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Literary agencies such as Curtis Brown and Felicity Bryan Associates are increasingly planning hybrid working policies post-lockdown with staff mostly going in part-time since restrictions eased.
Most remaining coronavirus rules look set to remain in place until at 19th July after the final stage of lockdown easing was pushed back from 21st June, with the government still recommending people work from home if they can.
Giles Milburn, of the Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV and Film Agency, is not expecting the full team of 15 to be back at the same time until September. “We have for a number of weeks now been opening up the office for those people who wanted to come in," the literary agent and company m.d. said. "Attendance has been voluntary, and capped at 50% capacity, but we have seen the majority of our staff keen to come in at least once or twice a week. We have also introduced a working from home schedule, with agents working three days in the office and two at home.
“Like everyone else, we were hoping to open our office fully on 21st June, but will be waiting until 19th July now before doing so. Realistically, however, given the onset of summer holidays we are not expecting everyone to be back at the same time until early September."
As the agency expands, he hopes new members will benefit from the office atmosphere in the future. "We’re a very close-knit team, and have also recruited a large number of people in the past few months, so we are keen that everyone benefits from that person-to-person contact that only a communal working space can provide.”
Jonny Geller, c.e.o. at Curtis Brown, echoed the need for unity and accessibility, though the company is consulting on hybrid working long-term. “We opened the office as soon as restrictions eased,” he told The Bookseller. “We welcomed whoever wanted to come in, with no obligations, but we did limit the number of people at any one time to 50—roughly a quarter of our staff total which is 225.
“Currently, we are undergoing a consultation with all the staff about hybrid and flexible working and this will certainly feed into any mid to long-term decisions we make. Agents need each other to flourish and most of all need to be accessible to their clients.”
Peter Straus, m.d. of RCW, is taking a very flexible approach. “My main concern is for the safety and wellbeing of the staff. To that end we are extremely flexible about working arrangements going forward, although we have all missed working together in an office and greatly look forward to doing so again.”
Meanwhile employees at the Oxford-based Felicity Bryan Associates (FBA) faced an easier commute, and so they have been going in part-time. Agent Carrie Plitt (pictured) said: “One great advantage we have at FBA is that we’re already based in Oxford, which means that a number of us can cycle or even walk into our offices. We also have a decent amount of space, so since the easing of lockdown in April we’ve all been in the office part-time but distanced. It’s been so wonderful to see my colleagues again.
“I think there’s a real benefit of being in the office together, but the lockdown has shown all of us the plus sides of working from home occasionally too. Our plan is to keep the part-time nature of office work going even after things are fully re-open. We don’t have a definite rule or day allowance yet, but we’re going to see what works for the company and the staff and go from there.”
Several publishers such have outlined their post-lockdown plans in recent months with Hachette, HarperCollins and Bonnier offering hybrid working while Pan Macmillan will have no set office time for now. However, some of the original transition periods have been pushed back after last week's announcement delaying in lockdown lifting, with many event planners in the trade also forced to rethink plans.