LD Staff Writer
Work from home! That’s the dream, isn’t it? I won’t lie – when businesses started temporarily closing down, I was more than excited to drastically reduce my morning commute to a 30-second carpeted walk (socks optional), with the only risk of detours coming from the occasional pet related pile-up on Hallway US-31.
Fast forward 6 weeks… I’m thankfully still on the clock and working from my own impromptu home office. LongerDays has always been unique because we’re a team of virtual administrative assistants, designers, editors, and customer service savants working “side-by-side” on client projects all from the same office… Well, we share an office when we’re not in the middle of a “shelter in place” mandate.
One of our fundamental cornerstones is that we’re all working together from the same space, despite being a virtual company… So when the owner offered to let us work from home a week ahead of the mandate, we were all a bit surprised.
The transition from office life to home-office life has been just about seamless. We’re virtual business assistants, so it makes sense that there wouldn’t be too much disruption. We use Google Drive to store our client project/process information and our call logs. Everything is in the cloud, so it doesn’t matter if we’re in the same office – or even the same city. We see updates happen in real time. We already use Slack for inter-office communication, and a VOiP system for phones. The task and billing system we use is all online. Client password information is stored securely in LastPass. With a headset on and all of the necessary resources at my fingertips, it’s almost like I never left our actual office.
Some states are reopening for business, though the majority are still on hold. There are plenty of social distancing rules, guidelines, and boxes that need to be ticked in order to go back to the office. Traveling between homes is still prohibited, grocery trips are limited, and the majority of those on the road are essential workers, doing their best to keep a world that’s been effectively paused continually moving forward. I’d give my left arm for a garage sale, a wet burrito from one of our local joints, and my old desk space back. I have so many plants at work that miss me, I can tell.
“You can’t come to the office? No, that’s fine.” *flourishes in isolation*
So much has changed in the last 6 weeks, but one thing hasn’t: LongerDays has been able to continue working without pause, or even as much as a hiccup. Our office is structured in a way that physical distance has had no effect on our ability to brainstorm, sleuth, assist, create, edit, or process.
The work hasn’t changed, even though almost everything else has. Our clients still have daily tasks, and I’m proud to say that we’re here to do them just like we always have been, even though “here” is a bit different for everyone right now.