One of the best parts about working from home is that I get to set my own pace. When the user I am supporting is not directly in front of me but rather many miles away across the Internet, there is no practical need to rush. Even for issues as urgent as not being able to connect to the campus servers, I am still able to take a moment to make sure I’ve got everything prepared and considered before communicating back to the customer.
I think this deliberate slowing down definitely helps to decrease my stress levels. While I am generally quick on my feet, the details often get lost when I am rushing into a solution or conclusion. When I get some time to parse things through, the approach to a problem becomes more holistic, and the chances of missing something that should have been immediately apparent is lessened. Face-to-face interactions with users - before this whole COVID-19 mess - sometimes don’t allow for such freedom, and I slide towards being more stressed about not being able to come up with an answer than whether the answer is the right one.
This is why I hate playing games with friends that require quick thinking and has a time limit.
Working from home gives me time to think, and I have to say it’s something I am going to miss once we are allowed back on campus. I think a good lesson to carryover from this experience is to try not be in a rush, even if circumstances perhaps won’t grant such leisure. The endgame is to provide excellent support, so taking a bit to time to get it right is worth the initial indignation from a customer that I’ve taken too long.
It’s certainly something to keep in mind.
They could’ve have gone modern, yet they made it traditional.