A week in the life of Sarah, one of our tenancy administrators
As a tenancy administrator and full-time mum, Sarah leads a busy life. During the lockdown, Sarah has been working from home every day – and with school closures too, Sarah has been going above and beyond to balance the expectations of her role with caring for her kids.
Monday
As a tenancy administrator, I support a lot of our customers with enquiries about their neighbourhood. These can be anything from parking disputes and noise nuisance, to fly-tipping and requests for new pets. Our email inbox is never quiet and there are always new people to help.
With the flexible working we have at Silva, I can offer support and reassurance to our customers beyond our usual opening hours, which I think they appreciate.
At the moment, I’m also managing a lot of mutual exchange applications. Our customers are understandably eager to know whether and when their pending house move will happen. I like to keep them in the loop by maintaining regular contact with them.
Tuesday
My role has changed massively since the lockdown, but the biggest difference is no longer having face-to-face contact with customers and my colleagues. Instead, everything is now communicated through video calls, phone calls and via email.
Since the lockdown began, my team has been contacting some of our isolating/vulnerable customers to see how they are doing and to provide reassurance.
These calls are my favourite part of the day. I think it is so important to stay connected to each other and these chats never fail to raise both mine and our customer's spirits!
Wednesday
Online signups for new customers are coming in thick and fast and we are constantly moving customers into their new homes, which is a great feeling.
While working from home is not alien to me, I’m still getting used to having a five-year-old and a 19-month-old around me constantly. I’ve found that a daily routine, including exercise and regular time away from my laptop, has helped me de-stress during the lockdown.
Thursday
With my children occupied in their home-schooling routines/activities, I can take part in weekly conference calls with my team and get on with my work for a while without too much disturbance.
Once I finish for the day, I take my kids on a long walk around a nature reserve. We do plenty of bug hunting and flower pressing and this gives me some much-needed breathing space from my home office.
We love nature and enjoy being outside and we even had our very own resident - Sammy the slow worm for a while!
Sammy the slow worm
Friday
Every Friday starts with biscuits and CBeebies with my children. I always try to find some quality time with them before we start the day, as it helps us all focus and begin on a positive note.
At the end of a busy week of work and childcare, our team quiz is such a great way to round it off. We even had a virtual night out a while ago, which was so much fun and easily the best club I’ve been to in a long time!
I do feel lucky to work in such an amazing team. Even with all the recent changes to our processes as we’ve improved our customer services, I’m proud that we’ve managed to keep working so well throughout the lockdown.
At the weekend
In the morning, I take my little ones to the woods for some exercise. We’ve developed a bit of a routine where we rest on some logs 10 minutes into our walk and have a snack and a chat.
I feel so lucky to be spending so much time with my children and we get to experience things like hearing the birds sing together.
But I am also proud to be part of a business that continues to improve lives and I am very much looking forward to returning to my second home at the Silva office.