Mercury Engineering, Your vision, our duty.

Mercury has launched its new series of interviews with our people, as they work through this unusual and unprecedented time in our history. Our fifth interviewee is Norma McCarthy, a Finance Management Accountant in Mercury’s Dublin Head Office.

What has been your experience of working from home like?

At the beginning, working from home was such a novelty. I’ve been with Mercury for 15 years and have always worked 5 days in the office. To suddenly not have the stress of the morning rush and the pressure of getting out the door on time was a major plus. The day to day routine of organising family life consisting of school, lunches, homework, after-school classes, weekend birthday parties has disappeared overnight.

I would never have thought it was even possible to work from home, but with the systems Mercury has put in place, I can continue to work without any issue – that is apart from having two young children in the mix, of course!

Have there been any challenges?

There of course have been challenges for sure. Roll on 12 weeks and the cracks are beginning to appear. I feel like I’m working harder than ever before between trying to juggle work, children, home schooling and in general both home life and work life have suddenly roll into one.

My day starts earlier to get a head start with work and although the work is certainly getting done, it’s not without interruptions along the way.

What’s day to day work life right now? How are your colleagues dealing with the new normal?

I start work early and that allows me to finish early to spend time with family. The day to day work varies as always. One day will run smoothly and you feel you have achieved everything that you set out to do. The next day is the complete opposite, although that can happen in the office as well.

My workday always needs to be planned and the day set out in advance, especially when I have meetings to attend. Having two young children, they sometimes decide they don’t like your plan, and your day suddenly turns into promises and bribes to keep the peace!

My colleagues mainly feel the same as me. They’re happy at home, but many are also eager to get back to the office for a few days a week at least, when the rules change.

Elena Martin, Commissioning Manager in Frankfurt

Diego Pacheco, Graduate Engineer in Amsterdam

Eoin Lally, Electrical Manager in Frankfurt

Darren Grange, Electrical Foreman in Dublin

We will be regularly releasing new content in our Working Through the Pandemic series, with our staff across Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe. Stay tuned for more content over the coming weeks!