There’s No ‘i’ in Teams

Okay so it’s been a little while and I’ve got to admit, I’m not in the best of places.  In fact, right now its midday and I’m still in my dressing gown, wondering when the pharmaceuticals are going to kick in.  Below is a little blog I wrote for my work while everyone struggled to pick up Teams and I was (unbeknownst to me) sliding down the rabbit hole towards another bout of depression.  Sometimes the greatest strength is asking for help…

One enduring message I’ve learnt in life is that time really is our most precious commodity, which is the silver lining I take from this pandemic. 

Of course there is a measure of truth to the old adage ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’ and there have been moments over the past months were I have found myself de-crumbing the toaster at 2:00am, practicing my eye roll and, after a few large rum and cokes, shaving my husband’s head after my pop-up barbershop left him looking less Tommy Shelby and more Lloyd Christmas! 

Yet for every night twice the bright, and despite the lows, holding my children, whispering promises that today’s ‘forever’ is just a moment because as the sun will shine, every storm will pass; there have been moments to treasure!  Building dens in the living room, growing flowers from seed, attending a teddy bear’s picnic, playing noughts and crosses using last Christmas’ fake snow and clapping for the real life heroes underpinning our NHS. 

Because that’s what we do as a species, when faced with an unknowable threat, we hunker down and we adapt, using the resources we have to breakdown those Perspex shields, open the doors we cannot cross and travel the miles we can’t bridge to remind each other that we’re all but a hop, skip and a webcam away.  Even a fossil like me has learnt to master Teams, albeit in the beginning the tech was the teacher and I had to sit through many YouTube videos before I ‘got’ it.  Then there was no stopping me!  I even had one of those role reversal moments when I had to help my sister who’s a college lecturer, learn how to share her PowerPoints and present through it.  Normally I’m Chuckie to her Will Hunting but this time the roles reversed and she was the student #How’dYaLikeDemApples.  Okay I didn’t actually say that to her in the slightly aggressive Southie accent that Matt Damon projected in the film but it did give me an inner secret smug that made me feel slightly less of a dunce.

Just as there is no ‘i’ in team, you can share your screen with lots of lovely faces, it’s a virtual Celebrity Squares.  There’s even a digital whiteboard with built in pens (without the risk of any of them drying out) and a neat little eraser because hey, nobody’s perfect.  Speaking of perfection, I even managed to change my background to look like one of those ‘minimalist’ chic Insta worthy houses thus cunningly glossing over the ironing pile, pots and tea stained tiles of my kitchen-come-office.

The best thing is if like me, your memory is more Dory than Data inclined, it helpfully it retains chat history and even enables you to ‘react’ to statements through emojis and best of all – you can gif!!!!! 

Collectively we share the same sky and dreams, Teams is yet another reminder of how we truly are better together and that no task is insurmountable.