Home-working - it's like a breath of fresh air

IT seems very unnatural to step out of something which you have been doing instinctively for more than 30 years.
Stepping out of journalism last week to start working for a charity was a surreal experience. Of course the same business principles applied and a new set of challenges presented themselves, but it was strange, nonetheless, to be outside that media arena. The deadlines were very different!
I'm now home-working, which presents a fresh challenge in itself. You have to be disciplined and organised. I thought at one stage of perhaps wearing shirt, tie and trousers each day when I was sitting at my PC to set aside work time from home time. But that was ridiculous.
Someone within Hearing Link who also home works was telling me how she has a summer house in the garden, and that's where she detaches herself from home life.
I'm finding that I am very productive with home working. There are no disturbances, you can have music on in the background, no major tea rounds to worry about (not that I ever got involved with tea rounds before), and no taking telephone messages for other members of staff.
But, it can be isolating during the day with no banter. However, given the choice I'm enjoying the home working and thriving off the new challenge.

I will write more about Hearing Link, the charity I am working for, in future blogs.
As an organisation, Hearing Link is a hearing loss organisation which works throughout the UK with those suffering from acquired hearing loss. The figure is one in 10 of the UK's population has hearing loss of some form.
My particular work will focus on hearing loops, which is a wonderful piece of technology that helps folk with hearing loss to enjoy a greater quality of life, simply by adjusting their hearing aid to the telecoil setting.
I first got involved with Hearing Link through the newspaper when we worked with them on a campaign called "Let's Loop Eastbourne". The idea of the Hearing Link initiative was to turn Eastbourne into the most loop-friendly town in the UK.
The newspaper worked hard to promote the campaign, and I spoke at the international loop conference organised by the charity earlier this month on the role which media can play with these sort of initiatives.
Eastbourne has done much to improve the number of working hearing loops in the town - particularly in churches and a number of public buildings as well as the shops.
However there is a long way to go. The town's hoteliers are a stubborn group who struggle to see a sound business reason why they should install hearing loops. Their provision for guests with a hearing loss in terms of fire safety is even worse. And this is a mindset I'm going to have to change in my new role with Hearing Link.
I was astonished to learn when we first began the campaign how 70% to 80% of businesses in Eastbourne have hearing loops installed, but less than 20% of these were working. It's a bit like having a smoke alarm fitted with the battery missing. Amazing.
So, I start off on a fresh journey to develop a culture of hearing loops, not only in Eastbourne, but across the UK. It will be fascinating.

I was interested to read on Hold The Front Page the story about video targets at my former newspaper group, Johnston Press. http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2013/news/time-to-end-news-video-targets-union-tells-johnston-press/
The National Union of Journalists, whose sell-by date has long since passed, is up in arms at the number of videos which journalists are expected to produce - one a week per journalist.
Although one a week doesn't seem a lot, I actually agree with the NUJ. I have for a long time questioned why there is such an emphasis on video for a staff which is hugely stretched, when the figures barely justify the amount of time in uploading the video. Monthly video hits are in the hundreds. Upload a decent picture gallery and you will get hits in the thousands - the same with a strong news story.
Some of the videos which have been produced by newspaper groups just to satisfy the quota are amateurish. One newspaper put a video camera outside a Blockbuster store at the time the chain was shutting a number of its shops. And for two minutes the video featured people walking past the shop with a commentary over the top. No interviews, no comment, no analysis. Pointless!
Johnston Press is going through another of its voluntary redundancy processes, so staff are being lost. However there are unreasonable expectations for journalists to produce the same amount of material with less resources, and backed by up a flaky computer system.
Resource editorial teams properly, and absolutely give video a shot. If Johnston Press is serious about digital then invest in it - invest in staff. But when journalists are struggling to manage their current priorities - both in print and digitally - then it's time for some honest navel-gazing from managers about what life really is like at the coal face. Expectations should be tempered.
It's time to do a few things well than a lot of things badly.