Daya has been working at ALTEN for over 4 years, from which she has been an Office Manager Invoicing for more than two years. As an Office Manager Invoicing, she is responsible for the invoicing process from A to Z (checking hours, making invoices, matching payments, etc.). She has been working from home for some time now. Here she tells how working from home works for her.
I’ve been working from my home for about a month now and, to be honest, I haven’t really experienced any inconvenience so far. Of course, it is a big change from seeing your colleagues face-to-face every day, to only talking to them via Skype and Teams and seeing them through a webcam. Lucky for me, I‘m in the company of my boyfriend and our cat, who keeps us entertained throughout the day with his hilarious habits, like rolling through the garden like a pig when he thinks we’re not looking. Obviously, I mean the cat, not my boyfriend.
My ‘home office’ is based in the middle of my living room. At the dining table I have set up my workplace; my laptop, keyboard and an extra screen. I’m close to the kitchen, which is very convenient but tempting, especially when we have baked or cooked something delicious again. When I look to the right, I look right into my garden where I see lots of different birds all day long flying back and forth.
In order to keep in touch with my team, we have a call on Teams every morning, where we catch up and help each other when someone is experiencing issues. Besides that, I talk to my colleagues throughout the day via Skype and Teams to discuss matters about work and help them with questions, but also to see how everyone’s doing. I think it is very important to also continue having ‘small talk’ with your colleagues, even when it’s not face-to-face, because good teamwork is also about showing genuine interest in how your colleagues are doing.
Having to work from home is a big change in your daily life though. For me, especially now with this pandemic, it is very important to take good care of my body. In order to stay fit, I make sure that I eat enough nutrients each day, sleep 7 to 8 hours per night and that I exercise enough. Especially now the weather is getting better again, I like to take a walk outside or go rollerblading. Of course, my favorite way of exercising is to dance, which I can luckily do from home too.
Tips
After working from home for a month now, there are some of the things I’ve learned. First of all, it is important to keep taking good care of your body (healthy food, enough exercise and sleep). Apart from that, it is also important to not only focus on the work, but also focus on the well being of your colleagues. Last but not least, stay positive. There is nothing we can change about this situation, so we might as well make the best of it and use this period to recharge our energy, now this rushed society we’re in has been forced to lay low for a while.
Daya
