Are any other HR people feeling a bit lonely in all this :(

That's a great outlook on it Cat. I like that, much like Peter's suggestion for celebrating the small victories. I too have been baking more since all this - 2 successful loaves of bread made over the last couple of weekends and a batch of the old faithful banana bread to salvage some overripe bananas.

Peter, yes I don't mind baking bread from time to time. My mum and my gran taught me to bake (although their method is the very traditional approach of "oh that looks about right"). The merits of bread baking are indeed many, nothing like taking some frustration out on a bit of dough! Although this weeks bread was made with treacle thanks to a recipe from the BBC's Saturday Kitchen which involved no proving or kneading, but still a rather nice loaf of bread.

Peter, off topic but I'd love to try making my own bread......any chance of a recipe?

Plus, there are a lot of people I'd like to punch squarely in the face at the moment so taking it out on bread sounds like a good alternative.

My take is that you find out at times of crisis who steps up and who doesn’t. For those staff that haven’t (and definitely a very small minority) it wasn’t surprising as there have been previous issues prior to this. I have had far more positives in the last few weeks than negatives and definitely holding onto that. Optimism is a great trait to have right now! Love the thought of kneading out your frustrations - go for it.

It is incredibly comforting to hear about others in the community going through the same issues! The last 3 weeks have been mad. In my workplace they decided to ramp up recruitment. There was a stage when a fifth of the workforce were off on short term absence or self-isolating. We are not shutting as we are food producers, so orders needed to be fulfilled for our customers. I have been interviewing 40 people a day for the past 3 weeks. This is face to face. There is no facility to offer this online. I already discussed about getting this with the General Manager and was told no. It was not a priority. My workplace has offered me no form of protection. I have to bring this myself. I try to keep the interviewees 4 metres away from me. It is amazing the amount of people that continually try to move chairs closer! I already work full time and last week ended up working 14 hours overtime (unpaid). I have never felt so stressed (and scared). There have been a number of times when tears have nearly bubbled to the surface in work. I am constantly terrified of catching the virus. Last week the staff went on an unofficial strike for 2 hours. They were wooed back with promises of £50 additional a week in what has been dubbed ‘danger money’. Crazy.

Please stay safe everyone.

How do you get through 40 interviews in one day? you must be shattered!

I shall have to look that one up Gemma.

Hi Samantha
This is a very basic recipe for white bread, but you will find that all almost bread-flour bags (wholemeal or white) have basic recipes printed on them
www.bbcgoodfood.com/.../easy-white-bread

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of recipes for making bread and to start with you don't even need to buy tins (available from Amazon) as you can make either rolls or a "cottage" loaf (basically a ball of dough, placed on a large baking sheet)

Kneading can be quite strenuous, but try not to give up until the sticky mess you first have turns into something smooth and elastic (and stops being sticky altogether).

You can use a mixer and a dough-hook, which I now do for the early stages,"finishing off" kneading by hand (the good exercise and frustration-diverting stage). I also "knock back" by hand (re-kneading the dough after it has first risen), as this enables you to judge when it feels springy rather than "puffy" and is ready for the final "proving" rise before going in the oven. (You'll know what I mean when you try it).

I usually bake a weeks worth of bread at once (which saves multiple baking-days and lots of energy heating the oven) as homemade bread freezes perfectly, but try one loaf at a time at first.

You can also schedule your baking to fit with using the hot oven for other things, with or after the baking's done)

The actual work of mixing is minutes, kneading (by hand) about 15-20 minutes (in total, including "knocking back") and oven time a little over half an hour. The long process is rising, which will take a good hour and sometimes longer, depending on where you have available to leave the dough to rise.

It really is simple, and magically satisfying, though it needs a little effort and patience. ...and if it doesn't work perfectly the first time, it will very quickly with practice.

P

I like to leave mine in the airing cupboard to prove. It's usually nice and toasty in there if the heating or hot water has been running. :-) #CIPDBakingTips