The coronavirus has paralyzed the whole world. The movement has stopped, people and the economy are waiting. But the online work continues. On Thursday, March 12, we announced a home office primarily so that our people would not travel by public transport. But on Friday we realized that no one should go - so our office space remained empty. But at work we have good news.
These are the times when the home office could be understood as a "day of slow work", even though we did not say it out loud, in most cases it was. Today we can say that home office can be a very useful and effective work tool. Maybe only now are we finding out how much we "squeeze" at work with coffee, talking to this or that, how much time we save on the road and how much we can do if we are not tempted around us in the form of socialization.
"Communication with clients is not a problem, as well as from other cities or countries, we are used to online communication. Much depends on the state of the particular client due to the current situation and what priority he now gives to communication with the development team. It's something else in communication with the team. But I have to say that our people are really great, we work on Slack, on the phones, conference calls are on a daily basis. It is a bit more difficult to organize, but the work does not suffer at all, I would even say the opposite," says project manager Šárka Skopalová and adds: "It probably would not work forever, but I hope that this time will be etched in our memory as a bit that if necessary, it really works, and it goes well."
Remote collaboration is actually the second nature for everyone who works online. Not all of our co-workers and employees sit in our offices on a daily basis, and we are glad that they are closer to work and home. You can read how Petr Joachim, a former team leader from Seznam and Kiwi.cz, perceives remote cooperation with Moravia, for example, here.
But working at home offices also means a certain risk. What kind? Our HR, Barbora Jiříková, commented on this: “Like everything - there is something different when we can only do something than when we have to. The home office is and will be a great work benefit, quite common for programmers, but when everyone has to work from home, it carries certain risks. For example, we lose our daily routine relatively quickly, which can be reflected in eating, exercise, but even adjustments to the exterior. Therefore, I recommend everyone to observe the usual morning waking up, lunch breaks and the end of working hours. So that we don't find out next week that we're all sitting in our pajamas at the computer with a bag of potato chips in our hands at ten o'clock."
Of course, we all hope that the situation is going for the better and that we will be able to return to our desks soon. But we hope much more that we will all be healthy and well. That is why we thank all our people for a responsible approach, management for managing increased communication and strategic demands, and all our clients who have put their priorities in order in a chaotic time and maintain honest and regular communication.