Podcast: Remote Work Life At Wishup ft. Shalini Tandon
While work from home seemed like an alien concept to most, it's been there from the start at Wishup. Check out what Shalini Tandon- Wishup's oldest employee has to say about her remote journey at Wishup.
Work from home, a concept that gained idolization particularly due to Covid-19 has been a forever thing at Wishup since its very birth. In fact, 4.7 million people were already working remotely from home before the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Wishup that started as a fully remote company 3 years ago, the organisation and it’s employees didn’t have much adapting to do during the pandemic in neither their working style nor their company culture.
But a style chosen by organizations in a crisis due to absence of operating physically, what attracted Wishup and its employees towards remote work willingly before its “popularity”?
Who else to learn from other than one of Wishup’s oldest employees - Shalini Tandon. An entrepreneur, a mother and one who’s done her fair share of working in a traditional setting and now in a remote one - in short a warrior!
“As a mother and a working woman, being able to work from home has helped me establish a perfect equilibrium between my work life and my family. I don’t need to leave my kids at daycare instead I get more quality time to spend with them from all that saved time of commuting”, says Shalini.
Apart from that, she also accounted how in her previous jobs, one of her biggest struggles was the loss of time and energy that went with commuting especially during the peak hours in traffic as she resided in a metropolitan city. She emphasised how after a long, tiresome journey, almost 1.5- 2 hours one way, she would be too tired to even spend time with her family. Whilst compared to Wishup, the perk of comfort from home worked wonders for her productivity as well as her work-life balance.
Especially for working parents, productivity was heightened with 49% of working mothers and 50% of working fathers saying they are more productive working from home.
Overall 77% of telecommuters report being more productive and why?
- Fewer interruptions
- More focused time
- Quieter work environment
- More comfortable workspace
- No office politics
And the list goes on..
While building upon the additional time needed to even get to work, she listed how getting ready for work to go to office also required one to get up way prior- alongside the extra buffer time kept for potential traffic. While at Wishup, you can just work in your pajamas! Check out other non-financial employee incentives that boost motivation.
While remote workers' biggest struggle is the inability to disconnect from work, Shalini expressed how at Wishup she never faced an issue with overworking. With understanding clients, team and co-workers that understood the importance of boundaries, she has never been bothered or expected to be available on non-working hours or weekends.
In fact, Wishup even informs clients that while your virtual assistant is convenient according to your times, they’re not to be expected to be available 24 hours. All these little things work greatly in retaining employees especially for job-satisfaction, a Mental Health America survey also found that respondents with flexible work options (including remote work) reported better mental health.
The fear of communicating and training employees in a remote setting is the utmost fear of companies when they ponder about such a transition, however, Shalini had differing views with her experience at Wishup.
She elaborated how Wishup in fact gave her numerous opportunities through their in-house training programs to allow for smooth introductions of new tools and softwares that makes her feel like she’s growing her skills with each client or project. Depending on the client’s needs, Wishup suggests and accordingly trains employees with the most ideal tools ranging from software management to social media, opening avenues for up-skilling and advancement.
“I didn’t know about Canva before, neither did I ever need it, but as an executive assistant, one of my assignments required that. Thus I was trained for it priorly by Wishup, with each new client, you learn new tools and grow everyday here at Wishup!” tells Shalini.
With 6 out of 10 companies offering their workers the chance to telecommute (three times higher than it was in 1996), it’s obvious that if one thing this pandemic has made certain is that remote work is here to stay - for good. Check out 7 reasons why remote work is the hiring trend for start-ups.
To learn more about remote life at Wishup, check out our podcast here.