Pandemic Reflections - Ziv Traitelovich

Meet Ziv Traitelovich, Marketing Coordinator at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. Ziv also works as a freelance graphic designer. Ziv graduated from our PR, Marketing & Strategic Communications Management Diploma in 2019.  We asked him to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted his work-life.

"The last few months have been challenging, that’s for sure. I love meeting people in-person and going to the occasional social spots in Winnipeg on weekends, so not being able to do that was a bit to get used to. In addition, since I was always focused on type of work in the past, adjusting my day-to-day routines and work habits from working in the office to working from home was probably the thing that took me the longest to get used to.

As a marketing coordinator and a freelance graphic designer, a lot of the work I was doing was very event-and training-heavy. Among other things that include working heavily in social media and the back-end of my websites, my role was often to generate content, design promotional/marketing material and engage with members/clients, whether it is through email or social media.

Since the beginning of March, I’ve been working from home and doing my best to stay connected with all my work colleagues and close friends and family members. I have to say, it has been a really intense time, but surprisingly, it brought up a lot of interesting reflections about myself as a person, as well as my day-to-day routines.

Seeing that a lot of my work was all about helping to promote on-site events and trainings, there has been a real shift in the type of projects I’m working on now, but I still feel that with all the time I have now for myself, I find that I’m not only being a bit more productive, but I value my time and attention a lot more, hence managing my time a lot better.

Since all of this started, I often get reminded of being a kid in my hometown Haifa in Israel. The one takeaway I always noticed when I was younger (during some of the more politically-intense periods of times) is that when things don’t go exactly how you want them to, you need to let go of stuff you can’t really control and just move on with a positive attitude. I think that is the best advice I can give to anyone right now.

While nothing is certain and things might seem a bit “unconventional” to say the least, it’s important to understand that:

A) what you might be feeling right now is normal and most likely is being felt by everyone else,

B) much like every unfortunate event, things will (eventually) get back to normal, and

C) while you are waiting for things to settle down, you have to live your life, keep setting your goals and take care of the people that matter most to you.

We all have to keep it positive and find the strength from within us to keep going, no matter our current circumstances. Now more than ever, we need to keep going and make the most of our studies, our work and our day-to-day lives."