A week on and we are feeling pretty darn pleased with ourselves after what we would have to put down as a successful first Instagram takeover. ICYMI, last week involved a sneak peek into what a workday looks like for each of the Incy crew. There were puppies, there was coffee, there were news crews, there was bathroom walkthroughs, there were moments we questioned our potential as influencers, there was coffee, there were local brand shoutouts, there was coffee, there was nature, there was daycare drop offs, there was books and tv shows and there was a bit more coffee.
We don't often talk about the fact that we are a team of just five and even more seldom do we mention we are spread across three different offices. Being a small team is something we relish in. It gives us the ability to add that extra bit of 'personal' to each of our customers experiences and that's an aspect of the brand we feel really proud to be able to offer. We all see your orders come in, four out of five of us are there to see the orders go out (yes, we do this manually ourselves!) and we all share your excitement when you are choosing a cot for your first babe or upgrading your little ones to their first bedroom. As well as there being more cake to enjoy on your birthday, THE BEST Christmas party getaways and less people fighting for the best GIF in our group chat, there's another perk to this small crew that make up the Incy brand. A team that conveniently numbers the same as days in a work week also meant the chance for each of us to takeover the Incy Instagram to share what a work day for us looks like. If you didn't happen to catch it, head to our IG Highlights (for reference in case we ever forget what we are meant to be doing)
Now that the takeover is complete, you're probably thinking we are done sharing our lives with you, right? Wrong! We put some questions to the team about their work days, to round it all out. Get to know us a little more from our answers below:
- What’s your weekday morning routine? I’m awake between 5.30am and 6am. I make my bed the second I am out, open blinds, get breakfast for myself and the kids and get dressed. I then say ‘Polly just sit down’, ‘Polly please eat your breakfast’, ‘Polly we need to leave in xx minutes’, ‘have you brushed your teeth?’, ‘leave Winston alone and get ready’ on repeat until it hits 7.40am and we are out the door. The kids catch the bus from just near our house and I am in the office by 8am. The hour between 8am and 9am is my most productive and I love getting myself organised for the day.
- Does it change much on the weekends – if so how? Since lockdown our weekends have become a lot more chilled. Outside of lockdown we generally have a full day of sport on a Saturday so our mornings are pretty much the same as a weekday morning. Sundays are a lot slower to get started and we often go out for breakfast together.
- Is your morning routine a solo act or how many others are you responsible for? My morning routine involves 3 of us – myself and my two children, Oscar 12 and Polly 8, my husband is out the door before 6am. Oscar is really helpful and will do anything (including Polly’s hair) to not be late. Polly is a complete procrastinator and fluffs around all morning.
- What can you not start your workday without? As soon as I get into the office I do my to do list for the day, answer any quick e-mails and then I am out in search of a coffee. I am lucky to be surrounded by lots of amazing coffee optionsso I share it around between Mad Hatters, Good Eddy and Nimrods.
- Are you generally a lunch packer or lunch purchaser? I have never really been a lunch packer, I’m more of a it’s 2pm….. I’m starving what can I eat’ kinda gal but I found out I was coeliac 12 months ago and since then I have become a lunch packer as it is just so much easier. If I don’t have lunch a soup from Racine or Nimrods is my go to. I also have a total addiction to Zambreros!
- What’s your favourite thing about your work space? In my office it is my picture of the kids but in the broader work space it is the pink polished concrete floors.
- How do you cure your 3:30-itis? The kids and I started a ritual during lock down of having a cup of tea and a Freddo at 3pm and we have kept that up, we have just moved it back to once they are off the bus.
- What’s next once you leave work for the day? Most afternoons I am out the door at 4pm so I can meet the kids at the bus. Once we are home we make a cup of tea, the kids chat with me about their day and then we either go for a walk/run, do some boxing or Pilates. On a Monday I stay later in the office and we have a team zoom and Thursdays instead of exercise the kids cram their homework into one afternoon….. it’s the only way I can get Polly to do it!
- What’s your weekday morning routine? Pre ISO – Gym at 6am, then I go home quick shower. I make my breakie and coffee at home to go and eat and drink on my long 10minute car ride to the office. On Thursday and Friday mornings when Iva is home, no gym, while she has her morning milk she watches a quick episode of Bluey while I get ready. We are out of the door in 30min tops. She has breakfast at daycare so I treat myself to a café coffee and toast on the way to the office. #treatyoself
- Does it change much on the weekends – if so how? Saturday mornings we have swimming lessons then we go to the gym together. 12Round Fitness in Mascot where I go are amazing with kids and she loves going with me. (all pre iso of course).
- Is your morning routine a solo act or how many others are you responsible for? My husband is in constructions so he leaves by 5.30am every morning. As Iva is with my parents on Monday-Wednesday mornings these are all solo acts.
- What can you not start your workday without? A shower! I can’t start any day without it.
- Are you generally a lunch packer or lunch purchaser? Uber Eats all the way!!!
- What’s your favourite thing about your work space? Have you seen La Porte….its just bloody beautiful. But my number 1 favourite thing is my two office buddies. Kirsten and Tom just make the day fun. We work hard and have so many lol’s along the way.
- How do you cure your 3:30-itis? Have you heard of the Maccas Real Coffee Shake. OMG! When we were moving our warehouse that was our afternoon go to. Then I realised the amount of calories in one! Now I’m back to a flat white to cure my 3.30itis.
- What’s next once you leave work for the day? Home, dinner. Trash TV. Throw a kid in the mix and we also watch Frozen or a Barbie movie and dance around the lounge room before shower and bed time.
- What’s your weekday morning routine? Up and out of bed as close to 7 in the morning. However I will have been snoozing 398764872 alarms from 6:30 onwards. Then a coffee and a quick scroll of insta and then into the shower. It's then onto hair and wardrobe. Depending on how either of these go I try and be out the door at 8 and off to work I go! But a quick pitstop for coffee #2 for the day. I will admit, since rona traffic is a lot easier to navigate so timing has been a little lapse of late!
- Does it change much on the weekends – if so how? It’s pretty similar, only on weekends the alarms are well and truly off!
- Is your morning routine a solo act or how many others are you responsible for? Just myself and Ralph, who luckily isn’t as high maintenance as me! He’s easy! He always has cute hair and wardrobe! Robbie’s a grown up so he has to look after himself.
- What can you not start your workday without? Lame answer but 1000 percent a coffee!
- Are you generally a lunch packer or lunch purchaser? I’m not a massive lunch person in general. But if I’m hungry, it’s a purchase!
- What’s your favourite thing about your work space? Firstly, the whole building is magical, having an insta worthy office makes coming into work every day super easy, but what also makes it my favourite is that its puppy friendly!
- How do you cure your 3:30-itis? Up from my desk and a quick little walk with Ralph helps cure the 3:30itis. IF that doesn’t help another coffee to the rescue!
- What’s next once you leave work for the day? In the car and out the door, depending on traffic it's either a quick podcast or a quicker concert to some Ariana Grande or Mariah. Then once I’m home its some boring life admin and then some Netflix before bed and then off to bed to start it all over again.
- What’s your weekday morning routine? Despite swearing to myself the night before that I won’t do it, as soon as I wake up, I grab my phone, check my emails and scroll quickly through my personal/Incy’s socials. Because I’m asleep while everyone in Aus is going about their day, posting fresh content and living their best lives, I get a stupid amount of FOMO and like to play catch up as soon as possible.
- Does it change much on the weekends – if so how? This all depends on whether or not my partner is working (he’s a paramedic so working weekends is nothing unusual in our household). If he is working, I might have a little sleep in and then try to get some work done (boooooring, I know) but it makes me feel less overwhelmed going into Monday knowing I’ve ticked things off over the weekend. If he isn’t working, we will go to our fav local coffee shop, get a coffee and go for a stroll. We are 80 year olds in 20-something year old bodies.
- Is your morning routine a solo act or how many others are you responsible for? It’s just me in the morning and the way I fluff about, I don’t know that I can handle more than that… much to my mum and her growing need to become a grandmother’s dismay.
- What can you not start your workday without? COFFEE. Once I’ve peeled myself out of bed and gingerly made my way downstairs, I transfer my eyes from my phone to laptop and finish off emails/answering comments that came in over night over a hot cup of coffee.
- Are you generally a lunch packer or lunch purchaser? I work from home so I am a whatevers-in-the-fridgerer. Thankfully cooking just enough for dinner isn’t my forte so there’s always leftovers calling my name come lunch time the next day.
- What’s your favourite thing about your work space? My favourite thing about my workspace is the flexibility of it. I really push the title of working from home, by working from quite literally, anywhere in my home. I traipse between my dining table, my lounge, the kitchen table, my bedroom or will even take my laptop to the park if I'm feeling a little adventurous. Wherever I’m feeling the most motivated at the time is where I end up.
- How do you cure your 3:30-itis? Pre-London, a cup of tea with a drizzle of honey would do the trick but since working from home, I haven’t really experienced this! I’ve come to the realisation that I punch out my best work when I am feeling in the zone rather than forcing myself to get it done between 9-5. This tactic has been a total game changer and probably why working on a Saturday doesn’t feel quite so rough. If I’m in the zone, I can honestly get more done in that hour than I would in four hours of forcing myself to produce read-worthy content. I tell Kristy often how lucky I feel that I can operate like this as I know a lot of people just don’t get that flexibility.
- What’s next once you leave work for the day? While I don’t physically leave my office, I mentally switch off by prepping dinner, putting some comfy clothes on and indulging in whatever TV show I’m binging at the time - as you will have seen from my take-over, I am DEEP in season 10 of Masterchef Aus and have had to use all my willpower to not google who won (which as you could imagine doesn’t play well with my tendency to contract a case of the FOMO’s)
- What’s your weekday morning routine? Getting up, having a little cuddle with Tilda in her bed and slowly talking her into getting dressed (she’s not a fan) I have been fairly successful just giving her 2 outfit choices, otherwise we would never leave the house. Having breakfast together and COFFEE! She always insists on doing at least 1 puzzle before we need to brush teeth and do her hair. I have introduced a “hair-chair” which is just a stool, that she likes to get and sit on while I quickly get it done (also not a fan of getting her hair done)
- Does it change much on the weekends – if so how? Yes, we like to take Tilda into our bed after she has woken and cuddle, be silly or play hide&seek under the sheets. (hilarious, I know) We are a breakfast family and like to take our time and catch up on each other’s week. I love to cook a proper breakfast for hubby and Tilda with eggs, beans and all the trimmings. They love it, whilst it’s not really my taste. On Sundays we are regulars at our local café. We cannot wait to go there again as we have been only able to get take-out during COVID.
- Is your morning routine a solo act or how many others are you responsible for? It’s all me taking care of Tilda. Especially whilst my hubby is deployed overseas. I very much like to be organised, so I have her day care bag, my work bag, both of our lunches all ready the night before. We have been doing really well with this routine and funnily enough, when my hubby is home we are always late.
- What can you not start your workday without? COFFEE, I might have mentioned this before. I also call my Mum in Germany nearly every morning whilst driving to work, so we can catch up before she goes to bed. This has become very important to me especially during COVID as she was supposed to visit us for a few months but we unfortunately had to cancel.
- Are you generally a lunch packer or lunch purchaser? Both, I sometimes bring left-over dinner or make myself a salad or burrito bowl to bring. Once or twice a week I treat myself to uber-eats and enjoy pho, sushi, or the vermicelli and crab salad that Tea has introduced me to. YUM.
- What’s your favourite thing about your work space? My colleagues. I love the laughs and conversations we have throughout the day. They always support me when I need help and know how to make me laugh. Could not ask for better company.
- How do you cure your 3:30-itis? I usually have some fruit or a coffee, although 3pm is my cut-off for caffeine. Sometimes a change of playlist does wonders too. A quick walk to the warehouse does wonders and it feels good to stretch my legs after sitting on the desk all day.
- What’s next once you leave work for the day? Day care pick-up, dinner, shower, story-time and putting Tilda to bed. Getting everything ready for the next day before I get comfy on the lounge with a good book or some Netflix and a cup of tea (aka wine) Anyone else in their Pyjamas at 5:30pm?