As a creative agency, we usually use personas when talking about customers and target audiences. But we do reckon that beyond understanding customers’ needs and expectations and helping you provide them with a stellar service or experience, this exercise can be used for all sorts of things. This time around, because we’re obviously staying at home for a bit longer than expected, we’re introducing you to your coworkers in a whole new light. Have fun finding the match; there’s one for everyone:

1. Natural Nadine: Showered and sitting at her home desk, tucked in a Zen corner of the house at 9:00AM sharp and has seamlessly been juggling between morning coffee with the family, online yoga sessions and team meetings since March 2020. She even graces her followers with healthy homemade recipes.
2. Restless Rani: Drops a “Does anyone need anything from the office” on the team WhatsApp group at least once a week. He just needs to put on his shoes and get out of the house every once in a while to clear his mind and the workplace is as good a place as any. Those cookies in your desk’s top drawer? He probably ate them a long time ago.
3. Overachiever Omar: Forgets working hours, weekends, and that people might be away from their laptop at 9:20PM. Would’ve loved to have a proper lunch at the kitchen table, but there’s just no time for that. He swears he’ll close his laptop at 6:00PM every Monday and when he ever does, he just ends up sharing industry articles on the work group instead.
4. Night Owl Nancy: She’s actually the only one that answers Omar’s 9:20PM email because her working day has just started. Her last emails arrive in the early AMs and she does have a hard time committing to calls before noon.
5. MIA Mo: Always muted on Zoom and never interacts on WhatsApp groups. You secretly think he rushes through his task list right before the deadline and is spending his days playing video games. Also, you’ve been waiting for him to send that report through for days, but that overshared Covid meme he just sent clearly made the priorities final cut.
6. Hating-it Helen: Turns Netflix kids on to distract the children and make it through her calls. Pre-Covid, she had work-life balance all figured out, but that was a long time ago. The childless version is recognizable via the barking dog or Turkish soap that can be heard in the background when they unmute themselves on Zoom.
7. Lagging Lara: Rearranged her spices and clothes by color, her books and DVDs by alphabetical order, has set up a home gym and baked banana breads for all her neighbors. All of that to avoid starting to work on that presentation that’s due tomorrow. When she does get to it and call to ask a question, you end up discussing conspiracy theories and lockdown strategies.

You’re one, or two, or all of them depending on what day it is. We know. That’s when you actually make it out of bed and remember to get out of your PJs… But hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. Those are trying times for everyone. Even for Nadine. Sometimes.