My Journey From A Stressful In-Person Bank Job to Remote Work

The year was 2013. I was working on average 12 to 14 hours a day for what now felt like forever. This was now my third year and third role at this company. From the outside looking in, I was crushing it. I was climbing that corporate ladder.

I was 27 and now in middle management. It was thee dream for anyone graduating from a university in Zimbabwe where unemployment is the order of the day. Sigh. But I felt like my soul was dying inside. I was burnt out and I didn’t know how or when to stop. It also seemed like I was now beginning to doubt by potential. The worst! It was a challenging role and a challenging time. But I was so determined. You wouldn’t have been able to tell how much I was suffering inside just by merely looking at or interacting with me. I used to show up for that job with all the grit in me. I loved what I did deeply.

I can pin point a specific time when I really felt I had had enough. It was around Easter in 2013 and (as usual) I was working over that holiday which I think even coincided with Independence Day as well in that year. I was going through an annual audit and if you have worked in a financial institution you can appreciate how daunting and stressful audits can get. I was going through it and unfortunately, I was losing my mind in the process. I must confess that I forgot that this was just work and I didn’t have to take things so personally. Any shortfall that was pointed out, I would take personally. I’m not even joking. I would translate it to “Tariro, you are such a failure. You have no business leading in the capacity you are leading. You are a FRAUD!” Oh yes, imposter syndrome had me by my throat and was choking me! I remember saying to myself, ‘I don’t want to go through this again. I don’t want to feel like this. I am tired and I want out by end of this year.’

Immediately I started Googling, “Should I quit my job?” and is there anything that Google doesn’t have answers to? My dilemma was not knowing what I would do after. I thought of looking for another job but I quickly hit a roadblock as I wondered, ‘What if it feels exactly the same?’ So I didn’t. I then started asking myself, ‘What do I want?’ Because at the time, I was living with my parents and there was absolutely no way I was going to walk to them to just say I am quitting my job without a next gig. I had to think of a plan. So I thought about the job I had done for years before joining the bank. The job I used to do during my school holidays and semester breaks throughout high school and university. The job I believed I had done so well too. I worked in our family functions equipment hiring business since I was 12. I had taken up plenty roles in there as a receptionist, PA, cleaner, delivery “guy”, IT “guy”, customer service “guy” etc. Anything that needed to be done and my dad believed I could do, I did. But as much as I had done the job so well, I did not want to go work for my dad. I felt like it was good for our relationship if I worked with him from a distance without being his employee. I was convinced he needed my help. That’s when it hit me! I realised that there were many other business owners like him who also needed my help.

I started looking up “supporting small businesses” and later on “supporting small businesses from home”. One day during my endless Google searches I came across the term, Virtual Assistant! Mmmmh, this is new. I have never seen or heard about that before. What is it? The search that followed took me down the rabbit hole of Virtual Assistance and working from home. This was now August 2013. At this point the desire to quit my job was stronger than ever and I felt like God was giving me sign after sign to do it especially after discovering the world of Virtual Assistance. Everything I found was so enticing. Work from home. Be your own boss. Define your hours. Travel. Make six figures! You should seriously see my face as type all this. I am literally laughing out loud right now.

Anyway, I started looking for people who were doing similar work in Zimbabwe. I remember messaging a lady on LinkedIn who had indicated that she was a Virtual Assistant in her profile but I never got a response and she was the only one in Zimbabwe I found. So I figured I was going to be the next person. Between August and October 2013 I decided I was definitely going to quit my job. I decided to come up with a business plan because remember my parents? Yeah. They needed to see something SOLID.

I came up with my business plan and even a name for my virtual assistant business, Twenty47 Virtual Assistant. I had found a community online of (mostly women) from the US and UK who were virtual assistants and actually living off income from that. So I could see the possibility for me even though I was in a different environment (more about this hindsight in future posts). I decided I was going to register my business formally and have a logo. In my head, this was serious business and with everything I had laid out in my plan it was going to work. Around this time, the love-hate relationship with my job didn’t get any better. I was still stressed out, burnt out and seriously questioning my value in the position I was in. I felt I didn’t deserve to be there and needed to leave.

Fast forward December 2013, I handed in my resignation to my boss giving 3 months notice. As much as he was taken aback by it, he was very understanding of where my mind was at and between that time and the time I eventually left, was incredibly gracious and supportive. In fact, all of my immediate bosses were and to this day I feel so blessed for the support that they gave me at the time and even after I had left the bank.

Now the 3 months following resignation all of sudden turned to bliss. I guess there was an energy shift. There is really something that happens when you now know and believe that there is an end in sight to a seemingly horrible situation. I was excited. I was busy. I was working on picking out colours for my logo, designing stationery, buying a domain for my website and telling anyone that cared to listen about what I was planning to do after leaving the bank. As for my parents – my dad took the announcement surprisingly well. I believe at the back of his head he was probably thinking, ‘Finally she has come to her senses and decided to join the family business full time.’ My mum was a bit skeptical though. She wondered if I couldn’t just stay a bit longer. But I think I said if I do so I might die. Dramatic, I know. But how else was she going to understand?

So with my family and friends in support, I was ready to take on the world and I did. I served a 3 months notice period and went through an emotional farewell with my friends and colleagues at the end. On March 3rd 2014, I woke up and sat at my parents’ dining room table and started introducing myself to the world as a Virtual Assistant. As far as I was concerned, for now, I had arrived…