Covid-19 and home office at QFS

Covid-19 and home office for three quarters of a year.
How has this influenced my (working) life?

When we were asked at the beginning of March 2020 to work from home every 5 days during the coming week instead of the usual 2 days, nobody had guessed what would happen after that.

The idea was only to avoid a possible risk of infection. Then the first exit restriction of the government came. How the further rules and recommendations of the government and the health ministry were appearing … Well, we all know this already.

Technical no issue. We all had (and have) a working place at home anyway, at which we always (at least in the more than 10 years I am working at QFS) were working at two days a week. This changed to five days, but the technique is the same.

In the beginning it was quite pleasant to simply save some time and fuel as the work way was eliminated. But I quickly have realized what I was missing. The social contact to the colleagues could now no longer take place face-to-face in the hallway. Just simply to go to the office next door and exchange some information ... that was no longer possible.

Also, the common table soccer game towards the end of the working days in the office was dropped. Surprisingly, I miss that much less than the sometimes-accidental encounters in the hallway. I would not have thought so if someone had asked me beforehand.

In retrospect, QFS reacted great, both from the management and from the colleagues. Without the need for any agreements, the stand-up meetings were used more for private exchange (via video conferencing) than for their actual purpose. Even though we talk more about our work tasks of the day or week at the standup meetings nowadays, the personal and human aspect has remained ingrained and has become indispensable.

In addition, we also have now, mainly driven by our espresso machine expert, simple meetings / videoconferences where we meet on various topics that have nothing to do with QFS. It is often about making coffee, which is why the colleague puts his notebook in his private kitchen in front of his espresso machine. But not only. We simply want to have a human exchange and compensate for the lack of personal contacts.

In the meantime, we have already arrived in November 2020 and working from home has become part of our daily life. But not a day goes by without talking to at least one colleague. Of course, it is all about work. But we also try to do it mostly via video chat. A phone call would also be sufficient in most cases. But to see the other person and to be seen yourself ... That keeps up the friendly relationship to the colleagues and helps you (at least me) not to succumb to a "Corona-tantrum", because of only sitting at home and seeing your own four walls / your flat from inside only.