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A Day in the Life of an Outsourced Team Member

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Hey there and welcome to Outsource HQ’s first podcast of 2023! Let’s start things off and take a look at what goes on every day with the people over at USource.

A USource employee works off-site, remotely, which people advertise as “working from home”. But they are not that different from your typical hard-working on-site employees. Without the commute, their daily lives are almost similar, possibly even more productive.

Onsite employees have computers to work with. USource employees also have them. Equipped with a company-provided PC, plus applications installed based on the work they’re doing. Graphic designers have the essential Adobe, Figma and Canva, and the content writers – they’re fine with just Google Docs, and SEO experts with SEO apps.

Onsite employees have workstations to work from each day. USource employees also have them. A dedicated work area where they can focus. The best thing is that they can set it up with the ambiance they like. Some like their spaces dimmed others like it blinding. You do you.

Well, they have canteens. Unfortunately, USource employees don’t. Shit- they’re one point ahead.

Studies show how virtual employees have lesser turnover rates and absenteeism. This is what an employer is looking for, right? USource employees deliver great results because of the work-life balance created by the company. It’s certainly not a competition, but a reminder that maybe remote teams are just as efficient as on-site employees.

Even if you didn’t ask for it, we’re walking you through the day-to-day of your average USource team member, from sunrise to sunset.

First things first, they live like vampires holed up in their houses. Aside from the romanticist, they don’t watch the sun rising from the east – some of them are still sleeping at that time waiting for their alarm clock to scream- for the nth time.

Since most of their schedules start at 8 in the morning, it’s enough time to prepare and eat their breakfast. Then, freshen up, wash their face, and brush their teeth. Because they need that for the selfie required for attendance. They always make sure that their selfies look like they are motivated for work- because they are.

We don’t know how others keep their focus but some team members play music to keep their minds at peace to work on tasks. Since there’s no worry about traffic, they have more time to enjoy their morning drink. Some prefer their pure brewed coffee while others enjoy their decaf. You do you.

Now, before we log in to our employee server, let’s first familiarize ourselves with how the team works.

USource consists of teams with a manager to lead, then the team members. We have varying work schedules. Some start as early as 5 in the morning while some enjoy their night shifts. The manager oversees what we are working on, how we work, and provides assurance that the quality of our work is high-class.

We greet each other on Slack, with a simple good morning. Then, type in our client schedule via a Schedule Monitoring System (SMS), which helps managers keep track of each team member’s tasks. When working with clients, we communicate with them through a mix of apps – Project Management Tools, Email Ticketing Software (Freshdesk) and instant messaging.

You can personalize your morning work rituals. Some start their day by clocking in, opening Freshdesk, setting up their schedule on SMS, and sending it on the team channel. Others can do these steps in any order they want.

A secret about our clients- well, they’re the best. We may work with them full-time, or we may work with a mix of clients on a casual basis. It really depends on the client; some tasks are completed in less than an hour. Others may be ongoing and require full-time assistance.

We always update clients about everything. Every task finished undergoes our manager’s quality assurance- so our clients always see the uniformity in our work.

We are always aware of the time, especially for lunch break. What’s for lunch? It can be aromatic like freshly cooked adobo or smelly like ‘bagoong’… That’s Filipino shrimp paste btw. No one cares, they’re working from home.

Team members are free to bond on Slack during their lunch break. The majority of our remote team members love these short talks. Topics can be anything under the sun, from something important to complaints about the weather.

After lunch, they continue to do the tasks started in the morning and wait if there’s any notifications from clients. What if they don’t have clients? We have this rule where if you’re free- upskill. Study, study, and study digital. Because it’s always changing. This is our way of keeping up and improving our skills.

A USource team member always spends the last five minutes before the clock hits four, wrapping up their day. Similar to how people pack up their bags before leaving work. We have this task forecast where we record the cumulative hours we work for our clients, and list down the tasks for tomorrow, so we’re ready.

They say their goodbyes on Slack attached with an end-of-day report. Although they’re haggard looking at the camera as they clock out, they’re happy they worked in a place with work-life balance.

Speaking of goodbyes, I better get going myself! Next episode we’ll have a special guest and we’ll be talking about what goes on when taking on a new team member! Catch you all later.