How The Sev-Rend Team Has Been Adapting To Working From Home COVID Work Environment - December 2020
2020 has shaped up to be an unprecedented year with the Covid-19 Pandemic being a hinderance for all of us. This has touched everyone’s life in some way, shape, or form. Many of us have had to adapt our lifestyle and work habits significantly in a very short period of time.
With community shutdowns, office’s moving to work from home environments, and the need for masks everyone has felt the ripple effect from Covid. One key part of the Sev-Rend team that has felt this is the sales department. Not being able to do meeting face-to-face or go to a packing shed to review equipment materials can take its toll on someone who is used to doing this on a daily basis.
Several of the Sev-Rend Sales Team have stories of adapting to working from their home office. We can always run into the slightest distractions with having to operate full time in our home offices.
Western Regional Sales manager, Russell Reta, said – “Although, technically I always have been ‘work-from-home’, most days I was out visiting customers. However, since being at home full time there was some adjustment – especially sharing the space with my loud co-worker, the dog. Many times, I have scheduled calls during non-delivery times or taken conference calls in the backyard to avoid the chance that a delivery might just set her off. However, since most carriers just drop the delivery and don’t knock, she can continue to do what she does best – sleep. Except for the mail carrier, the ears perk up and the stress begins they are two houses down.”
Onboarding new employees can be a struggle as well in these times – especially when part of their job is to see Sev-Rend’s clients. Jensie Smith joined the Sev-Rend team in March of 2020 as our Relationship Manager – right when we were seeing the country shut down in reaction to the pandemic.
“When I joined Sev-Rend I never envisioned working from home and homeschooling but ironically, I started doing both the same week. An even bigger coincidence was how many other people around the nation took their laptops home too. As I tried to set up my home office all the essentials like desks became back-ordered, so instead of a quiet corner I had to set-up at the kitchen table in the center of the house” states Jensie. “I would bribe my kids to stay in their rooms, but they still would occasionally wonder by the camera during a video call.” Then one Friday afternoon Jensie happened to be on a group video call discussing a new project. “During a video call they came running in yelling a snake was in our driveway. I joked my neighborhood was not zoned for rattlesnakes so it had to be harmless and apologized for the interruption. Once the call was over, I went to check out the situation. I was shocked to find a dozen neighbors in my driveway tending to a huge black snake. It may not have been a rattlesnake, but it was huge and I felt like a bad mom.”
We can all relate to the unexpected distractions having to operate in a work-from-home environment. Some are worse than others, but we can all agree that we will be thankful when this pandemic is behind us and we can operate in a more traditional work environment. In the meantime – keep your head up and stay safe. We are all in this together!