The Bottom Line - Fall 2020 - 31

OFFICE OF REVENUE ANALYSIS
HOW WE ARE SUCCEEDING

RA moved to MicrosoftTeams for
file sharing and communication
over a year ago to include teleworkers
in live in-person meetings. This experience allowed us to move to Teams full
time almost without glitches. For the
Revenue team, it allowed us to compile
the estimates in March and April without the added burden of learning a new
set of tools. We immediately set up
chat rooms for different topics to keep
everyone informed.
-Norton Francis, Director of
Revenue Estimation

then months. Some staff, working from
home with younger children, had to also
manage their children's remote learning,
which emerged as another consequence of
the pandemic lockdown. ORA's traditional
emphasis on delivery of work products
rather than time spent at the desk allowed
those parents the flexibility to navigate this
new dual role. It also helped that ORA is a
relatively small close-knit group, and parents
did not hesitate to share tips and experiences online through the Teams chat feature. Some of the more extroverted staff
members also had to cope with the isolation
of lockdown, and although the Teams chat
feature helps, it is not a perfect substitute

for the live interaction with people. Physical
mail correspondence and signing physical
documents also posed a challenge early on,
but working with Logistics, we were able to
solve the former and technological solutions
(Adobe, etc.) took care of the latter.
As mentioned before, ORA embraced
Microsoft Teams more than a year before the
pandemic lockdown. Over that period, the
ORA team became adept at using the chat
feature to share anecdotes (as well as anecdata) and articles we thought may be of interest to others in the group. As we moved to full
remote working, the chat groups substituted
for the break room conversations, which have
been a traditional ORA spark for ideas that
led to collaborative projects. Weekly presentations by ORA staff ensured that the team
had a chance to gather at least once a week.
We have had at least one virtual happy hour,
and plan to have more as the working from
home period stretches on. Working from
home full-time has had its challenges, but it
has come with tremendous benefits, not least
of all keeping the staff safe amidst a deadly
pandemic. It has blurred the line between
work and home, but that very blurring of the
home/work boundary has, paradoxically,
brought the staff closer together because of
the glimpses it gives us into our colleagues
lives away from work. *
FALL 2020 | 31

The Bottom Line - Fall 2020

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