Monday, 27 July 2020 16:03

SIGs in the Spotlight: Copywriting SIG

Written by Ashley Cowles

person writing in notebook stock photo

In this new blog series, we will highlight the different Special Interest Groups (SIGs) SENSE has to offer. SIG meetings are open to all members, and guests are welcome to attend one or two meetings before deciding whether they would like to join SENSE. For upcoming SIG meetings, check the SENSE Events calendar. Contact the SIG convener for more information or to suggest a meeting topic. If you would like to start a new SIG, contact our SIG and Social Events Coordinator. In this edition, we talk to Copywriting SIG co-conveners Stephen Johnston and Martine Croll.

Can you tell me a little about yourself?
SJ: I grew up in Canada, but moved to the Netherlands in 1997 for love. I joined SENSE in 1999, and it has been one of the best decisions of my life. I wear two hats: I’m a copywriter, mostly working for larger international companies, but I’m also a business trainer. I specialize in consultancies, where I help them write more effectively, present more effectively and create client presentations with impact.

MC: My origins are Dutch, but as a child of expat parents, I had an English education. After school, I decided to go to Leiden University and discover my Dutch roots. Fulfilling my childhood dream to become a writer, I set up business as a copywriter. To be perfectly honest, I started off as a translator – I had cold feet, and no real writing experience. I soon found out that badly written texts are a nightmare to translate, so I often found myself asking the client if I could do a rewrite before getting stuck in the translation. My copywriting business took off from there! Nowadays, besides writing, I help companies find their tone of voice and develop their storyline.

I joined SENSE in the late nineties. After being one of those ‘in the woodwork’ members for several years, I volunteered for the EC. A great and worthwhile experience, where I got to think up and organize loads of fun events. Later on, I joined a wonderful team of fellow members to organize the first-ever SENSE jubilee conference.

What is the Copywriting SIG and who is it for?
SJ: The Copywriting SIG is for anybody and everybody with any interest in copywriting. We get a lot of translators and editors who would like to be copywriters. We also get people who are nervous about copywriting, and want to find out more. And, of course, we get seasoned copywriters who bring a wealth of expertise to our group.

MC: Nothing much to add here! Except that our purpose, above all, is to inspire and get inspired by fellow SENSE members. After all, working as English copywriters for Dutch companies, the issues we deal with are very similar to those our fellow editors and translators face. Our open-discussion meet-ups are perfect for learning from each other. 

How did the Copywriting SIG get started?
SJ: Many years ago, I noticed there were special interest groups for translators, editors and regions. But there were none for copywriters like myself, so I thought I would organize a one-off meeting to bring all of us copywriters together. In between my post and the meeting, somebody at SENSE suggested that I make it a SIG (which I did). The first meeting was above the American Book Center in Amsterdam. Since then, we’ve moved around a lot­­ –  most recently, of course, we meet on Zoom.

I stepped back for a bit a while ago and Martine took over. She was the driving force for many years, and now we are co-conveners.

MC: I’m extremely grateful to Steve for having the brilliant idea to organise something for copywriters. We were (and still are) a minority group within SENSE, so it’s nice to meet up and talk shop every now and then. But, having said that (and at risk of repeating myself), it’s really worthwhile and inspiring to also have non-copywriters or aspiring ones attend and pitch in. 

How often does the Copywriting SIG meet up?
SJ: We try to meet up twice a year. 

MC: We do indeed aim to do so! But both of us are pretty busy with our own freelance business activities. So sometimes we have to give each other a gentle nudge: we should be planning the next meet-up!

How many people generally attend Copywriting SIG meetings?
SJ: When we were holding our in-person meetings, we had anywhere from six or seven people. We also organize much larger gatherings, like the event Martine organized for infographics. Zoom allows many, many more people to attend, which is awesome.

MC: The massive number of attendees for the meet-up on infographics to me is proof that the dividing line between editors, translators and copywriters (and, for that matter, between web designers and graphic designers) is not as clear-cut as we may believe it is. We all need to be able to look outside of our own specialized bubble, especially in this time of online tools and social media. There is more to text than language alone!

When and where will the next Copywriting SIG meeting be?
SJ: The next copywriting SIG meeting will be on Tuesday, 28 July. Everybody is welcome!

MC: We’ll be talking about ghostwriting. It’s something that’s being done a lot. Especially for blogs. But, as always, we hope that attendees will bring their own issue, question, challenge or insight to the floor!

If you'd like to attend the next Copywriting SIG meeting, be sure to sign up via the Events page!

Tuesday, 21 July 2020 15:00

How volunteering for SENSE helped me land my current job

Written by Marianne Orchard

marianne orchard

For her talk on networking at the SENSE2020 conference, entitled Using your network to branch out into new areas, fellow SENSE member Sally Hill got in touch to ask if she could use me as a case study in her presentation. She remembered me saying that I thought one of the reasons I got my current job as an in-house translator at Leiden University was my experience managing the SENSE content team. She wanted to illustrate how volunteering is a valuable form of networking, and was curious to know – looking back – if that was indeed the case. This is what I told her.

Volunteering for SENSE definitely helped me develop new skills and gain experience that I could apply in my work and add to my CV. My SENSE volunteering career began with the social media team. I volunteered after attending the social media workshop given by Henk-Jan Geel that SENSE organized back in 2016. As I didn’t do much with social media, joining the social media team seemed like a good opportunity to gain some experience and to do my bit for SENSE. I figured it might inspire me to use social media for my business and would be a good way to keep up with new developments and spot potential business opportunities. This role involved collecting and posting content to SENSE’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Around the same time, the then editor of eSense, Gini Werner, asked if I would help with editing and writing for eSense. This seemed like a good chance to see how others edit and learn from them, and to gain some writing experience. One piece I wrote was about LinkedIn. While researching the piece, I updated my profile and started being more active on LinkedIn – and a new client found me. They were looking for someone to write for a new blog. Working for this client introduced me to new software, such as Slack. As they were in the process of starting a blog and working out a social media strategy, I learned a lot from them – also that I find work Christmas parties excruciating.

Then the role of Content Manager came up at SENSE and I decided to volunteer for that. It seemed like a fun idea to do what the client had been doing and start a blog and devise a social media strategy. I did a lot of research into planning tools and discovered Trello, which I hadn’t heard of before. In the role, I also learned how to use SENSE’s Content Management System (CMS) to post content to the website, and Hootsuite to schedule and post social media content.

Then a contact of mine who was a translator at Leiden University and whom I regularly meet for lunch told me she was retiring and that I should apply for the job. I was quite happy as a freelancer but decided that after 12 years it might be a good idea to try something new. I decided to see applying for the job as a good opportunity to dust off my CV and experience the delights of telling strangers about my strengths and weaknesses. Even if I didn’t get the job, the experience of going through a job interview would be worth it.

Without volunteering for SENSE and working for the new client, I wouldn’t have matched the job profile, as they were looking for someone who not only had experience as a translator but could also work in a team and had experience using a CMS and social media. In the second interview, the big boss said her idea of a freelance translator was of an otherworldly being wafting around in a garret. I explained that I worked to deadlines and had little time to waft, and could also show that through my SENSE work I had contact with other human beings – albeit otherworldly translators and editors – and had been leading a team. This, and being able to show that I’d been working on my professional development by attending workshops and courses, helped me convince her that I was reliable, serious and not at all flighty. 

The CMS experience I gained volunteering for SENSE meant I soon got the hang of the University’s CMS system that I post my finished translations in. The social media experience has also come in useful because I regularly post to the University’s English Twitter account and use Hootsuite and Trello to plan the content.

Tuesday, 14 July 2020 15:49

Editing in the era of Covid-19: How I take care of my mental and physical health

Written by Marieke Krijnen

 digital nomad

[This blog post is based on a presentation given at the SENSE2020 Jubilee Conference on June 4, 2020]

While preparing my presentation for the SENSE2020 Jubilee Conference, I planned to talk about what I do to preserve my mental and physical health as someone without a dedicated home office who often spends time away from her home base. Of course, the era of Covid-19 put an abrupt end to the era of digital nomadism and forced us into the era of do-everything-digitally-from-your-home. However, I realized that there are still plenty of things that I can say about preserving your mental and physical health in this challenging time.

Physical health

Exercise is important, and as a digital nomad (but also during the Covid-19 era) it is often not possible to attend in-person classes. My main tip is to find a way of exercising that is not dependent on location. Running and walking come to mind most readily here (which I realize is not inclusive of everyone’s abilities).

You can find a community and motivation to do this through the social media hashtags #StetWalk or #StetRun on Twitter, which editors use to motivate each other to get away from their desks.

When pools reopen, swimming is another option, because a swimming pool can be found in most cities and is usually affordable.

Finally, some language professionals have a desk cycle or treadmill desk.

An ergonomic workspace is important as well. Some tips:

  • If you have a laptop, get a laptop stand, a keyboard, and a mouse, or a separate, large screen. Ensure that the top of your screen is roughly at eye level, your arms are at a 90-degree angle, and your feet rest comfortably on the ground or on a footrest at the same angle.
  • Invest in a good desk chair or a standing desk. A footrest can also be beneficial.
  • If you do not have a dedicated workspace at home, try to vary where and how you sit.
  • Once the corona crisis ends and we are free to leave our houses again, I recommend joining a coworking space that offers good seating arrangements and variation.
Mental health

One of the biggest problems you encounter as a business owner who is free to work from anywhere at any time is that you may be tempted to actually work from everywhere all the time. This is a recipe for burn-out. Therefore, establishing some boundaries between work and life is essential.

Let’s start with things you can do at home. Blocking or switching off certain distractions or work-related things can be beneficial:

  • Block access to your email on your phone after working hours. I use an app called Stay Focused for this.
  • Switch off your computer when you are done with work.
  • Block distracting websites or the internet while you work. I use an app called Freedom for this.
  • Take weekends off. You cannot be productive if you’re exhausted!

Once we can leave our houses again, consider the following:

  • Join a coworking space. You can fully focus on work while you are there, without getting distracted by the traps of working at home (eg, cleaning, grocery shopping).
  • Of course, you can work in the library or a café
  • Get a hobby that requires you to leave the house.

Besides establishing a work-life balance, digital nomads or professionals working from home benefit from a sense of community and connection. Let us begin with what you can do from home:

  • Join digital support communities. I am an editor and a member of a number of editing-related groups.
    • On Facebook, the Editors’ Association of Earth (EAE) is a public group where you can talk about editing-related matters and which has several subgroups.
    • You can follow other editors on Twitter and check what editors are tweeting about by following the hashtag #AmEditing. You can also follow editing-related chats (#ACESChat, #EditorsChat).
    • You can join the CE-L mailing list, where various copyediting topics are discussed. These places function like a digital water cooler. They provide a space to talk about anything work and often also life-related.
  • Join a professional association for training and the opportunity to meet other professionals.
    • Besides being a member of SENSE, I am also a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). An overview of other organizations can be found here.
    • These organizations often offer forums for members, where you can ask questions and socialize with fellow members, or webinars where you can learn new skills.
    • The CIEP normally hosts in-person meetings for members in different locations across the globe, and has a monthly ‘Cloud Club’ for members who cannot attend in-person meetings.
    • If you can’t attend a certain meeting or conference, follow its hashtag on Twitter to see what is being said and engage.

Away from home, when things return to normal, I strongly recommend the following:

  • Attend conferences related to your profession – conferences are not only super fun but they also help build your network and professional reputation.
  • Find a group of freelancers who cowork in cafés in your location. In the past, I have joined Shut Up and Write meetings via Meetup.com and Facebook, and I have hosted my own meetings, where I connected with other freelance professionals.
A final note

It’s totally normal and understandable if all of this is too much right now. I haven’t been able to follow most of my own guidelines over these past months. Don’t fret – give yourself a break, remember to take showers, try to have a weekend, and explore your surroundings if you can!

Wednesday, 08 July 2020 12:00

On the importance of back-ups

Written by Hans van Bemmelen

Blog BU Data safe

This item is based on the SENSE Tech SIG meeting of 28 May 2020 (moderated by Jenny Zonneveld and me) and describes my approach to back-ups. During the SIG meeting, we also discussed other aspects of IT resilience that I might cover in a future blog post.

Most of us depend on personal computers for work, and store our documents on a hard disk. The computer also uses a hard disk to store its operating system and applications. Any hard disk will fail: either soon after you buy the computer or a decade later, suddenly or after some warnings – but fail it will. For the purposes of this discussion, there is no difference between traditional hard disks (with a spinning disc covered with a magnetic recording medium) and solid-state disks (SSD, fully electronic, without moving parts).

The threats to your data include failure or theft of your PC or hard disk, viruses/ransomware, fire and flooding. You have to assess what threats are relevant to your situation and then define a back-up strategy.

External hard disks

I use computers with two hard disks: an internal one (for the operating system and applications) and an external one for data (, my work and accounts). The advantage is that if my computer fails, I can disconnect the external hard disk and take the computer in for repair without having to worry about the shop gaining access to confidential data. At the same time, I can connect that external disk to my laptop and continue working.

Back-up options

Back-ups can be created in several ways:

  • Automatically, in the background (eg, Apple Time Machine)
  • Initiated by the user, through dedicated software (eg, SyncBackPro)
  • By the user, through manually copying the relevant directories

I have considered options 1 and 2, but decided that they would make me too dependent on dedicated software when restoring the back-up and put me at risk of that software not being available when I need it. Therefore, I’ve gone for option 3 – also to prove my Luddite credentials...!

Back-ups can be written to:

  • Another hard disk (either permanently connected to your PC, or only connected when required) or a USB stick
  • The Cloud
  • An optical disk (eg, DVD)

Option 1 is obviously convenient and protects against the failure of the main hard disk. However, if my computer got infected by ransomware this might encrypt both my main hard disk and my back-up disk, rendering both useless. Option 2 means relying on an external service provider, which does not appeal to me. There are also issues concerning reliability, time required for a restore, and confidentiality. So I decided that option 3 – writing the back-up to a DVD-DL disk – was the safest option. It has a capacity of around 8 GB which is enough for my work in progress, e-mail and accounts, etc.

Back-ups can be stored:

  • In your office
  • In a data safe
  • Off-site

Option 1 is the most convenient, but if there is a break-in or fire, you might lose both your primary hard disk and your back-up. Option 3 is the most secure, but not always convenient. I use option 2, and have invested in a fairly secure and fireproof data safe. They're quite expensive – the fireproof model pictured above will set you back about €1,500 – but it will last me a lifetime. Additionally, every now and then I take a back-up off-site (which obviously raises data security issues).

Further musings:

  • It is essential to regularly test whether you can restore your back-ups, both to your main computer and to another computer. If you have to get a new computer to recover from a major failure, you must be able to install any back-up software you use on it. It might therefore be an idea to store a copy of the software together with your back-ups.
  • You have to decide on a back-up frequency. I've opted for weekly back-ups on DVDs stored in the data safe. During the week, I copy the key files I am working on to a USB stick.
  • Encrypting the back-up improves data security, but means you will need the relevant software to decrypt it for a restore. My normal (securely stored) back-ups are not encrypted, but my off-site ones are.

A further aside: a decade or two ago, I was writing a similar article for the then-SENSE newsletter. I'd almost finished it when I lost the file and noticed a burning smell coming from the external hard disk, which had failed disastrously. A salutary reminder of the transitory nature of computer data. So, fingers crossed this time...

Thursday, 25 June 2020 17:01

Making SENSE

Written by Ashley Cowles

 

This video blog - or vlog - transports us from the start of SENSE when members communicated by letter, telephone and even fax to 30 years later with ten times as many members where members communicate via the Website, online forum and Zoom meetings.

Click here to watch.

Thursday, 25 June 2020 14:00

SIGs in the spotlight: Zuid-Holland SIG

Written by Ashley Cowles

South Holland by Sentinel 2

In this new blog series, we will highlight the different Special Interest Groups (SIGs) SENSE has to offer. SIG meetings are open to all members, and guests are welcome to attend one or two meetings before deciding whether they would like to join SENSE. For upcoming SIG meetings, check the SENSE Events calendar. Contact the SIG convener for more information or to suggest a meeting topic. If you would like to start a new SIG, contact our SIG and Social Events Coordinator. In this edition, we talk to Zuid-Holland SIG convener Hans van Bemmelen.

Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I'm Hans van Bemmelen, a technical translator and writer, and a founding member of SENSE. Initially I specialised in chemical engineering, but I now cover a range of specialist subjects such as heavy lifting, remotely piloted aircraft, construction and architecture. I started translating around 33 years ago and writing about a decade ago: B2B marketing copy, and training and operating manuals. I've always been a full-time freelancer.

What is the Zuid-Holland SIG and who is it for?
It does what it says on the tin. Though I suspect some of our members may be aliens from across the provincial borders – which is good. At our most recent Zoom meeting, we even had a participant from Groningen.

How did the Zuid-Holland SIG get started?
The group seems to come and go. I set up its current incarnation – the third, I think – in 2015. We have most of the meetings at my home in The Hague as it is relatively easy to reach by public transport and by car.

How often does the Zuid-Holland SIG meet up?
Not as often as we should, just a few times a year.

How many people generally attend Zuid-Holland SIG meetings?
Around eight. Our members cover nearly the entire language professional spectrum: editing, writing and translating. They also deal with a wide range of subjects. At several of our meetings we've discussed more technical issues, like how to get the best from your computer and software. That inspired our member Jenny Zonneveld to set up the SENSE Tech SIG.

When and where will the next Zuid-Holland SIG meeting be?
We haven't decided that yet, perhaps early July. We'll also have to decide whether to have that on Zoom or physically (with appropriate distancing), perhaps outdoors.

If you'd like to attend the next Zuid-Holland SIG meeting, be sure to keep a close eye on the Events page for details!

Wednesday, 17 June 2020 17:30

Heavy lifting at the Utrecht SIG meeting

Written by Anne Hodgkinson

Heavy lifting crane stock image

Eight or so of us met up on Zoom on the evening of 13 May. This time we had a text to look at. This one was a marketing brochure about a specific piece of equipment used in manufacturing industrial vehicles. Although it had some technical terms for the parts, they were largely searchable, and the other translation issues were clear. Among the questions we agreed should be asked were who the intended audience was, and if the English translation was to be a source text for translation into other languages. There was also a discussion about whether the ‘lifting/raising’ metaphor (relevant to the type of machine) in the opening sentence was intentional or not, and if it should be translated as such to add a little humour or whether it was by now a tired old joke in that world.

This text was especially interesting because of what happened after the translator sent in the translation. This agency always asks the translator to take a final look at the revised text, as a final ‘pre-delivery check’. Good practice, we agreed, and something that should not take much time. The excitement at the SIG meeting came when we saw what the agency revisor had changed. The first paragraph was a sea of tracked changes. The revisor had changed an active (and attractive) marketing-style translation into a literal translation, full of passive constructions that had sucked the life out of it.

We agreed that a revisor’s job should not entail this much work in the first place (unless there are real mistakes, of course, but this translator knows the client company very well, and the revisor was perhaps a little wet behind the ears), and that in no way was the revised text ‘fit for purpose’. At that point we were all looking forward to what Brian Mossop would have to say about revising texts in his talk at the SENSE conference on 3-5 June.

The next meeting should be on 8 July. Check the Events page for details as the time approaches.

Thursday, 11 June 2020 12:00

The Ghost Economy

Written by Mike Gould

creative internet computer display

I received an email from Angie Sullivan about the abysmal low rates that an agency ironically called ‘Fairlingo’ pays translators, which means that they can hardly make a living. Then I read about Amazon paying ‘ghost workers’ even less and, more recently, I read a BBC article on the BBC website that explains how artificial intelligence is putting journalists out of work. I think that these trends represent important challenges for members of SENSE, so I decided to write a short piece about them.

The Ghost Economy

There’s something decidedly odd going on behind the veil of the world wide web. Anthropologist Mary Gray and computer scientist Siddharth Suri have revealed how a wide range of services (e.g. those offered by firms such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Uber) depend on ‘ghost workers’ who work under appalling conditions. These poorly paid people make the internet look smart. The kind of work they do includes labelling, editing, moderating, and sorting information.

According to Gray and Suri, “An estimated 8 percent of Americans (20 million people) work in this ‘ghost economy’, and that number is growing. They earn less than the legal minimum wage (some work for as little as 80 cents per hour; the average is 2 dollars per hour), they have no health benefits, and they can be fired at any time, for any reason or none.” This almost makes the miserable translation rates paid by an agency called (you can’t make it up!) Fairlingo seem reasonable! They pay novices 3 eurocents and experienced translators 6 eurocents per word. ‘Experts’ receive 8 eurocents.

Ghost workers also train machine-learning algorithms. For example, the Financial Times stated that Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website is “an online marketplace for chores that are done by people sitting in front of a computer.” It’s also been described as a ‘human cloud’. The platform has been around for more than more than a decade, but the tasks ghost workers perform are changing. Now, they are helping to build data sets that allow computers to answer seemingly simple questions ­– questions that humans can easily answer, but machines can’t.

In the era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the ghost trainer’s task is becoming even more important. Computers are capable of a lot more than when Mechanical Turk was first launched in 2005: they can identify images, read text and even write sentences. These days, computers more and more often draft a text while humans check it.

In fact, in this brave new world, Microsoft recently announced that their news stories will in future be selected and edited by artificial intelligence, putting a large number of journalists out of work – – a decision that has already backfired. Is this perhaps a sign of things to come? If so, then we will need to demonstrate our added value as translators, editors and writers. We may well become curators of information, providing analysis and insight, and we should be paid professional rates for doing that important job.

Wednesday, 27 May 2020 12:00

My experience with the SENSE teachers’ meeting on Zoom

Written by Ann Bless

Ann Bless

The SENSE Ed Special Interest Group for educators has been meeting up online every Friday since the end of March. These weekly meetings will soon be coming to an end, so if you'd like to join the final session on 29 May, don't forget to log onto the website and register via the Events page. To help you decide whether you’d like to join in, here’s what SENSE member Ann Bless has to say about the meetings.

I joined this Zoom group with fear and trepidation, since I had very little experience with online teaching and had the feeling that everyone was far more experienced than I was.

How wrong I was! Indeed there were people with more experience but I soon felt that I could ask any question without feeling stupid. In all the 30 years that I have been running courses on scientific writing, I had never dreamed that I would one day have to teach online, so hearing other teachers’ failures and successes was very helpful.

Every Friday from 14.00–15.00, about 10 of us meet up under the patient leadership of Sally Hill, who has to cope with a group of rather chatty teachers sharing their views on online teaching. Most of us use Zoom. We not only share information on technological subjects, such as break outs, how to show a PowerPoint and when to use Canvas, but also talk about how we feel about teaching to faces only. How far do we have to adapt our courses? Do we enjoy teaching online? Do we long to go back to normal teaching, and what help do we get from the institutions we work for?

A bonus for me is that I meet up with SENSE friends and colleagues again; I left the Netherlands in 2003 and now live in Switzerland. Even though I try and attend SENSE meetings when I am in the country, a weekly meeting with colleagues and friends is a real treat. I have the coronavirus to thank for that. When we are back to normal I shall miss you all!

Thursday, 21 May 2020 12:00

Lockdown with kids - part 2

Written by Claire Bacon

stressed mom at home 1

Last time, we shared SENSE members’ top tips on managing your daily lockdown schedule with children around. This week, we take a look at ways to manage stress and look after your mental health during the lockdown.

Give yourself (and others) a break
There is no way to be the best parent and best worker at the same time. This is definitely a time to cut yourself some slack. And lockdown is stressful on everyone. Understanding that your family members are also under pressure and trying to support them can make your home a more peaceful place. Here’s what our parenting team have to say:

'My coping mechanism is to maintain a positive mentality so that I can care for my children and get my work done. I focus on how lucky I am to be able to work from home and that my business is doing well. My children and I are safe, and that hospitals here in Germany are not overburdened, so we can get the treatment we need should we get infected. I think myself lucky that we live in a remote rural area that allows us to get out of the house and be in the countryside for hours every day without breaking social distancing rules.' (Claire Bacon)

'Another tip would be to take as many walks as possible – while maintaining proper distance from others, of course. I generally try to build in half an hour of walking by myself every day, without doing anything 'productive' – no looking at e-mails, no thinking about work. During peak time or bad weather, I try to schedule one-on-one meetings as phone calls rather than video conferencing, so I can at least walk around the house at the same time to get some exercise.' (Ashley Cowles)

'I’ve been quoting longer for deadlines so I can spend a bit more time with my family when I’m on a break, make sure I’m available if there’s a nappy explosion or similar, put our eldest down for an afternoon nap, etc. We’ve recently been going for walks together just before or after lunchtime too. This ‘structure with flexibility’ works for us because my wife is on maternity leave. If she were back at work, it’d be a different story.' (Lloyd Bingham)

'My best hot tip about working from home in the Coronavirus Era is to be utterly pragmatic and Zen-like about the situation. This means:
• Not worrying too much about our efforts at home-schooling because the results are never going to be as good as what a professional teacher would have achieved in a real classroom;
• Accepting the fact that it’s better just to continue practising bits and pieces of schoolwork rather than nothing at all;
• Deciding to be pleased about the ease with which our kids (9 and 11) adapt to the various online meeting places, whether that’s Google Classrooms and Google Meet or TikTok and Star Stable (yes, they’re mad about horses);
• Prioritising our own paid work over home-schooling, even if it means knowing that we’re working upstairs while the kids are just watching Nickelodeon and gorging on crisps for hours on end downstairs;
• Focusing on the positives: when there’s less work around, there’s more time to do the admin and other business tasks that never get done;
• Realising that lots of people are in the same situation, and that the really important things are to stay healthy and sane.' (Cathy Scott)

'Don’t try to give clients the impression that you’re not working from home with your kids in the background. Our clients understand the situation, and it’s ok to show them that you’re human, too.' (Curtis Barrett)

'I am open and honest with my clients about my situation and I am asking for longer-than-usual deadlines. One advantage of these strange new circumstances is that I now have no problem turning clients away who want to haggle over my rates! I always struggled with this before, but these days it is very easy.' (Claire Bacon)

'Remember this isn’t a time to bust your gut at excelling at everything and ensuring your kids do too. They’re upset, disorientated, and missing their friends, activities and normal rhythm. Meanwhile, you have to work. There have to be compromises, and you might as well make things as pleasant for everyone as possible. We make allowances for the fact that kids sometimes need to explode in frustration and express their worries – sometimes through bad behaviour.' (Cathy Scott)

'My two boys are very good at playing together, but of course they interrupt me when I work. If I find myself getting frustrated (which happens if I am working on a particularly difficult edit), I take deep breaths. I do not want to get angry with my kids because their dad is away in the army and they deserve my understanding. The daily walks help a lot with this frustration – I am so grateful that we are allowed to go outside!' (Claire Bacon)

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