by Rebecca Davis

Holly Slauenwhite and Anne Martin from our Bridgewater team started working from home when COVID-19 hit. It wasn’t what they were used to! Being at home meant balancing work and life in a whole new way.

For Holly, that was a full day’s work with a young, energetic son. Her husband, deemed an essential worker, was out of the house during the day.

For Anne, that meant getting used to a new routine. “At first, I was reluctant about it because I’m a creature of habit—I like to know where my scanner is, my stapler,” said Anne. “But I was able to set everything up within the first day and now, I have a dedicated office at home.”

Working from home also meant adopting new ways of doing things. eSignatures, email, phone calls—not only were we getting used to these new processes, but we were helping our customers navigate them too.

Luckily, our clients were understanding. One day, while talking to a regular customer on the phone, Holly’s son had a vital piece of information to share. ”He came up and raved about his ‘bathroom behaviour,’” said Holly. “We laugh about it every time we connect!”

 

 

When we opened back up to the public, I chatted with Holly and Anne about how they were handling this next phase of the pandemic. Holly is now back in the King St office. Anne’s still working from home.

Getting back to the office, for Holly, meant adapting to another change after getting used to the flow at home. Anne’s doing all she can to support Holly and their coworker Doug Close in scheduling appointments. “I do miss being able to just bounce things off my coworkers, if, say, I have a challenging quote I’m looking at,” said Anne.

They both appreciate the programs we put into place during COVID-19. We’ve worked to communicate in new ways and to ease the process of buying and modifying insurance while we can’t meet with our customers face-to-face.

I was able to start working from home when I came aboard in April. Then I made my way into our Lower Sackville office as we opened to the public. I also started travelling to other offices in the province and building relationships with coworkers I previously only met through video calls.

My “new normal” is technically my only normal at AA Munro, but I feel a lot of support in such a trying time.