As an offshore staff, most VAs like myself are not used to clients asking us personal questions or even sitting down with us to spare some time just get to know us, our family, and least of them all – our plans about our the future. We’re used to getting on with our day with the quiet humdrum of routine tasks, where everyone’s eager to start doing their own ‘thing’ at work.
Whenever there’s time to spare, we tend to check up on our co-VAs about what they’re up to today or chat about our children amongst other things. Most of the times, we just realise – “oh it’s Friday already!” and wonder how the days and weeks have gone by so quickly. However, this week was different from the rest because I received the toughest questions from my boss.
As someone who has worked closely with our company co-founder, Linh Podetti, I have witnessed truly how busy she is at juggling all her roles as a mother, wife, and entrepreneur – and sometimes doing them all at the same time. So it’s just surprising that one day, as I log in for work, my eye caught an email in my inbox and there goes a long list of questions from Ms. Linh basically asking: Wendy – how does it feel to be YOU? It took me a full day to contemplate writing some answers to her list of questions, as I am not used to being asked how I feel about things. It’s just an unexpected yet sweet gesture, which caught me off-guard that it took me a full day to find the answers.
On that same week, I was scheduled to have a one-on-one session with Ms. Linh, discussing more my answers to her questions. We talked about the skills and areas that I am strong when it comes to my work, which gave me such validation that I am going in the right direction. We also discussed my weak points, which really helped me create a clear picture of where exactly are my issues rooting from and she guided me on how to deal with them – one step at a time.
On a more personal note, she asked how I feel about my family, my relationship, my friends, and my son. She sat there listening to what I had to say and was so gracious to share her experiences and knowledge on how to handle things better, as her way of guiding me to resolve whatever keeps me from achieving my goals – and even specify my goals to the slightest detail. My boss really made me sweat out and explain all my answers to her questions, but it was all worth it!
It so is refreshing to see a busy person such as my boss to have spent 2 hours of her precious time with me, just to talk about how it is to be me, how I felt, my struggles, and my hopes and dreams for MYSELF apart from supporting my family. It’s more precious than any gift or any bonus – my boss opted to give me her TIME.
So how about you? Have you ever been asked – how it feels to be you?
