How is each member of our team doing?
Since the Czech government announced an emergency state in the country (12th March 2020), most of our team members have started working remotely. To ensure the safety of our team, we began to take action since there were first cases of infection in the Czech Republic in early March.
We regularly checked in with every team member. And the Leadspicker team with whom we share our office to know about their health status and if they were in contact with anyone coming from high-risk countries.
Luckily, none of our team members were in high-risk areas or have been in contact with people who visited those countries recently. We also checked the status of our clients and their employees. We continue to support our clients, which are 15 international companies with around 45 employees in Czechia and all around Europe. Luckily, they are all in good health condition and have not been under the risk of infection.
What steps did we take to ensure safety?
We arranged all the necessary steps to run our business smoothly and support our clients regularly while ensuring the safety of our team.
Firstly, we limited access to the office. Only Yalin and Musa are allowed to enter the office after all the necessary sanitation and rearrangement of the office was done. We currently run out weekly meetings online to keep up with the team and coordinate well.
We are also an accounting & payroll provider. We carried our accounting software to a virtual server with the help of our IT solutions partner “Gurudesk” from Istanbul. Now all our finance team can continue the bookkeeping for our clients from anywhere.
Also, we focused on handling the ‘2019 Annual Closing’ of our clients, got in contact with our tax advisor, and followed the official updates from the Ministry of Finance. We secured that all our clients are following the latest requirements.
We have been encouraging our team to use our internal project management software called ”Yedesk” more. It helps us to coordinate tasks between our team members and with our clients.
How is every team member dealing with the situation?
Yalin:
One day after the declaration of the state of emergency, I moved into our company flat, which is next door of our office. So Home and Office became the 2nd floor of Rumunska 26 at the same time. I did not feel the negative side of staying at home because I had moved into a new flat and also I am next to the office. The most challenging part is to handle my 5-year-old boy when he is also in the office. In the last few days, he learned how to scan documents, for example. I had to delegate this task to someone :)
Then, I started a new morning routine (secret one) and started using the beauty of being five steps away from the office. Now I got used to an empty office and wondering how this office will be full again in 2 weeks.
Monika:
I have been working from home for almost a year now with regular trips to Prague´s office. During this time, I’ve developed self-discipline and improved my time management. That wasn’t easy at the very beginning.
At this time, being only at home and not having a chance to go to the cafe from time to time is very challenging as well as not meeting in the office and having a human connection with all team members. Other than that, we are lucky to be using our project management platform ”Yedesk” which is helping us to follow the tasks in a very organized way and continue supporting our clients in their everyday needs.
Musa:
I don’t have any home office experience. For me, it’s better to come to the office and follow my daily routines. It’s also better for the company and everyone that someone is in the office. I support my colleagues regarding connecting them to their PC while they’re at home via TeamViewer, checking posts, phones, and other internal works in the office.
Gulnaz:
As I have worked from home partially before as well, it was not difficult to get used to the current situation, especially since we still are very much in contact and organize our weekly meetings. For me, the hardest part of working remotely is the lack of closeness of the team, such as having chit-chats in the office, since we have a friendly team.
Katy:
In general, it’s okay for me to work from home. I did it before the quarantine, so I had some experience, and it is great that we have this possibility. But it is also a little bit more difficult because you sit the whole day in the same place. The internet connection isn’t as good as in the office (because many people stay at home and use the internet ), so sometimes programs stop working correctly and it needs to wait. So, it is a little bit strange to work totally from home and not comfortable in some ways. Still, we will get through it and maybe improve some cooperation skills with team members because now we need to communicate more.
Bulat:
Of course, at the very beginning of quarantine, I did not know how to adapt to a new lifestyle. Perhaps these are the peculiarities of human psychology that when something is forbidden – you feel an even greater need for it than when it usually is available. Therefore, I was more worried about the closed borders, the lack of air connections. But over time, I reconciled and began to look at the situation from a positive perspective and thought about how I can spend this time productively. The most important thing is to follow the daily routine and do physical exercises.
Under quarantine with proper self-management, it turns out that studying, working, and writing a thesis can be an exciting and effective process ? well, and most importantly – this is a great chance to spend more time with your family, get closer to each other, watch movies and cook favorite dishes together.
Ozgur:
We have our project management software that helps to manage the projects remotely. I have worked home-office since the beginning. But I have missed being in the office and the crowd of Prague. All-day being at home is annoying, but I know that everything will be better soon.
