As a marketing boss, Tim* leads a team of 14, but as a foodie, he also likes to cook for his family – something he could never do mid-week before the widespread adoption of working from home.

One night last week cooked up a “feast” for a visit by his parents, while doing work emails on the kitchen bench. He’d also been to the chiropractor and the supermarket during his workday.

Tim could never have collected his daughter from school before working from home.Credit: Illustration: Aresna Villanueva

“I’m a keen foodie and love to cook. The role I play in that generally was on the weekend, so that would fall to my wife during the week, pre-COVID. Even though I really want to take over the cooking, I just couldn’t get home in time to start,” he says.

“The second-biggest shift for me [after also being able to do some school pick-ups] has been being able to cook the family meal, which can start at 4.30pm, depending on what meetings you need to squeeze into that process.”

“We do a lot of global calls, so if you have late calls in the evening, we take them from home. It’s become a bit of a reason to duck back out of the office (though I feel like a naughty schoolboy).”

In the Working from Home Diaries, we asked anonymous contributors to detail exactly what they do in a working day, from juggling online meetings and emails to school drop-offs, second jobs, the laundry and unloading the dishwasher. Scroll to the bottom to read about Tim’s working day.

Tim could never pick up his daughter when he was expected to work Monday-Friday in the office: “I’d just be stuck in meetings and need to be in the office – with working from home, that 3pm slot can now be mine.”

I just felt like I was a cog, now it feels like I’ve regained some freedom.

Tim considers being able to participate in the school run one of the “emotional” benefits of the new way of work. In the US, parents who cannot get more flexibility to do similar things are quitting in droves, according to McKinsey & Company.

“It’s only a 20-30 minute thing, but it’s really important. I’ve scheduled the daddy pick-up, which used to be never, and now it’s two or three times a week,” Tim says.

He also did a 30-minute global call while in the car on the way to the supermarket to pick up the dinner supplies.

“We’re not shackled from 8am until 5 or 6pm in the CBD office … you can manage your day around the traffic, whereas before, everyone leaves at the same time, I might leave a bit earlier, or a bit later,” says Tim, whose wife had previously needed to do mid-week tasks he could not get away to do.

Now, “as long as you’re present when you need to be, you can do everything in between that’s personal that we used to leave for the significant other (if they were spending days at home) to do.”

Tim notices that younger workers, or those without children, are still keen on working more in the office. “There are quite a few going in,” he says.

“I think they’re more drawn towards the social connection and doing things together, all their extracurricular stuff happens outside work hours.”

But for those trying to be present for children and parents, he believes “we needed a bit of a circuit breaker in a way”.

“Ever since the Industrial Revolution we haven’t really changed the way that we work. One hundred years later, we were heading to a place of, ‘My God all our lives were just feeling like, what are we doing?’,” he says.

“I just felt like I was a cog, now it feels like I’ve regained some freedom.”

How I divide my day: (Based on one day last week)

9am: Hop on a call and do the check-in from home, allowing me to accommodate a 10.30am chiropractor appointment, whom I haven’t seen for a while. Other than that, do calls all morning.

Just before or after lunch: Go for a walk. Another big change for me has been the ability to get a bit fitter. I’m walking a bit more than I was ever able to (and I need to for heart health reasons), and it has given me the opportunity to focus on it.

1.30pm: Go to work [near the city] so I have that physical presence for a meeting, which turned into “I’ve just got to get back home,” to start cooking for a dinner party at 7pm.

3.30pm: Pick up our daughter from school.

Afternoon: While preparing dinner for my mum and dad and family visiting – a classic Sunday roast, but on a Wednesday – I have the laptop open on the kitchen counter. I’m picking up the emails I’d missed, while preparing a feast.

Later: Do global calls from home, as necessary.

*Tim is a pseudonym

Read more in this series:

How working from home saved a corporate mum’s career

The music technology whiz who started a side hustle while working from home

The man from a flexible workplace who is a reluctant work from home participant

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