Photo courtesy of Brandy BucklerBrandy Buckler, financial services audit team leader at BKD CPAs & Advisors, weighs in on how she adapted to a new work envrionment.
Women in Business
How Brandy Buckler Made the Most of WFH
BKD’s financial services audit team leader learned to thrive in a new work environment. Here's how she did it.
By Lillian Stone
Jan 12 2021 at 10:12 a.m.
Biz 417: How did the pandemic disrupt your team’s day-to-day operations?
Brandy Buckler: The biggest thing is we all went to remote work, so we instituted a weekly check-in with all of our people to see how they were doing in terms of workload and personal stress. Now I’ve pivoted back to working in the office more, but some members of my team are still working from home. Fortunately, BKD is very flexible in terms of when we get our work done and how we get our work done. For example, the new mother on my team gets started very early in the morning and makes sure she’s done early so she can pick up her child at daycare. We have other people who prefer to sleep in, and we trust all of them to figure out what works for them.
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Biz: Working from home can make work-life balance challenging. How did you manage it?
B.B.: I think it’s about just giving yourself a break. I have four children who range in ages from 11 to two, and it was definitely a challenge because everyone was at home—all six of us. But I allowed myself those breaks during the day. If my husband and two-year-old came downstairs to do something, I would take those 20 minutes to play
with my two-year-old.
Biz: Do you anticipate permanent changes to your management approach?
B.B.: On some level I plan to maintain some of that flexibility; for example, I’m still working from home a day or two a week. But I will say that it’s interesting how much I enjoyed coming back to the office and doing my normal routine, as silly as that sounds. Regardless, I feel like our team is stronger now than we were a year ago, and I’m thankful for that.
