work from home – Page 2 – Philippians Virtual Assistance Services

Avoiding Client’s Trust Issues as a Remote Worker

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020Leave a comment

Being a remote worker entails a lot in terms of sustaining the trust of your client. With the difference in working virtually or not personally interacting with your employer, it is nothing but expected that he or she would have episodes of trust issues. However, fret not, for there are ways for you to avoid these.

You could begin with the situation of you working without the client supervising you personally. Apparently, this is the point wherein your employer would likely think about how active you are during your working hours. There are cases that virtual assistant encounters assumptions from their clients that they are not carrying out their tasks, as necessary.

In order for you to prevent your employer’s trust issues in terms of your activity during your shift, you may simply maintain your responsiveness. Most clients surmise you are doing something else aside from the tasks he or she assigned if you do not respond to his or her messages immediately. Responsiveness has always been effective in ensuring your client would not have any problem with coordination. Even if there are urgent activities up ahead, your employer will never worry relying on you to be there, whenever needed.

On the other hand, in terms of assuring your client would not have any doubts relative to your productivity, a full report would be most helpful. Every end of your day, a list of your accomplished works would be efficient in showing your employer that you are not stagnant. You would also be helping your client to understand how efficient you are in terms of time and project management. Your report somewhat serves as your validation to contest how contributive you are to their organization’s growth.

With the virtual environment for your entire work with your client, taking advantage of technology is one way to ensure he or she would not doubt your work result. For instance, he or she is having reservations as to whether you are looking for the materials needed or not (since you were not able to provide it given it is unavailable), then you may give him or her proof of where you have sourced it. At present, you could provide links, attachments, or even screenshots to your clients, giving them a better understanding of how you carried out your work. This will keep them from thinking that you slack off.

Lastly, in terms of leaves and absences, clients tend to develop trust issues whenever they do not have further proof of your reason for not reporting. For instance, you have been gone for too long due to sickness. Then, it is best to submit a medical certificate, which could somehow avoid their clouded thoughts on what keeps you away from work. Transparency and honesty are keys here.

With the aforementioned pointers above, you would understand that trust issues would never develop with the right management of your relationship with your employer. No matter how different your setup is compared to office-based employees, you could still make your remote work life ideal and valuable for you and your client.

Remote Work Life: How to Deal With Power Interferences

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020Leave a comment

Laptops, smartphones, tablets, and PC have already been part of our everyday lives and these gadgets run on power. As a remote worker or virtual assistant, you may use all the aforementioned devices, but among your top choices would be desktop PCs. These are known for durability despite long hours of usage, convenience of use, and efficiency of operation. PCs rely on a consistent stream of power to stay on, but sometimes, your main supply may not be so dependable. In areas prone to electricity interferences, damaging a PC is likely.

To understand more about power interferences, here are its different types:

Blackout. This normally takes place due to uncontrollable factors, such as electrical lines damage and disruption in the power station.
Power outage. This is an interference that occurs during the summer commonly. With extreme temperatures and high demand for power, it is anticipated that electrical equipment may fail.
Power surge. This occurrence is characterized by electrical draw changes and interruptions. One good example that could cause this is whenever your home equipment or appliances share the same power supply.
Brownout. This is observed when power does not black out completely, which explains the name itself. There is simply a temporal drop in electrical voltage.

If you work from home, you would have certainly experienced an instance wherein a power interference occurred while your PC is turned on. Take note that this does not imply all is well simply by powering your workspace back. A sudden loss of power in your PC could result in hard disk damage.

Should the said instance happen, it is best to run a system check when your PC completes a system start. Here are the steps you need to follow:

Tap the Search button on the taskbar.
Type cmd in the search box.
Choose Command Prompt on the top.
Select Run as Administrator.
Type chkdsk to perform a hard disk check.
When completed successfully, you would see whether there are problems found or the outage has not affected your hard disk.

In the instance of detected problems, Windows will prompt and automatically fix the issues. There will be an auto repair upon restart of the PC.

Otherwise, you would see the message, Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required.

There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure, so here are solutions to keep your PC from being damaged by power interferences:

Surge Protectors. These devices are used to keep your gadgets, such as a computer, from unanticipated blackouts. By simply plugging your workspace into these protectors, you would be able to change the direction of excess power to the ground wire of outlets.
UPS Devices. UPS stands for uninterrupted power source, which is a device that can protect your devices from all power interferences. What makes it more reliable is its additional five to sixty minutes of power in combination with the surge protectors’ functions. It gives your desktop PC a battery backup, providing you ample time to save your work and avoid sudden computer shutdown, in the instance of power interference.
Data Backup. One of the biggest risks of power interference with your computer is data loss. In order to prevent your work from getting lost, make it a habit to back up your files regularly. Apart from relying on your local system for file backup, it is also best to utilize cloud storage solutions. These allow you to save your data remotely via the internet. Even if you experience power interferences, cloud storage applications often save your work and corresponding changes in real-time. Hence, there is a higher chance for your backup to exist even if you fail to save your activity manually before your PC shuts down.

Dealing with power interferences should be done seriously if you are a remote worker or a virtual assistant. Losing your data could lead to missed deadlines and poor productivity, which are big factors that determine your work performance. With you being totally reliant on the internet and power during work, protecting yourself from associated problems with them should be among your priorities.

Understanding: What Does It Mean for a Remote Worker?

May 27, 2020June 12, 2020Leave a comment

As a remote worker, it is a common practice to simply exchange e-mails or make phone calls with your employer and team members. Some virtual staff even find it odd whenever they face a lot of calls in a position that should not require much of it. For instance, they are required to attend various meetings with suppliers, customers, and partners of their firm among others.

The aforementioned situation may be the reason why there are cases in the remote work industry that call for better understanding among professionals. When you say understanding, it means you have to look at a bigger perspective. It is not simply what you comprehend on the e-mails you have received or hear on the calls you are getting.

One good example is when a co-worker denied to assist you with an urgent project. You have to remember that simply because a message implying rejection was sent to you, the said team member takes things personally. For example, he or she does not simply want to help for you are new in the company. This is not the case most of the time. As mentioned above, you got to look at the situation in a different light. Possibly, your co-worker is caught up in an urgent task, as well, which resulted in him or her not being able to help. Moreover, due to the pressing importance of his or her activity, he or she failed to explain the situation well enough.

This is where understanding would come in. If you practice understanding towards your co-worker, you would never think negatively right away. You will consider other possibilities in the picture. Be reminded that prejudice is not often welcomed in a team, especially a virtual one. With the limitation of simply being able to coordinate via messages or calls, you do not tend to see your team member the whole time. You do not see him or her working on his or her tasks or making haste to meet deadlines. In truth, you will be deluged with tons of possibilities, which would most likely be false instead of true.

The same goes for your employer. Being a company owner or an executive imposes a lot of responsibilities. If he or she fails to assist you or answer your inquiry right away, this does not entail that he or she is showing a lack of care for his or her employees. Take note that this could connote that he or she is attending meetings or working on more important matters in the company.

To gain the said trait of understanding towards your employer and co-workers more effectively, you have to mull over the fact you also go through what they experience while working. It is simply a give-and-take process. If you are in their shoes (having to rush and work on critical activities), letting go of possibilities to support or communicate with your team members due to pending assignments, they would likely understand your situation and give you space, as well.

The most beneficial result when all people in an organization practice understanding is the lack of rift. Harmony would be maintained and there could be a more personal connection to one another. With the build-up of good relationships in a company, there will always be a promising success onward.

Remember, it is all about widening your view of the situation. Let understanding rule your thinking before being assumptive.