We recently spoke to Brandy to find out how she has adapted to remote work and how using CloudCall has allowed her to remain connected with the rest of the team.

Brandy joined CloudCall’s marketing team in 2020, working in the Boston office, however, since the start of lockdown she has been working remotely. Her experience of working within a team based across the Atlantic Ocean has put her in a position of experience when it comes to collaborating with colleagues without seeing them in person.

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How have you personally found the transition to remote work?

None of us expected to be working remotely for six months and potentially longer. It took some adjusting to find the right place to set up shop at home and to find a separation between work and personal time.

I am accustomed to not physically working side-by-side with my team, though. CloudCall is the second company that I’ve worked at in Boston that has HQs in the UK. So, in some ways I’ve been prepped for remote working. Having tools to stay in touch has made it easier to have a rhythm with the team and remain productive.

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Have you been able to stay connected with colleagues and collaborate effectively?

In addition to almost the entire marketing team working out of the UK, the only other US marketing person currently lives in a different state. Being able have instant access to the team has been awesome.

Remote working has resulted in more group calls for everyone and sometimes your schedules just don’t line up. You can’t join every single one. Knowing that I can access the meeting recording helps me stay caught and saves time of other people needing to update me.

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Have you noticed changes in your job function due to remote working?

You have to make it work when you aren’t sitting within the same four walls as your team. For me, that aspect has been the easiest part of all. Having technology in place such as CloudCall is possibly the most important element to successful remote working.

The hardest part of the transition has been the struggle, balancing when to turn on and when to turn off. At this moment, my daily commute isn’t a factor, nor is packing a lunch or gym bag. It’s very easy to start your day early, change location in your home, and then continue working throughout the night. Once I was able to have a healthy balance to my day it improved both my work and personal life.

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What lessons have you picked up from remote working that you feel will still apply when we return to office working?

The value of being prepared. You can’t always foresee what’s coming around the corner. If in March someone were to say that I’d still be working from home in early September, I would not have believed it. Having the same functionality that I had at the office already in place at home was a game changer.

Staying in sync with your team is paramount, we have been keeping up to date with daily team catch ups and many 1-1 sessions throughout the week. Even  taking  time to talk about non-work-related things has been important for me. There is a social side to going into the office that is hard to replicate from home.

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Has it been helpful that the whole team are using CloudCall, with all call records and notes being saved in the same location?

Absolutely! I think that we’re all guilty of multi-tasking during a call at one time or another. An instant message may pop up or an email reply that you’ve been waiting for comes flying in – you get distracted. Being able to access all recordings and notes and that they are saved directly in the CRM with no extra hassle is a huge help.

Overall, remote working is an experience I will not forgot for a long time. I feel as if I have gained a lot of valuable insight and I’m looking forward to using what I’ve learned in the future. I am quite excited to see how the world is going to change when this is all over. I think there will be a lot more remote and flexible working options, especially considering businesses can save money on expensive office space. But, for some, I’m sure there will be nothing that beats going to the office every day for work.