Connect Series: Meet Abby Morssy

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Abby is the virtual proceedings technician for Reportex, responsible for managing and facilitating virtual proceedings for clients and assisting with technical setup and support. Abby lived in a few different places growing up, including Egypt (where she was born), the UK and even Saudi Arabia. She moved to Canada in early 2017 and was particularly fond of cloudy and rainy Vancouver as her first Canadian city as it was a nostalgic reminder of the London weather that she had grown accustomed to.

As someone who is in the thick of it, what do you see as being the growing needs or trends when it comes to virtual proceedings?

I believe virtual proceedings are here to stay, even as things slowly get back to normal, with a hybrid model being the more likely outcome. As the virtual sector continues to experience growth, connectivity technologies such as 5G and improved wifi will be essential in providing and maintaining high-speed connections. Consumer-grade devices with enhanced hardware that can manage virtual communications will become more widespread and cheaper. Software companies will continue improving their apps to improve accessibility for consumers, especially those who are less technically able. We’ve seen that with Webex and Teams at the start of the pandemic as they looked to simplify their user interfaces to compete with Zoom.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Veritext’s mission and corporate values dovetail nicely to our already solid foundation. Together we aim to be respectful, ethical, collaborative, accountable and professional. Can you tell us which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

I would say collaboration, particularly when it comes to a work environment. Impactful collaboration fosters a strong sense of community. Actively listening to fellow team members and supporting them to reach common goals leads to close-knit relationships and stronger bonds. It also makes it easier for them to reciprocate when others need help and support. This contributes to a healthier work mindset — that we all have a part to play, and we learn, succeed and fail together.

We talk quite a bit about wellness and self-care on our blog and internally through our Teams channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips for staying healthy mentally and physically?

I am grateful to have discovered and have gotten into meditation during the pandemic, and I credit it with reducing a great deal of stress in my day-to-day life. Doing a 10- to 20-minute session in the morning before starting my day and another session in the evening to unwind has helped me greatly in decluttering my mind and getting me to focus on things that truly matter. I have become calmer, less reactive, less stressed and more grateful since building this daily habit, and now I can’t imagine my days without it.

Are you still fond of cloudy and rainy Vancouver weather? 

It’s almost customary to complain about rain when it’s wet and cold and to wish for its return when temperatures are soaring. However, after experiencing one of the hottest summers this year, I’m so glad to see the city gradually returning to cloud and rain. Plus this also means it’s pumpkin spice latte time!

You can learn more about Abby’s virtual world and our other e-Solutions services here.

Connect Series: Meet Jenni Reed

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Meet Jenni Reed. As our legal training assistant, Jenni helps manage the onboarding process for the talented people who create and edit Reportex’s quality transcripts. She is involved in editing and writing new wiki material as part of the wiki reboot team as well as helping to keep our training and reference resources up to date. She is also part of our busy QC team, preparing our transcripts for printing.

Jenni grew up in the United States and moved to England after she graduated, where she lived for many years. After making a return to the US, she moved up to Alberta.

Jenni has always been interested in proofreading and editing, so once she finished homeschooling her three children in 2017, she decided to use her eye for detail and love of structure and coherence to pursue a career in transcript proofreading. She has been with Reportex for two years.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Veritext’s mission and corporate values dovetail nicely to our already solid foundation. Together we aim to be respectful, ethical, collaborative, accountable and professional. Can you tell us which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

I would have to go with collaborative. One of the things I love most about Reportex is the strong sense of teamwork and of all of us being part of an amazing bigger picture. Over time I learn more and more about what different people do here, and I think it’s great that although there are so many of us, no one is just a name or a role, but everyone is valued as an individual.

I am so thankful for the people I work with on various teams. I love our meetings and how we have formed very functional as well as fun relationships with one another. When there’s a huge learning curve, we tackle it together. When there’s a challenge or a huge workload to work our way through, everyone pours themselves into it. There is definitely strength in numbers! Considering that so many of us work from home, I think it’s a real testimony to what Christy has put together here at Reportex that we can feel like such a close-knit group.

We talk quite a bit about wellness and self-care on our blog and internally through our Teams channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips for staying healthy mentally and physically?

I’m not as good as I’d like to be at fitting proper workouts in, but I do love to get up from my desk and move throughout the day. If you were a fly on my kitchen wall, you’d see me doing funny things like jumping jacks or toe-touches while I heat my coffee in the microwave! I’m finding that doing some yoga during my lunch breaks is both relaxing and invigorating. And if I can get out for a hike on a weekend, then life is good. I’m working on being more deliberate about what I eat and drink, not just grabbing whatever but trying to make healthy choices, and I definitely feel better when I have that focus.

For mental health I find that getting out and gardening, going for a walk or sitting on the porch with all my cats (we have eight of them!) feels like good “me time.” I like to start my morning early so that I have time to just be myself for a little while before work, whether that means gardening, reading, praying or even just playing a game on my tablet. By the time 8 o’clock rolls around, I’m ready to go!

What’s easier: managing a group of editors and proofers or homeschooling three children?

Haha! Hands down, it’s got to be number one! Homeschooling was such a joy, but I came to it from a place of thinking I’d never do that. My daughter begged for years, so finally I looked into it, and I was amazed to find that it was just what we needed. With different ages and personalities it was a real juggling act, for sure, but we loved that we weren’t confined to what was taught in the schools. We got to do English and world history, learn about botany and animals and read lots of good books together. With all of that of course comes having to motivate everyone to do their schoolwork.

I enjoy being able to interact with each of the editors as I help with job assignments and answering proofreaders’ questions, and I do hope that I’m able to be a help to them where they need it. Like I said before, we’re all valuable parts of the team, and being a part of that with them is such a privilege.

Connect Series: Meet Miki Patel

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As QC facilitator, Miki ensures each of our transcripts goes through a rigorous editing process. Miki lives in Clearwater, Florida. She just recently moved from Hoffman Estates, Illinois. She specializes in proofreading court transcripts.

Can you tell us why you love proofreading?

I love proofreading because it can be applied to almost any industry. Wherever words are used, proofreaders are needed to ensure that the quality of content is met. I also like that proofreading cannot be 100 percent automated. The need for quality proofreading will never go away because automation cannot replace the human eye.

Have you noticed a big difference between Canadian transcripts and US transcripts? Was it hard to adjust to our Canadianisms?

I haven’t noticed much of a difference between Canadian transcripts and US transcripts. One thing I have noticed is that what we call “discoveries” in Canada, we call “depositions” in the US.

The biggest adjustment for me was getting used to the Canadian spellings. Thankfully, we can change the English dictionary from American English to British English (close enough to Canadian English) in CaseCAT, so that definitely made the adjustment easier since I had spellcheck catch all of the instances of American English when I used it, which was a lot.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Veritext’s mission and corporate values dovetail nicely to our already solid foundation. Together we aim to be respectful, ethical, collaborative, accountable and professional. Can you tell us which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

Being ethical is a value that strongly resonates with me because it plays such an important role in transcript production. It’s our job to preserve the record and confidentiality of all of the information contained within the record.

We talk quite a bit about wellness and self-care on our blog and internally, through our Teams channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips for staying healthy mentally and physically?

Now that I live close to the beach and the oceans, visiting the beach just makes me forget about all of the stress in my life. There’s something about sun exposure and the ocean air that is just so good for mental health. Since I grew up in the Midwest of the United States, where I didn’t experience nice weather all year round, I didn’t realize the mental health benefits of being close to the beach until I experienced it myself. I also get some physical activity on the beach too by getting into the water and moving around. I can’t swim, but I try.

My tip on staying healthy mentally and physically is to get out more. Even if there’s no beach around you, I’m sure there’s a nice park where you can hike and enjoy the sun if it’s sunny; otherwise there’s always a gym to get your physical exercise, although it won’t be the same as being outdoors. I’m a workaholic, but I try to enjoy the weekends as much as I can. It’s good to recharge once in a while, and weekends are the days when I do that.

Thank you Miki, for sharing your joy of the written word.

Connect Series: Meet Shishi Fan

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Shishi is Reportex’s production coordinator. She has the responsibility of printing, assembling, and couriering all legal transcripts and making sure they are delivered to our clients on time. She is also responsible for providing clients with invoices for reporter-attended proceedings, medical transcriptions, and mediations.

Shishi is a true-blue Vancouverite (born and raised here) and another indispensable HQ staffer.

Your talents are in great demand at Reportex. What personality traits do you believe are most important for the role of production coordinator?

It’s hard to pick one in particular, but the ones that come to my mind are adaptability, persistence, and patience. There are many small pieces in my job, so I need all three of these traits to set a schedule for the day (and/or week) to juggle and determine the priority of said tasks. If certain tasks don’t get done in a day, they will snowball into a little mountain, and I’ll find myself trying to dig out of the mess later. If I have to pick just one, then I will say persistence. You need persistence standing in front of a mountain of transcripts, persistence in getting answers from clients, persistence in staring at numbers on invoices every day, and persistence in chasing fellow co-workers for their coffee orders every Friday.

All in all, I would say you need to be a good multitasker with a weird memory reminding you of things that Slack reminders don’t.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community, and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most with you and why?

I would say team and community. I feel I am working with a highly efficient team that helps me while I help them out too. I can’t do my job without my fellow colleagues, and I know they rely on me as well. We have so many people working in Reportex doing their own things now, and Reportex needs every one of us. I can still remember the days when I had to share an office with Kim and Max. I’m delighted to see how much the Reportex team has expanded.

We have been discussing wellness on the blog and our internal Slack channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips to share on staying well, especially during these COVID months?

It’s no big secret, but my favourite way of recharging is definitely napping. And not just any napping — I feel the best napping is on weekend afternoons with the guilty pleasure of wasting the best sun hours away. I don’t see the need to force myself out in those best sun hours if it’s not in me. I think what’s most important is to feel comfortable and allow yourself to feel comfortable. After a good recharge nap, I will get up again and get going on my tasks for the day. And then at the end of the day I can reward myself with some snacks. I go through a cycle of work, rest, work, rest because inevitably I will burn out if all I do is work, work, work without thanking and rewarding myself in some way.

So yes, I do talk to myself in my head occasionally saying Shishi, if you finish this task, you can go eat some of that chocolate; it’s waiting for you; you can do it!!

We all need a bit of encouragement to get through the days sometimes, and chocolate sounds like a great way to reward ourselves! 

How to Celebrate Canada Day

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by Kerry Sauriol, Marketing Coordinator

Last year we all felt cheated out of our Canada Day fun thanks to COVID-19. This year feels even worse and for so many more reasons. The pandemic has dragged on for over a year now, despite advancements in vaccine distribution and slightly lower numbers here in BC. While we have not experienced the lockdown rules that many provinces and countries have endured, we are all still feeling a bit put out about the restrictions that have hampered many things that we all took for granted.

When my kids were small, one of my favourite places to take them to celebrate Canada Day was Queen’s Park in New Westminster. As an expat from the UK, it felt more British to my mom and myself. However, after living in Canada for over 40 years, I am fully aware of how loaded with a horrific history that feeling really is. 

If an immigrant like myself is feeling overwhelmed by the news about the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, and the many graves still to be found across Canada, imagine the feelings of the Indigenous people who are once again having to face the facts of the intergenerational trauma that has been placed upon them to this day.   

Over the last year and a bit COVID-19 has exposed the many inequities that the people of Canada face. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) access to healthcare, sick pay, work-at-home opportunities, lack of safe work environments, unemployment and the underhoused.  The news surrounding these issues has been one bad story after the next. For a country that prides itself on equal opportunity, it’s hard (and controversial) for many to find anything to celebrate in all of that.

Then we all got more bad news: 215 bodies of children found in a mass grave at a residential school in Kamloops. And the numbers keep growing with 715 unmarked graves in Saskatchewan being announced on June 24. If this news was shocking and upsetting to the non-indigenous citizens of Canada, imagine how it feels to the First Nations people? As Alison Tedford, diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant, recently said in a Facebook post:

“It’s hard to celebrate a country where people in power don’t care what happened to people like you, like your grandparents, like your parents, like your sisters and cousins.”

So what do we do?

We listen. We learn.

At Reportex we are looking at how we can make sure we are walking the talk, especially when it comes to living our core values: team, mentorship, equality, community and industry. This may take the form of sensitivity training as part of our onboarding and an audit of our current diversity and inclusivity mandates. We also want to make sure that we as a legal service are inclusive and sensitive to the needs of our First Nations clients.  

For the rest of us it means taking a long, hard look at what it means to be a Canadian and what we want it to mean moving forward. How do we make Canada a better place for all?

Part of it means becoming more aware of our own inherent biases and our blindspots when it comes to understanding what living in Canada is like for other people. We need to be able to have the uncomfortable conversations and make the effort to uncover the truths of how this country was built and the cost to those who were here already.

In an article for VancouverMom.ca Alison said:

“I believe the key to reducing and, ideally, eliminating racism and race-based violence is increasing understanding of each other. It’s easy to lash out at groups of nameless, faceless people who are different from you. Familiarity can reduce the tendency to lump people in as ‘others.’ When we make room in our circle for people who are different from us, we expand our circle of responsibility for each other and leave less room for hate.”

So while we do have many reasons to celebrate being Canadian today, we can also spend some time getting to know more about the people whose land we now exist upon:

We need to own the discomfort that these new revelations and the many other atrocities put upon the First Nations people of Canada and sit with them so we can reconcile all the negative aspects of our Canada with the positives that have made this country great. We can then take that knowledge and move forward with the goal of making this place better for all who live here.

Chasing the Taillights

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by Julia Chalifoux, Project Manager

The car is leaving whether you are ready or not.

Our experiences shape us in all kinds of ways. I find that the lessons we learn as we evolve as humans take on multiple meanings. After losing my father-in-law this past fall, I began to reflect on my relationship with my own dad and the lessons I learned from him. As a pouty child and sometimes sour teenager, my dad’s lessons weren’t always easy. Still, they instilled in me my abilities to work hard, navigate challenge and practise resilience — abilities I now value very much.

This past year our personal and professional lives have demanded these abilities like no other. And much like dad’s lessons, navigating these hasn’t been easy. Still, trusting the process and knowing the magic of time and perspective, I feel confident that one day we will all look back on this past year with an attitude of gratitude as this will be the year that we shaped our future like no other.

I want to share some lessons learned from my dad as a demonstration of the importance of perspective:

Growing up, my dad and I attended the same high school, the only high school in our small town located in the British Columbia Kootenays. He was a chemistry teacher, and I, his student. And while being 13 and having your dad teach you the periodic table was mildly mortifying (after all, what do you call your dad who is also your teacher?), it did come with its benefits, such as a free ride to school if you were ready on time. That was the household rule: if you were not in the car by the time he was, the car was leaving and you would be left to your own devices to get to school. Most of the time I made it, but there were still many mornings that I was forced to walk.

That household rule taught me a few important lessons:

  1. The importance of being on time.
  2. I was not the centre of the universe.
  3. Often in life the car is leaving whether you are ready or not.

While the first two lessons are obvious, it is the third that has stuck with me the most, as recently the landscape of how, where and what we do for work has changed dramatically.

In short, work has felt a bit like that car in the driveway, peeling out before I have had time to load my backpack and get out the door. I feel like I am chasing the taillights, hoping that my dad will see me waving frantically running behind the car and that he’ll stop. But inevitably the speed of the car overtakes my legs, the taillights fade and I am left to trudge.

While trudging is not the end of the world, it naturally comes with its own set of consequences (see lesson 1 above).

Looking back, I now recognize that those days my dad left me to my own devices to get to school were not meant to be cruel (although I am sure I cursed him at the time); they were simply fuelled by the fact that he had other priorities and responsibilities to fulfill that (gasp!) were more important than me (see lesson 2 above). His job is what put food on our table, and thus him getting to work on time (and therefore keeping his job) was simply more important than ensuring my comfortable transport.

When you are the one left standing in the cold driveway staring at the fading taillights, it is easy to think that the driver is a jerk. But over the years I have come to realize it is not the driver who is a jerk — it just is what it is. The driver is simply doing what they must do to fulfill their responsibilities and move forward.

Growing up, my car ride to school was a means to an end for me (one that I would need to navigate for five years). My dad, however, was driving the road of a lifetime. He was in constant pursuit of an ever‑fading sunset: post-secondary education for his children and retirement.

I remind myself of this lesson these days when sometimes at work I feel like I am back in the driveway chasing the taillights. I remember that not only am I chasing the taillights, but there is also someone else chasing the sunset — or in our case at Reportex, the sunrise.

Further, I remind myself of the importance of being on time and getting in the car. The car (like life) is moving forward whether you are ready or not. Best buckle in and get ready for the ride and sunrise.

Connect Series: Meet Monika Szucs

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Monika is the virtual proceedings technician for Reportex. She is responsible for managing and facilitating virtual proceedings for clients and assisting with technical setup and support. We appreciate the tips and help she shares with us all to keep things running smoothly.

Monika is a lifelong learner with a passion for all things digital. She has a digital design and development diploma that has given her knowledge of website development, graphic design, UI/UX, marketing and project management, and she is working her way towards her Bachelor of Business Administration. Additionally, she has obtained her medical office assistant and applied computer information systems certificates.

You seem to be always learning something new or taking more courses. Does the work you do lead the direction you take in your education, or is it the other way around?

When I was younger, I wanted to try many different job opportunities and gain experience in different areas not only to get an understanding of how everything works together but also to figure out what I wanted to focus on. I believe that knowledge is power. It is important to always keep learning even if it is in another area. You never know how the different information you learn can help make your life easier/better in the long run.

Stability is very important to me. Jobs and technologies are consistently changing. In life everything can and will change. This means having a strong foundation is important because no matter what happens, I feel I will be able to take care of my future.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most with you and why?

I believe team and equality are the top two values that resonate the most with me. It is important to have a team that can communicate and work on projects together. Once you have a team that is in sync, it makes completing your job a lot easier. Equality is important because I believe everyone has something unique to contribute to a team. Everyone should be given an opportunity no matter who they are. To get the maximum potential from an employee, an organization needs to leverage every individual’s strengths and find ways for them to work with others collaboratively within a team.

We have been discussing wellness on the blog and our internal Slack channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips to share on staying well?

My favourite way to recharge would be to try new places to eat, listen to music and/or walk around outside on a nice sunny day. The best way to allow yourself to use the maximum potential energy throughout the day is to eat healthy, drink lots of water and get 8 to 12 hours of sleep each night. If I really want to boost my energy because I have been overworking, I will try sleeping for 12 hours straight for three to four days in a row.

Monika is an amazing and dedicated member of the team. Her drive to learn and grow helps keep the Reportex engine running.  

(R)evolution: The future of the workplace

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As vaccination numbers grow and case numbers continue to drop across Canada and the United States, the fear of COVID is being replaced with feelings of hope along with a bit of trepidation about what post-pandemic life will bring us. 

Throughout this time we have been fortunate enough to continue to grow our team, despite the ongoing challenges. Growth has been exciting but is fraught with a need for new structures, processes and — most of all — support. Because of this, one new role we knew we needed to fill was that of a dedicated HR specialist. Fortunately, Jenn Goble has stepped up with gusto!  Jenn specializes in change management, organizational structure, business development and expansions. She has integrated quickly and has become a calm, experienced, steadying hand during this tumultuous and transitional time.  

Everyone has had different experiences through the last 15 months, but here’s what Jenn had to say:

“We all need to recognize that we have just been through something extraordinary, and that will not be forgotten any time soon. We must expect that as excited as we are for this to be behind us and to return to normal, there will be a period of adjustment.”

So what exactly can our (and perhaps your) leadership do to help ease employee anxiety?  Open and continuous communications are key. Employers can play an important role in supporting and facilitating this to enhance connection by using software like Slack or Teams, where staff can communicate on a less formal level. Reportex also has a culture club that organizes virtual events for the staff and runs Slack channels that focus on monthly initiatives like plant care, wellness and just plain old fun. We also have a dynamic COVID committee with representatives from all of our divisions who work tirelessly to study and update everyone with the latest news and rulings around COVID safety protocols, keeping us all abreast of changes in protocol and evolving timelines. Their input helped create our current COVID-19 policy.

Reportex has been fortunate in that our business model already included many remote staff, flexible work-from-home options and collaborative work. What we are finding, though, is that the main source of anxiety is about moving into the unknown while maintaining staff and client safety, especially as our clients ramp up their in-person meetings. There have clearly been fundamental shifts to entire industries and business models, including the legal sector, and many law firms have sped up their explorations of virtual and digital technology. This is exciting, and we look forward to providing support in navigating all of these new options through our developing e-solutions. This adjustment to a more virtual world also means that many law firms have taken this opportunity to downsize their offices.

The Vancouver Economic Commission found that 43 percent of workers in metro Vancouver can and are now doing their jobs from home. While many articles online are discussing what the return to work will look like, some possible considerations for employers are whether to offer working from home as an ongoing option or whether to allow employees to split their time between home and the office, while having a plan in place to keep those employees engaged and actively participating in the workplace. 

In an interview with HRD magazine, Diana Nguyen, HR specialist and coordinator with Telus Employer Solutions, told them that “leaders need to keep teams informed of changes. This helps them better cope with any feelings of uncertainty. From here, it’s essential that you engage team members and listen to their feedback, in order to understand what’s important to them.”

Employers can also encourage employees who have questions or concerns to contact their human resource department or make sure they have an adequate employee assistance program through their benefits provider. 

As we prepare for all of this, we are giving profound consideration of what has worked effectively as well as envisioning even more new practices to support the brave new world ahead of us. We see this as a collaborative effort between our teams, leadership, clients and community to expand our collective vision of the industry as a whole.

We will continue to share our experiences as we evolve and adapt to both our needs as a business and our clients’ needs too.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on how your teams will adapt to returning to the workplace!

Uncharted Waters: A COVID Update

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Like everyone, we at Reportex are cautiously optimistic about the restart plan announcements on May 25. This new plan paves a way for a loosening of restrictions for both personal and work life. With that said, for the sake of our staff and clients we will still be following strict safety protocols when you visit our offices.

As per the guidelines, employers are required to continue operating under their COVID-19 safety plans, but there is a plan for a gradual loosening of restrictions. At Reportex this means the following:

  • We must ensure that all staff and clients maintain an appropriate physical distance, and extra care should be taken in small office spaces, meeting rooms and break rooms.
  • Masks will still be worn in all indoor areas unless there is a plexiglass barrier in place.
  • A daily health check is included in our COVID-19 protocol; clients and staff should check in with reception before proceeding to their boardroom or office.
  • Proper handwashing and sanitizing will be adhered to at all times, and regular touchpoints will be cleaned frequently.

You can review our full protocols here.

According to Dr. Henry and the BCCDC, after June 15 more restrictions will be lifted, but the government advises a controlled and gradual return to the workplace plan, so only small, in-person meetings will be allowed. For the moment this means that Reportex will still limit in-person meetings to six people, including the court reporter. It also means that access to available meeting space will be limited, and meeting spaces will be sanitized by our staff after each use.

sun shining through clouds

This has been a time of upheaval and change for all of us. Let’s not forget to reflect on all that we have learned about ourselves and what we have accomplished over the past year. It has been a time of reflection and transformation. We have learned a lot of valuable lessons over the past year about ourselves and about how we manage in adversity and difficulty. We have seen amazing acts of selflessness and compassion from all around the world, but we have also seen the ugly and the frightening, and we hope that from this COVID cloud we will embrace the silver linings that the eased restrictions bring us as we move forward in our battle against the virus.

As we all move ahead in our plans for reopening workplaces as well as recreational spaces, we need to make sure we only take the good we have learned into the new normal. We want a better future for us all, not just the same old, same old. 

Are your employees thriving working from home? Do you feel a more digital approach is expanding your opportunities beyond the bricks and mortar of your office address? This is a chance for us all to re‑evaluate what is important to us in our homes and our workplaces. In the meantime wear your mask and keep your distance.

One of the biggest silver linings for us has been the opportunity to dig into the personal and professional growth of our team. As you know, we have been focusing on evolving our office space and developing our services and solutions for our clients. We have also been working with our executive coach, Mary Crayston, who has been guiding us through the challenges and successes of continued development. This work has allowed us to prepare for the future of both our business and the industry as a whole, and we couldn’t be more excited to step into it.

Connect Series: Meet Kris Bergado

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Kris is another friendly face at the Vancouver office. He is the office services coordinator for Reportex and works with reception/client services as well as the catering department to ensure all in-house operations are running smoothly for clients and staff. Kris was born in the Philippines but grew up in Ottawa. He moved to Vancouver as part of his love for travel and new experiences. He solo traveled 16 countries in two years while making many international friends through his travels. His employment experiences include working for one of the biggest companies in the hotel industry as well as one of the finest luxury hotels in Vancouver.

Kris is another artist in our midst, like Shannan. We seem to attract a creative bunch!

You appear to have a passion for travel and meeting people. Can you tell us where the urge to learn architecture comes from? 

Growing up, I always had a fascination for ornamental structures. Seeing all the beautiful statues and little details that make a building pop really appealed to me. Things like incorporating the surroundings to create a picturesque look really excited me. I thought maybe I could create something like that myself one day. Maybe not as ornamental, but something that would capture people’s attention.

We have been discussing wellness on the blog and in our internal Slack channels. Do you have a favourite way to recharge or any tips to share on staying well?

Wellness is an important thing to me! Most of my free time is spent at the gym, but I also like to give my mental health a break and take the time to sit down and pop a bottle of wine and snuggle with my dog.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most with you and why?

Out of all the core values community and team were the two that I immediately felt strongly about.  As a fairly new staffer I was introduced to team-building events, such as paint night and Cinco de Mayo. It’s nice to just chat and laugh with your fellow colleagues and just be in the present.

You have been an integral part of the move to our new floors. What excites you the most about the new space?

The new space is awesome! This might be a simple answer, but I love the windows and how so much natural light comes into the space. No need to go outside for your daily dose of vitamin D.

We’re glad you are enjoying the new HQ, Kris, and we are thrilled that you see how important our core values are to us. Reportex firmly believes in supporting and keeping connected with all our staff and contractors. Internal communications and support are equally important as external, and we feel that helps make our team so great at what they do.