Work from Home in My Perspective

How it all started for me

Right after graduating from the university, I spent about a year working for the family’s food business. Being an employee of my parents have its advantages and disadvantages (which can be easily turned into more advantages, I must say!)

When the family business closed, I had to find a job to support, not the family but myself. It was a Sunday morning when my sister & I read an announcement on the Sunday paper about a Job Fair sponsored by the government. The day we read about it was also the last day of the job fair, so we immediately prepared to go and check it out.

It was in that job fair where I got my very first serious job offer after university. And that job offer started my BPO career. I worked in the BPO industry as a Customer Service Representative taking calls, chat & email both inbound & outbound.

The Pandemic happened

I have been in the industry for quite a while when the pandemic started in 2020 right after my last stint as an onsite customer service representative ended. Just before the lockdown started, I was supposed to go to another job offer for an onsite job, but then the lockdown happened and everything to have been put to a halt.

A month into the lockdown, I received a call that I will be placed into a work from home setup to which I agreed to immediately since the entire work setup will be provided for by the company.

Working from home made me spend more time with my family since I did not have to leave early to travel to work & did not have to arrive home hours after work which results to being too tired to even tell stories before going to sleep.

With this setup, it gave me enough time to look at things in a different perspective. Working from home let me have more time to take care of my aging parents even when I am at work.

Almost a year into this setup made me realize, it was not enough being at home to take care of my parents. An incident made me realize, I have to have free time during work to physically check on them. It was when I considered trying freelancing which is now a growing industry.

Now, Freelancing

A former colleague introduced me to my first freelance job, virtual recruitment, without any knowledge of how freelancing works.

During this stint that I realized, I am loving freelancing. Imagine working from home or anywhere for that matter with your worktime in your hands. I had time to physically check on my parents anytime during my shift. After six months, work ended and I had nothing to do yet when my sister found a post about freelance training via Filipino Virtual Assistance or FVA. I read thru it & decided to enroll. During training, I got called back to the virtual recruitment stint again for a 3-month project. With the FVA training, I am now more equipped in working freelance as a virtual assistant at home or wherever.

I must say, my working from home in my perspective, is more for being present at home for my parents than for anything else.

#workfromhome #wfh #virtualwork #customerserviceathome