What a beautiful (virtual) world

22 April 2020

As our second monthly end drinks virtual gathering (our Monthly Mingle) approaches and we move through week five of lockdown due to Covid 19, we continue to adapt to our new environments.

Although we are working apart, we are bound together as a team working in solidarity. Our core PACT values are more important than ever – Positive, Authentic, Commercial and Trust.

As we look around the island we can see the impact: with the death toll increasing; the £14m temporary hospital almost complete; spiritual leaders blessing a new morgue as our existing one is full; coupled with a young 13 year old boy dying in the UK without his family at his bedside - it could not get more shocking and heart-breaking.

What is less obvious is what the lasting impact will be on our economy, so many businesses have been forced to close. The government has stepped up to the challenge and we see the regulator and tax departments doing their best to accommodate these unprecedented times.

At Fairway Group, we are the lucky ones with our teams operating from home. We have continued with our director-led client service and the teams have adapted to their new virtual environments.

We conducted a team survey to see how everyone has been impacted, as expected we received excellent feedback on all aspects on the practicalities of home working. The biggest concern raised was their wellbeing and the impact from isolation. Some people live alone, others live at home caring for their elderly parents, many have families and have the challenge of home schooling in addition to managing their workloads/cleaning their houses and being responsible for food shopping and cooking!

As a family friendly business it was important for us at the outset to encourage flexible working hours to be set by the individuals. This has been positively received along with wellbeing initiatives, being so high on the Fairway agenda we have encouraged our fitness regime to continue.

The Couch to 5k programme continues but carried out in isolation, impressive to note that two of our recruits have recently broken the 10k mark - congratulations to you both. The weekly Colleagues’ Yoga (Coga) sessions have been held by Trust Manager Rebecca Taylor and thoroughly enjoyed by many. Meditation is also encouraged as we have the podcasts from the in-house sessions which were hosted by Dan Ireland. Our teams are all encouraged to speak about how they are doing in their daily check-in video calls.

Impressively, the team continue to volunteer for our chosen charity, The Shelter Trust, which involves driving a van and collecting food kindly donated by M&S and taking to the shelters. We have just launched the Fairway Five - 5k for £5 for the trust so please donate and take up the challenge if you have not yet been nominated - Fairway Five for The Shelter Trust

No doubt I am among the many who have cherished this time with their family, my biggest joy has been watching my children fall in love with the sea, a place that gives me so much pleasure. Personally, the training has continued amongst the chaos, the Jersey Triathlon Club continue to hold their community together with regular posts. I was fortunate to take part in my first virtual duathlon race which was fun. The race entailed running a 2.4k course followed by a 15k bike session on Zwift, followed by another 2.4k run. Having not done many brick sessions I was pleased to race and happy with 3rd lady overall.

The world has shown how creative it can be with musicians and performers occupying our social media, and we all remain entertained by the endless challenges all of which can be undertaken in the confines of our own homes.

Thank you to the Fairway team - proud to work with you all and thank you to our front-line workers who are keeping us all safe.

#BeTheBestYouCanBe