As the Coronavirus craziness ensued and our employees here at INX Software were asked to work from home (WFH) to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone and mitigate ourselves from the potential spread, new challenges, as well as opportunities, came with the new territory – our studies and make-shift home offices at the dining table.
We look forward to slowly transition our teams and departments back into the office at our Perth headquarters, at the Canadian branch and continue to support our employees who always work remotely in Queensland and Calgary.
Hear from some of our employees about their WFH experiences, what their pros and cons are, and what learnings they’re going to take with them for the future.
Let’s hear from Lisa, Strategic Business Development Executive, who works from her Calgary home-office in Canada.
1. Even before the Coronavirus, how long have you been WFH?
10+ years! I did work from an office for the last 3 years, but prior, almost the majority of my career was as a remote worker.
2. As someone who has been WFH already for quite some time, how has your interactions with other team members (national or global), if at all, changed?
It’s interesting really, even though I had worked from home for a long time, it was only really after COVID-19, where people who had not typically worked from home were holding meetings and really utilizing video conferencing – as they were so used to seeing people on a regular basis. I had typically conducted meetings using conference and web tools but had not utilized video conferencing as much as I have over the last 10 years as I have over the last 2 months. I like it! We also started to have daily check-ins to make sure we were all ok, and to ensure we remained connected both personally and professionally. At first, I didn’t see a need, but as we got into a rhythm, I looked forward to the daily touch base with my peers.
3. What does your ideal workstation have?
My ideal workspace has a super comfy chair with great back support. It has minimally 2 big-screen monitors. It has a large enough workspace that I can comfortably have a note-taking space as well as a place to hold my work-related items. A few nice to haves – great earbuds/headset and a floor protector for smooth rolling! As a full-time remote worker, I want this space to be an inviting and allocated space within my home.
4. Do you find you are more productive WFH? If so, why do you think that is?
I do find I am more productive from home. I am not distracted by others, or noise, I can really focus on the job at hand. This is also a double edge sword – as sometimes, a distraction would be welcome to remind me that it is well past time to eat or finish for the day!
5. Prior to transitioning into a WFH lifestyle, what is something that you enjoyed about working outside of your house?
The camaraderie and social interactions are probably the things I miss most. After work socialization as well. You miss out on the bump and grind information that occurs when you happen upon a work conversation taking place in the hallway or the lunchroom. It really takes effort to ensure you can still be seen as part of the team environment, ensuring you make time for virtual water cooler chat for instance.
6. What is something that you’ve learned from WFH that you’d like to take with you for the future?
I mentioned earlier the value of video conferencing – it makes such a difference to e-meet someone – to see their face, and their body language. This includes my colleagues – making time for a regular e-meeting and to share a laugh or two along the way, even a virtual happy hour! COVID-19 forced us to really connect and communicate – I hope we will continue to have virtual town halls and take the time to flip our cameras on and “see” each other.
Watch this space for more WFH stories from our INX teams.
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