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7 Work Lessons I’m Taking from Pandemic Into the New Normal
  1. Communication is Everything

Whether it’s an email, a task, or a Zoom conversation — a lot of information can get easily lost in translation. It’s especially prominent when conducting most of your work remotely. I was always one to double-check everything I do (I tend to be a stickeler that way); however, starting a job remotely has made me triple-check and quadruple-check everything. Without an office environment where you can easily approach your coworkers to check you, some days you have to depend on yourself to take in and then relay all of the information. 

2. Hand-written notes

As stated above, it can be challenging to communicate effectively when you don’t keep yourself organized. Even though it seems so retro in this day and age, I always recommend hand-written notes to assist with that. I think the process of writing out your tasks and feedback always helps me retain the information more. I also like having an outlet that isn’t digital to keep my notes handy and mobile. I have only been here since December, and I’ve already gone through an entire notebook! Especially in a remote work environment, it is always helpful to take the time to write out all of your tasks to keep yourself focused when you’re often working alone. 

3. Security

Hand-written notes are also an excellent backup to your digital notes. I think digital security is one of the most important practices I’ll take away from this past year. Especially with my work with Webroot through their lessons on preventing cyber attacks and keeping your information secure, I have realized how easily vulnerable one can become to a cybersecurity breach. When you work in person, your offices can often provide you better protection when working, so I have learned some great practices to keep my data safe while I work at home. If you haven’t done so in a while, consider this your reminder to backup your data and update those passwords!

4. Dress to make yourself feel good

I know we have all developed a much closer relationship with our swe

ats while working at home. Trust me, I think I bought more hoodies than any other clothing item in 2020! However, for the couple of in-person shoots, I’ve been able to go on, I’ve tried to dress in my favorite outfits whenever possible. But truthfully, I should be trying to do that even on days that I’m working at home. Although it’s tempting to th

row my cozy, velvet leggings on, I find I work more efficiently and confidently when the first thing I do in the morning is put a nice outfit on.

 

5. Connections don’t happen overnight

Since I started at One Floor Up back in December 2020, I have had to meet most of my staff exclusively over Zoom. It was strange for me to be the newest, youngest, and the only one who had never worked in the office with everyone else. The impatient side of me wanted to automatically know everyone as soon as possible so I could feel a bit more comfortable. However, building connections takes time — even with the people you work with every single day. I am grateful to have started building relationships with my teammates both professionally and personally. I hope it only gets better when I can collaborate with them more in person. 

6. Taking initiative

The pace of your workplace automatically changes when your whole team has to work remotely. When you can’t see your team in person, it can sometimes be difficult to ask for chances to take on new challenges. It’s been super important for me to measure my success on my own because it can be difficult for your teammates to see how you’re doing remotely (even though my team has always been GREAT about checking in with one another). Part of taking the initiative is offering your help and experience wherever you can, but also knowing when to ask for help. It will be a little easier to see others’ workflow in person, but I think it’s important to continue keeping track of my own progress moving forward and offer to take on new challenges whenever possible. 

7. Empathy

I have always been a huge empath my entire life. I was raised to be kind and considerate to everyone because you never know what someone might be going through. This pandemic has made that principle even more important. This year has brought struggles to everyone in their own ways, and sometimes it can be hard to separate those struggles from your work. I know I have been doing my best to be more understanding towards peoples’ time and mental health during this difficult year. And I hope that even when the world starts to get back to normal, we can all carry that same empathy with us in both the workplace and everywhere else in our lives. 

 

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