"Grid maintenance? So I learned that it can also be done from home"

In Feltre, Belluno, there is a new virtual outpost for Terna in these days of crisis. Laura Beccari, an electrical engineer, manages it. She is very young, 26 years old, and evidently very good at what she does. Terna found her fresh out of university via one campaigns scouting the best young talent. Working as technician of unit plant she manages power line maintenance. Just as if she were in her company office, located in Parma. Yes, because about ten days ago Laura answered the call for smart working in minutes. “Absolute flexibility”, they said. “Come on, let’s get organised. Go home, we can't work like this anymore, but we can make this work”.

It’s no small thing, and no mean feat for a company which by definition can’t be as flexible as a small business with less employees can. After having established some somewhat daring methods in meticulous detail, she took her car and loaded her boot with the powerful desktop computer and the sizeable monitor needed to work on grid design images with AutoCAD, which (for those who don't know) is a very powerful specialized software not easy to manoeuvre, as it requires a very powerful computer.

Laura travelled 240 kilometres back to her birthplace. She will return to the office when this is all over. But in the meantime, she has organised herself like the engineer that she is. “The internet connection works pretty well, it's protected by a VPN which allows me to operate exactly as if I were there in the office. My colleagues and I have used all the technologies available to us. We talk to each other and see each other via videoconference on Microsoft Teams. And everything is basically the way it was”.

“Sure,” says Laura, “the nature of my work made the move to remote work relatively easy compared to other professionals. So much of my normal work is done in the office, although I do sometimes go out to check the work being done on the construction sites. But in order to really replicate the full functionality of our working environment we still had to put some effort in. Teleconferencing does dampen empathy and soften emotional perception, I can't deny that”. Laura and her team resolved this by avoiding the long and by definition audible chats via video and audio. “We call each other even for the shortest meetings, for exchanges of information and thoughts. It makes us feel closer”.

After the first few days of this curious new organisational situation forced on her with current events, Laura began to think that this experience could have something positive to give, beyond the immediate emotions dictated by the state of need. “We are developing our own methods, even through this forced situation, and this could certainly be very useful for any future emergency situations, but could also suggest an interesting evolution in our activities even when everything is alright”.

In terms of overall work productivity, we ask Laura, what changes with smart working? Does workflow slow down, become more complicated, do procedures present obstacles? “I wouldn't say so. In fact, after a relatively short adjustment period, the overall productivity seems not only different but in some ways even better at home than in an open space where there are normally six of us. It does differ based on the moment, the tasks, and the ability of individuals to organise themselves in the best available manner. But I would say that what is happening is also a great, massive teaching moment, a stimulus to rethink a lot of things and improve them. We have, for example, the chance to choose our own spaces and even change them over time as needed. We also have the chance to calibrate the timing of engagement with projects with respect to the results you want and need to achieve”. So our work, but also our team spirit “can enjoy great benefits”. And then “consider the satisfaction of contributing, even so, to a more rational use of resources, to a work structure that is so much more respectful of the environment and the preservation of the ecosystem thanks to the rationalisation of travel”.