This work from home started with everyone thinking it will be over before you know it, and now we are past a year of going completely remote. And we asked everyone here about one of their best memories from the past one year, and we got a wide variety of answers. Enjoy reading.
From Steve
Music was good company, every day on the train. Using headphones was a reliable deterrent against urges of making small talk from fellow travellers. Most were regular travellers, who usually stuck within their own circles, or like me, preferred lonely mornings while surrounded by strangers. The headphones worked against the exceptions.
But more than a defence against chatty travellers, there was something about Led Zeppelin and ABBA on a sleepy morning in a crowded train. Something about the cool wind in my hair while listening to Hotel California. But of course, I couldn’t afford to scream my throat out on the train or in the office.
That’s one thing I truly appreciate about working from home. The freedom to scream out Bohemian Rhapsody or Hozier or Eminem with not a care in the world.
From Gopika
“It’s time, come on, get up” this was the alarm my mom set to wake me up on weekdays before the lockdown. From that moment onwards it’s a rush; often skipping breakfast in the hurry to get on the bus to the office.
The best thing that happened to me in this lockdown is the relief from all the morning rush.
Though I miss the fun with my colleagues, the ‘latte and cappuccino’ jokes, snack time chats, fight for the chair at the pantry and delicious dishes during lunch I am glad that my morning sleep is not disturbed and the rush to get the bus to home at evenings is only a memory now.
A blessing in disguise!
From Sudheer
The past one year made me systematic, transformed me from a person who never even owned a study table to a person with a proper work table.
Its been a year without the morning rush to reach office
Its been a year without hours stuck at dead traffic in a deadly crowded bus.
A year without the weekend sprint to catch the earliest possible train back home
A year without fast food every day.
I built a small garden with veggies, fruits and flowers. I got more connected to nature.
I do miss my trips but now I am a wildlife – photographer (I take pictures of non-humans around me)
Life has changed a lot.
From Anjana
Basically, I am a lazy person a very lazy person. Waking up early, taking bath and eating breakfast was a hectic thing for me. But eating breakfast early was much difficult that the other two. So, I used to skip my breakfast and for that my mother always yells at me. Even though I miss my days in the office, thank God in this lockdown I no longer needed to eat my breakfast early.
Jasna says
Used to miss those rush mornings, project boards, surges during project deliveries, events, travels, team lunch, outings, weekend rush to get back to native, etc.
My role to juggle tasks and priorities constantly with the team working from home was not an easy deal when you have more projects and deadlines. No two days were the same.
The more things demand your attention, the more likely it is that something will be missed.
Continuous meetings with Mic ON and OFF have become a new routine. Am I audible? “Can you see/ share the screen?” were the statement before every daily or sprint meeting.
Was careful with my boundaries to make sure that work doesn’t take over anyone’s personal life. Team and time management, productivity strategies kept things moving.
From Jibin
We can save travelling time from everyday, homely food, water… etc
Tony‘s words
A year in remote
I have always felt that I was an introvert and being by myself didn’t bother me much, but once the lockdown happened and I was confined to my home and my laptop, it was not very pleasant, I felt myself looking for activities just to keep myself engaged even to the extent of rearranging the items in my fridge. The lack of human interaction definitely took a toll on me, I felt my batteries were getting drained and I was slowly getting irritated, I usually went out just to see a glimpse of another human being and just seeing another person made me happy and I felt recharged.
I could also feel that change in our team as well, the weekly remote games became something that they looked forward to and seeing each other through the laptop screens and having a bit of small talk were a reward in itself.
There were a lot of positive changes that happened as well, people were finding more and more ways to keep themselves engaged, I felt myself reading a lot more books and contacting old friends (I even enjoyed the verbal thrashing of my friends during the online calls and found myself laughing, which was not the case before). People were more interesting and any chance of conversation was never wasted. With the whole world wearing masks, everyone suddenly became equally beautiful and to a certain extent how you walked, talked, and dressed became more important. As every challenge that occurred during this period was new, there was not much reference material as to how we should tackle a similar issue and we were limited to our wits to tackle these challenges and that was something that threw a new light regarding my capabilities.
What the last year has taught me was that we all need each other to hold ourselves up and all the chats, discussions, bullying, gossip and everything in between are necessary things we need in our lives and without them we are incomplete. Hope the day where we shared food from the same plate, talked to each other without a piece of cloth covering our mouth, giving a hug to our friends when we met them, and feeling sympathy instead of dread towards a fellow human being who is sick…………….is not far away.
From Angel
Working remotely seemed to be really challenging as I was totally new to the system and well as this particular field of work.
Thanks to the most supporting and helpful teammates I have here. I should also mention that the Internal weekly seminars and team call that takes place on a regular basis has helped us to get to know each other and be in touch.
Tomy
I’ve been fully remote for 2-3 years now .., so it did not affect me, as much as many others.
I used to join in Onam/Christmas/Eid celebrations and the occasional birthdays at the office.. that helped a lot to keep in touch with the others .. my favourite past time was to visit a local bakery and sample something .. a donut/vada + coffee was the usual choice … this while I looked into the empty space or was daydreaming & switching off from work, it was usually in the afternoon, the weather was usually sultry, the coffee/donut combination esp worked well to give me kick and head back to work refreshed! I missed these very much, as unhealthy as they were! all in all food intake has been super hygenic the past year, so that helped 🙂 Also, I spent less money of course .. no more on the fly masala dosas.. or biryanis binges 😀
The lack of interaction with people really did not help, I was blissfully ignorant in my own world & the sufferings of others … I tried another hand at Facebook and published 1 or 2 articles and got a bunch of likes 😛 .. Finally, I decided it was a waste of time.
Nothing works like a one on one F2F conversation for sure – “arggh.. but that’s a lot of effort” – duh! , relationships require effort! 🙂
All in all, it was a good year .. but a very strange one! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From Shan
I felt like working from home for the past 1 year has helped me increase my productivity.
Shabeeb
Being around people was the most exciting feeling I always had. But I had to trade it with the comfort of my home. And guess what, I did it! And soon enough I became a scientist and started to build something pretty cool. A Time machine. I didn’t know how else I could go back to the good old days. Unless and until an unbalanced external force was applied I remained in the state of inertia.
Abra Kadabra! I took a leap of faith and joined Nuventure at the most crucial time for a job change in the history of mankind. Alas! After all, challenging yourself is not bad at all. As long as you have work and home, enjoy working from home till eternity!
From Reshmi
This year a good memory is that we shifted to our new beautiful flat as of now that’s the one. Hoping for new good things to happen ahead.
From Jagath
1.Playing games remotely for the first time
2. Getting couriers every month
3.Celebrating occasions
4.Welcoming new joiners
5.work became more productive
From Jafir
All staff meeting is the most enjoyed thing during this period