The greatest benefit for me is not having to leave the house early and return home late five days a week. I used to find this work schedule very tiring as well as logistically challenging as a single parent.

Flexible working and Teams meetings mean I can often get the “best of both worlds”: work in peace at home at the start and end of each day, and go into the office for the buzz and critical face-face connections with colleagues and clients in the core part of the day.

I also try to keep Friday afternoons meeting-free. This helps me get on top of work and wind-down from the demands of meetings before the weekend begins. I love work and am very much committed to it, but to work at my best, I need to have proper time out and weekends are an important time for me to recuperate and live the rest of my life.

In a global organisation, it’s normal not to meet face-face regularly with colleagues and clients. However, I miss the ease with which I used to see people in the London office in the days before flexible working. I need to be in meetings for a large proportion of most days, so it’s the informal jokes in the kitchen whilst getting a drink or the snatched 5 minute chat on the way back from a meeting that I miss the most. These little interactions lift my spirits and bring me laughter amidst stress, and can help resolve complex problem far better than a Teams exchange ever can.

Compromise and reciprocity. This means I’m always ready to adjust my schedule to be in the office and to be available for critical meetings (even when I’d hoped to avoid commuting and work from home in peace and quiet!). I benefit very much from the trust and flexibility that the NextEnergy Group provides, so I’m always ready to be flexible in return.