Post #35
May 6, 2020
Claire Bodanis
Claire reflects on the challenging experience of doing reporting well under lockdown, and how we might learn for next year
My son is one of those children who likes to do his homework on the day it’s set. Not for him that sinking feeling I remember only too well as Sunday teatime approached and the pile of homework loomed… So I was rather surprised on Thursday evening to find the Lego pile unattended and instead find him in my study (the virtual schoolroom) staring, furrowed-browed, at a blank Word document.
When I asked what was up, a cascade of woe came forth. History essays unwritten; geography graphs undrawn; things not downloading properly; things not uploading properly; endless class chat messages popping up on Microsoft Teams disturbing the peace. And a general cri de coeur about how much harder it is to do everything on screen, how much quicker it is to do things on paper because you can think and focus properly, and how much more boring it is without his classmates in the room. When can we go back to school?
Change history essays to business reviews; classmates to colleagues; school to office – and it sounds remarkably similar to what we’ve been hearing from colleagues and clients as they’ve tackled reporting from home. There’s no doubt that virtual working does make many aspects of reporting much harder. Everything takes longer because you can’t just pop round to someone’s desk and ask a quick question about the footnote on page 94. Most people don’t have office-quality printers and scanners at home to do mark-ups and changes, and there are very few local print shops still open to do that service for you, even if you can justify going out.
If you’re not familiar with large annual reports and are wondering why you can’t just do it all easily on screen – try working with a document running to hundreds of pages and comparing lots of pages at once. The most you can probably do at a size large enough to read easily is two or three; perhaps a few more if you’re lucky enough to have lots of screens. And that’s just the practical side. From what we’re hearing, the most difficult thing is trying to maintain the laser-like focus you need to get the report over the line when you’re working at home in lockdown circumstances. It’s also a whole lot less fun.
These challenges show up in the reports themselves. One of our proof readers, who reviews reports for many different FTSE companies, told us that he’s having to make around 30% more changes than usual, and the copy is generally just a lot less sharp.
So far, so difficult. But let’s look on the positive side. Twenty years ago when I started in reporting, it would have been practically impossible for all office workers to work at home, have no physical contact with people outside their household, and get an annual report out accurately and on time. Working lives for us too would have ground to a halt, wreaking even more damage to society now, and our prospects of economic recovery when finally we come out of this.
Virtual technology means we can talk to each other face to face, individually and in groups, even if we’re not in the room. It means we can do mark-ups and scans, even if it’s more difficult and complicated. It means we can share files, even enormous ones. It means we can still do the essential out-loud read with each other, even if we can’t share the chocolate biscuits. It means we can get the job done.
And, while, extrovert as I am, I shudder to think of working without my colleagues in person forever, it’s pretty likely that office working as we know it is not going to return any time soon. December year-ends at least need to assume that the planning, thinking and early drafting stages will have to happen while we’re all still working in this way in some form or other. With so much uncertainty in the world, that planning, thinking and drafting will be more challenging, while high quality, open and honest reporting will be more important than ever.
So we’ve been giving some thought to what we’ve been learning about reporting in a virtual working world, and will be adding a section on it to the ‘how to get it done with minimum hassle’ chapter of our reporting book, Trust me, I’m Listed, due to be published in mid-June. But don’t worry, even if you don’t buy the book (although we’d be delighted if you did – only six weeks to go!), we’ll summarise it in a blog, and maybe even run a webinar or two, to bring people together to share their experiences, plan for next year, and get the best out of virtual working.
After all, if we can make life easier for ourselves, we’ll have that much more energy to spend on doing reporting well!