How We’re Managing COVID-19 & Remote Work
As COVID-19 impacts communities all over the world, many businesses are following strict safety guidelines and adapting their workplaces to remote environments. People matter most at Netrush, and we’ve done everything possible to ensure our team has access to a safe and healthy work environment.We have two main facilities: our corporate headquarters in Vancouver, Washington and our primary fulfillment center in Hebron, Kentucky. Our team in Washington has gone remote, and our team in Kentucky has adapted to stricter health practices.We dropped in on both teams — virtually, of course — to find out more about how they’re staying productive, healthy, and safe during these difficult times.
Working from Home (WFH)
Working from home — you either love it or you hate it. It blurs the line between home and work. It can be difficult to collaborate and stay productive, and that’s just under normal circumstances. For many of us, life has been anything but normal these past few weeks. Kids are home from closed schools, shelter-in-place orders have gone out, and lots of uncertainty hangs in the air. All of these things have compounded the normal challenges of working from home. Still, life and work go on.Here’s what some of our team members said about their experience working from home so far:
Finding the Tips & Tricks That Make WFH a Little Easier
Everyone finds different ways to make working from home work for them. That might be taking a walk to avoid cabin fever, having more virtual check-ins with team members, adjusting schedules around parenting, or setting boundaries between work time and personal time. These little tricks make working from home a little easier and are a necessary part of remote life.Here’s some of the tips and tricks our team members are using to make their remote experience a little easier:
Overcoming Obstacles as a Team
Flipping the switch on work from home presents teams with all kinds of unforeseen logistical hurdles. It requires team members to work around technological glitches and redefine the ways they collaborate. More than anything, it requires a lot of flexibility and outside-the-box thinking.Here’s some of the challenges our team has faced and the ways they’ve found to overcome them:
Staying Efficient While Working from Home
Working from home is still work. The tasks don’t just stay at the office. They follow you home and sit with you in your living room. Everything still needs to get done; it’s just the process that changes.Here are some of the things are teams are doing to maintain their efficiency while working from home:
Goofs & Hiccups
Move your office into your home, and you’ll find that everything around you is actively trying to disrupt your next virtual meeting. Your cat, your neighbor with a leaf blower, your child — all of these things are waiting to make a mess of your perfect work plans. Things happen, and when they do, they’re hilarious.Here are some of the funny and quirky moments our team has experienced working from home:
Navigating COVID-19 in Our Fulfillment Centers
Not every work environment can be adapted to a work from home model. Such is the case in our fulfillment center in Hebron, Kentucky. At Netrush, our first priority is our people. Their safety and health is what matters most.We spoke to our Kentucky team to find out how COVID-19 is affecting their work environment:
Final Thoughts
Things are not business as usual. Everyone is under new and unique pressures, and we’re all finding ways to make the best of it. Working from home and taking extraordinary workplace precautions are some of the ways we’ve adapted. It’s not ideal, but it’s the way through. We’re focusing on the positives, coming together at a distance, and looking forward to the other side of this strange and unfortunate situation.
