Connectivity and community

Last week I flippantly said to someone “honestly, if you have to do a pandemic, this is the team you want to do it with”. And I laughed.

Then I stopped. Because hells yeah, I’ve been through a pandemic with the best bunch of people around.

I’ve worked with Brimbank City Council for more than 12 months. For about half that time I’ve talked to my team on Zoom as we’ve navigated crisis, advocacy, staff and community communications required in a diverse and COVID19-prone municipality.

A skilled, dedicated, multi-disciplined team that has shifted and morphed and grown through crisis with smiles and tired faces.

Together we’ve onboarded new team members in circumstances far more challenging than just starting a new job. Hello lockdown life, remote schooling, opening and closing facilities and public health concerns.

Team building and being a team has taken on new meaning for organisations unfamiliar with remote work and entrenched in physically turning up every day.

But I can’t be sorry to be in this position. I know my team members better now than I ever would’ve, though I miss their real faces. They know me more than I would’ve allowed under other circumstances.

As a people manager I’ve grown, because of them and this pandemic, and how bloody good is that.