Telework Teamwork with TRAFFIX
Companies are asking employees to telework during this global pandemic to help stop the spread of the virus. The TRAFFIX department is on board with making sure employees stay safe and stay home! As a team, we are taking the lead on how to properly practice social distancing while still adhering to policies and procedures, meeting deadlines, and attending daily meetings. Yes, teleworking works in a crisis but this time also provides companies with experience of possibly adding at least one telework day a week to schedules in the future.
With telework policies and procedures already in place, the TRAFFIX team already had a strong foundation of how work-from-home would be structured. Each morning a meeting is held through Skype for Business. We provide assignment updates, discuss current and future business, and have sidebars of shows we’ve binge watched during this time—with furry coworkers and micromanaging children roaming in our backgrounds!
The circumstances around teleworking were unexpected, business demands and needs seems like have shifted overnight. Although the transitioning can be overwhelming, we’re here to let you know that the good outweighs the bad when it comes to telecommuting—for your business life and personal life balance.
As a team, we have unanimously decided that we miss in-person interactions and office chit-chat that drives us through the workday. However, as Program Manager Emily would say, “We’re business as usual with a twist” Luckily, we can complete majority of our assignments from home. Emily and Amber-Leigh, utilize their shared in-home office space. The rest of us—Alexis, Latwana, Monique, and Wyntre—have transformed our living room quarters to office space, using existing tables as our desks. Some of us wake up and get fully glammed for telecommuting, others throw on relaxed comfort-clothes, and one (or two!) of us stay in our pajamas (we’ll let you guess who!).
The best part of teleworking is more time with our loved ones, including fur babies. The global outbreak is overwhelming, especially when trying to focus on the positives and not sink into the hourly news updates. It feels good to be able to a moment away from work by easily walking from your in-home office to your patio or backyard for a breather. Latwana and her daughter have tapped into their creative sides by sewing masks with fun prints. Alexis continues to practice social distancing by greeting bystanders from her front door, and Monique winds down by catching up on soap opera gossip with her grandmother. Emily and Wyntre spend their lunch hour preparing meals with their children, a simple act that isn’t done so often when the usual routine is school lunch and the nearest fast food restaurant for the working moms. Amber-Leigh plays in the backyard with her husband and two dogs. Her furry coworkers love the extra attention and outside time, and she missed them just as much—if not more—during the traditional workday.
The key to newly teleworking is to not stress what we cannot control during this time. Just as TRAFFIX does, your team too can make the best of a sticky situation. No matter if you already had a telework policy in place, now is the time to filter through the challenges, enjoy the flexibility, and be prepared for if a time like this ever arises in the future.