Confessions of a #SmartWorking Intern: Week 23

Priyanka

Hello again, everyone! This week has been crazy fun. I submitted my research proposal last week and I cannot be more glad that it’s done. I am back to the #smartworking now and it is so refreshing after a week of literature reviews. This week, I have been creating new stories for social media and staying on top of all the latest and most interesting news in the flexible working sphere. I have been working from home and from the college library depending on where I am, and it is super convenient. Do you know that it snowed yesterday with gale force winds and people were running helter skelter to save themselves. And I was so glad to be smart working in the wonderfully heated library that was walking distance from the nearest metro stop. Truly #blessed. I love working flexibly.

Abby

Hi everyone, my name is Abby and today is officially my day 10 as a #SmartWorking intern! I am the only American on the SmartWorking team so communicating among three separate time zones has been an exciting experience!

I attend Union College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, where I study Psychology, English and Economics. I play field hockey for my college’s team and serve as Vice-President of our marketing club. Interning for Abodoo is my first SmartWorking experience! The entire team has been incredibly supportive with introducing me to new software, helping me get acclimated with remote work, and getting me excited about SmartWorking! With a lot of organization, anyone is capable of mastering the art of SmartWorking.

I first heard about Abodoo through my older sister who recently moved from our hometown Rochester, NY to Atlanta, GA for a new job, and consequently has developed an appreciation for remote careers as she understands the frustration of planning life around a commute. Before learning about Smart Working, she would spend upwards of four hours driving to and from work every day. Driving in a car for extended periods of time and wasting valuable minutes simply sitting down and staring at the road only adds more pollution into our air.

Abodoo has taught me all the great benefits of SmartWorking. SmartWork reduces carbon emissions, increases scheduling flexibility, and allows employees to find their own perfect work environment. I love that I am part of a team that allows people to make more of life by skipping the commute.

I am excited to see what else SmartWorking has in store for us all!

Ashima

Namaste everyone! This month opens on a Friday. And that’s only set to become better and MUCH better. To update you on my whereabouts – I am now SmartWorking from New Delhi. Let’s give you a back story here. I moved to Dublin 1.5 years ago. None of my cousins or close friends was getting married then. But ever since I moved, everyone decided to get engaged or married. My own brother is getting married soon too. So of course, I had to be home to help and prepare for the big fat Indian wedding. The clothes for about 4 different functions, setting the venue, and the menu, preparing the invites…you get the drift. There’s a lot to do, and I am going to be here for two months. (Which also means I successfully avoided the snow in Dublin. :P)

Have you ever been in a situation like this? When you really wanted to go to a special occasion, or be there for your parents, or celebrate with your loved ones but your job didn’t let you? If you’d have asked me a month ago, I would have said it’s impossible to leave the city you work in for over two months. But I cannot express the gratitude I have for even the option of flexible working. I can already see the impact it can make on my life.

In another major development for the marketing team, we are now operating from three drastically different timezones-New York, Dublin, and New Delhi. All is not always rosy in the dreamland of SmartWorking and there are very real challenges that come in the way too. But I’m sure that we can overcome them with diligent planning and management. We have decided to have a team call each week at a time that suits everyone and include our working times on our Gmail calendars so that we can all respect each other’s schedules. This brings me to an important observation. In the past few weeks at Abodoo, I’ve noticed that flexible working is a team building exercise in itself. You’re constantly showing your team members that you trust and support them and that results in an infinite loop of everyone trying to help each other to achieve the common goal of the company. This is definitely a takeaway that I’m going to leave with at the end of my internship.

I hope you enjoyed my musings, and I’ll keep you posted with my acts of balancing work and weddings. 🙂