While most of our clients found the move to working remotely quite challenging but mostly positive, the experience for our team of virtual assistants who all work remotely anyway came with its own unique challenges.
As a virtual assistant services team, we are already working remotely with all our clients throughout New Zealand. Given how we operate, you would expect that moving into lockdown (and now into Alert Level 3) would have meant no change in the way we work. However, while our own business operations and systems didn’t change at all, the huge increase in demand from our clients was an impact felt by everyone on our team.
Senior Virtual Assistant, Liz Rentz, found the first few weeks quite tough when compounded with extra home challenges of having children home full time and trying to add in some home schooling too.
“We had quite a large increase in demand from our clients needing assistance with this transition,” explains Liz. “We are used to working from home but for some of our clients that has been quite a stressful learning curve.”
Liz has worked hard to provide her clients with the help and support they need while they became familiar with their new remote operating systems and procedures. However, she appreciates that everyone is in the same boat and feels real empathy for her clients as well.
“For those of us who are parents it has been challenging trying to play the role of teacher and mother at the same time as continuing to work,” Liz continues. “But our clients are often in the same boat as us, juggling extra work and home stress and feeling uncertain about the future.”
Leanne Boyle, also a Senior Virtual Assistant, had a unique experience of going into lockdown with her clients in the construction industry. The constantly evolving situation and guidelines going into the lockdown period caused a lot of stress and uncertainty.
Leanne shares some of the strategies those in the construction industry have implemented to ensure some business continuity through the lockdown period.
“The lockdown bought the construction industry to a standstill,” says Leanne. “Businesses have paired back services as much as possible, and the services provided are focussed on system improvements and pricing in anticipation of commencing work again.”
The emphasis now in the industry has shifted to ensuring compliance with Health and Safety guidelines to keep our sites, staff and contractors safe as we slowly return to full operations through Alert Level 3 and beyond.
If you need any administrative or marketing support with getting your business up and running again (without any extra on-going overheads!) then please call or email us to ask about our virtual assistant services.
Our Tips for Working Remotely
