Trish Rooney working from home

By Teagan Rasche

Hybrid work models

Working from home might be here to stay

May 14, 2021 | 4:58 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Accounting technician Trish Rooney has been working out of her home for most of the pandemic.

She says it has been quite the adjustment.

“Within our office you can easily go to someone’s office and ask them a question, go back to your desk and continue working,” Rooney said. “Now we are away from them, communication is a little more delayed.”

Rooney says it just adds an extra layer of complication, but for the most part works seamlessly.

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Mandy Friess, who works at a local insurance agency, has been working from home since last March.

The switch was as easy as putting a desk in her bedroom, but then she noticed the time she was putting into work.

“When everything started, I definitely did notice I was working a lot more because my workspace was so accessible to me,” Friess said.

But now Friess is in a routine and takes regular breaks to avoid burnout. Working from home has proven to be a big learning opportunity.

“With the pandemic, we’ve had to pivot and basically relearn how we were communicating with each other and our clients and we did it relatively quickly,” Friess said. “Since then, it’s worked out really well and we speak to our clients a lot more now than we did before which is really good.”

Staff at Medicine Hat College have also been working from home since last March.

Executive Director of Talent, Culture and Strategy Morgan Blair says there’s been a lot of positives, but human connections take a lot more work.

“All employees everywhere have been forced to adapt to new technology, new ways of working, new ways of communicating information,” Blair said. “Basically everything that we’ve always done, we’ve had to figure out how to do differently.”

As things slowly return to normal, MHC is looking at flexible work arrangements in a post-pandemic world.

The college’s approach is one Friess’s insurance agency will also consider. She says their business can function well online and remotely.

“Probably what will happen in the future is we’ll be moving into more of a hybrid, remote, work from home and in the office,” Friess said. “Some days we’re in the office, some days we’re at home just to make sure we have that team collaboration.”

Freiss says she misses having her team around her, but feels more productive at home.

As for Rooney, she wants to go back to the office after the pandemic.

“The ease of talking to people and getting information and stuff like that, it just makes the job a bit easier,” Rooney said. “Plus it’s the atmosphere. You miss saying hi to people in the mornings, having discussions just the atmosphere of the office itself. Everyone at the office gets along really well and it’s a great place to be and I enjoy being there.”