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Thirty Days later: The Work at-home experience so far.

smahala1991
Thirty Days later: The Work at-home experience so far.

This week I marked my one-month milestone of working from home. After four weeks of training classes and one week of hybrid phone and classroom time, I am now a full employee of Hyatt.

I have learned a lot in my four weeks of training and continuing to become a remote worker. For one thing, there is much more freedom and flexibility working remotely than in an office. You may have others around you at an office, but we still have Microsoft Teams from home. Our office also has different cluster groups of various people. We have a chat for gamers, anime fans, LGBTQ+, different states, and various other groups and interests.

I have also learned self-sufficiency. Your team is still working remotely in chat, but they mainly rely on you to find the answers. We have unique search engines where we can find articles on different scenarios. But, amazingly, we have the option to call out to other colleagues whose job is to answer questions if we can't find them, like the phone a friend lifeline on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

I also get to talk to many people all over the US and Canada. It's incredible how we all are similar yet different. For example: In Canada, it's a postal code, including letters, whereas, in the US, it's a 5-digit zip code. They also say Zed for Z instead of Zee in Canada, as pronounced in the USA.

Third-party websites are sometimes not the best way to book hotels. Some third-party charges hidden fees to make it look like you're getting a better deal.

Weddings are a big thing at hotels. Conferences and Conventions sell out rather quickly.

Hotel rates do change based on availability and closer to selling out. Weekends and holidays also influence these prices.

Take advantage of your work benefits if you can or have them. Some of them can be very good. We have a free Headspace subscription we can use for meditation and mindfulness. Our schedule does include a couple of meditation breaks (paid) a week. We also get mental health hours we can use for anything, even if it's 30 minutes or a whole day; my company has included 48 hours of mental health or care hours that we can use. I pay $38.50 per paycheck for my health and vision insurance through Blue Cross and VSP, respectively. I set aside $12 per pay period for my 401K starting. I may increase this later.

This is my reflection overall on my first 30 days! So far, I love it. It's much more relaxed than working in an office, although I still have a schedule to keep and adhere to.

I feel much more organic and genuine because I can be self-sufficient and not scripted like I was at past call center jobs. I feel more personable. I think my accent is one of the most significant advantages of my work. It is very southern and somewhat effeminate, although I consider myself heterosexual. I don't come off as flirty, but rather people love the accent, and I do get misgendered as ma'am a lot, although, to be honest, I never correct them. We are all humans. I have a higher voice than most males.

Thirty Days later: The Work at-home experience so far.
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