Communications Officer Erica Higgins aka (Gypsy) is a 3KND staff member who is working from home. Erica now shares her story...During this time I have relocated my desk to my parents' house on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, my home town of Yandoit. This is not so much for my safety but to ensure that my parents have the support they need at this time. We've all been locked down now for what seems like forever, with grandchildren including my daughter doing shopping and delivery to our 3 households here.
I work at my parents' house as I don't have access to the internet at my house, but it's been great to be able to support family, by sharing food, cooking responsibilities, lifting and reaching as well as holding conversations about why we are in lockdown and the importance of staying safe.
We are reminded how lucky we are not only in our bush home, but here in Australia by the effective measures taken to keep the health of the community safe. But we too have been feeling the isolation and not even being able to go into town to do our own shopping is something we never thought we'd go through. Working here has given my family a better understanding of my role at 3KND and how much of working in radio is not glamorous and all about meeting and talking with famous people! In the background I've been working to keep our station on the air with funding to support the station to support our community.
As they say; we are all in this together and together we'll all get through this. My tips for working from home are: Get up and get ready for work, wear your professional clothes like the boss was going to drop in or you had an important meeting. Maintain personal grooming, shaving, hair brushing, makeup jewellery like you were going to work. Walk around the house or garden if you have one or through the unit to prepare yourself for going to work. Arrive on time and let others know if you are running late, keep to your normal working hours if you can. Have regular breaks much like you would in the workplace. Keep a list of jobs you need to get through and try to tick them off. When you knock off, do the same thing, walk around the garden or unit to indicate going home. Get changed out of work clothes and knock off for the day. Keep a sense of humour, we're lucky to have a job, make friends with yourself, be a good employee.