part working from the office) and this is probably my favourite type! Hybrid roles give you the best of both worlds as you experience the social aspect of work in conversing with the team at the office while also enjoying the flexibility of working from home too and cutting the commute on some days too 🙂

Thomas

This week I realised my work-life balance is finally taking shape. And speaking of things taking shape, I renewed my gym membership after abandoning it for two months. In my defence, I was in America for the first month and then recovering from America for the second month. Honestly, I could make a seperate blog about all the amazing grub I had over there (a beef burger with “bacon marmalade” springs to mind).

On Tuesday I made the trip to Dublin to meet-up with Louise, Chloé and Flavia, the new design intern. It’s always great to meet in person the people you’re constantly chatting to through Slack or video calls. And now with Flavia on board, we’re sure to see some fantastic new images and designs coming down the line.

I enjoy the days when I get to work in Dublin, but I’m also glad it’s not an everyday occurance. One of the perks of SmartWorking is having time to do the things you couldn’t if you were working 9-5 along with a two hour commute – like getting a haircut or going shopping. Instead of wasting valuable weekend time, I could sort my life out during a single lunchbreak. Problem solved!

To give a more recent example: the other day my sister popped (I’m fairly certain that’s the correct medical term) her kneecap out of place while horse riding, and since my parents are gone to a wedding today, it’s up to me to play Jeeves. When family emergencies and ailments crop up like this it becomes clear that SmartWorking isn’t just for my benefit, it’s for everyone’s.

That’s it for this week folks, we will be back again next Friday!

Have a great weekend – Thomas & Chloe

Read more from this series:

Confessions of a SmartWorking Intern – Week 1

Confessions of a SmartWorking Intern – Week 3