At least four reasons to miss the office life or How Gamingtec team started to work from home
Gamingtec team has been working remotely for two months already due to the quarantine restrictions. It’s time to reflect on this experience and discuss the challenges we have faced.
COVID-19 is a test the whole world is trying to pass with minimum losses of their own. There are no tutorials on how to survive in a pandemic situation when most of the countries locked down. Starting a quarantine in the middle of March, our team couldn’t imagine it was going to take so long. We have organized a workflow and moved communication to the online mode.
At some point, it may look like a paradise: no commuting from home to work and back again, more time spent with family, and more flexibility in daily routine planning. However, the truth is, we miss each other and our adorable cats. Despite all advantages of a remote job, most of the team is looking forward to coming back to the office schedule.
What do we miss from office life?
Recently we were discussing our working from home mode with the team and it turned out that the working environment in the office is more comfortable than at home. We also miss friendly coffee breaks and the opportunity to communicate directly with team members.
Many of us have faced difficulties in finding the right work-life balance. “My working day never ends,” they say. When you don’t need to rush home, it may be complicated to switch off a computer in the evening if a task is not finished yet, and as a result, you can keep on working for several extra hours.
New talents and hobbies
Despite the difficulties, some of us managed to be over-productive and used the free time for self-development and for doing the activities that they usually procrastinate for. What new talents and hobbies have our team members discovered? Let me share with you some of the responses.
- “I’ve added at least two extra hours to a day. And it gave me a chance to start doing Yoga, to go out for running, to learn video editing, to take a lot of photos. It is amazing.”
- “Yoga for body and painting for soul.”
- “Dealing with house repair, and noticed I am not bad at interior-design.”
- “1000-piece puzzles, ability to gain weight, cooking mastery.”
- “I can do my nails!!! Salon? Never ever!”
- “Sleeping.”
Baking bread, cooking, running, reading, doing yoga, sleeping well. There are dozens of cool activities we tried to do… and it was amazing!
The first thing to do in the office
Talking about returning to the office, we discussed what we will do first. Check out our to-do list below. We are looking forward to achieving all these points:
- Small talks with colleagues whom we missed.
- Small talks with everyone, we missed so bad.
- Talk with a team directly, not just via text messages.
- Chitchat, chitchat, and chitchat!
- Morning coffee breaks.
- A crazy party — on the nearest Friday.
- Proper lunch breaks on time.
- Hug friends.
- Hug cats.
- Visit meetings.
- Taking photos in the office.
Tips we would like to give to ourselves two months ago
To sum it up, there is something we would like ourselves to know before the quarantine has started.
- “Self-discipline is important. You should be able to distinguish the working hours and your free time. Never forget to switch your PC to the sleeping mode and get a proper lunch.”
- “It went pretty well, but I guess I could have more calls with the team to cheer them up during this hard time.”
- “It’s impossible to spend two months working on your bed. Set up your workspace immediately!”
- “I won’t manage to be a freelancer!”
- “Find time for improving my technical skills.”
- “I wish I started dieting 2 months ago.”
- “Less time on Instagram, more reading.”
- “Stay safe and drink responsibly.”
To know more about our team read this article: “International team: fun, challenges and double the holidays”
