COVID-19 Work From Home Stories – 2020

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are doing safe and fine!?

I do not know where to start from and how to pen down the whole experience of working from home. If you were to write negatives about it, this would be an endless process. However, I have decided to stick to the positives and mention the challenges that I experienced during work from home due to COVID-19.

To begin with, I became a proud father of a son in February and since my one-week paternity leave, I was just there in the office for approximately 6 days and COVID-19 strikes Mumbai and we are all in lockdown. Thanks to the senior leadership support that the decision of WFH was already in place much more before than actual lockdown started. Since we have started work from home on 19^th March 2020, we have completed 60 days of adapting to a new lifestyle and a new way of working. 60 Days… Wow!!!

Firstly, I see this whole episode as a blessing in disguise for me that I can spend so much time with my little champ and watch him grow so fast and help my better half in the best way possible. When it comes to the work-from-home experience, yeah it was really an amazing feeling at the start of it, No morning hush and rush… Home cook food every day (No choice anyway ?) seating on the couch and a good closure without rushing to catch the Virar train… Everything seems to be perfect and like a much-needed break.

However, things started getting a little serious than expected and from Janta curfew to Lockdown 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and now 4.0… So far 60 days and counting…

My experience so far has been of a very mixed feeling when it comes to experience about work from home. There were challenging times related to work commitment and you think, if I were in office, I would have managed it in a much better way. Certainly, the efforts are more coordinated, and the consensus is possible in a faster way. However, new challenges also bring new opportunities and highlight the maturity in which you are efficiently able to overcome the same. I would really like to thank my leaders and ReachLocal Employees for so quickly adapting to the new way of working and helping me to overcome the biggest barrier ‘Communication’. I would say, communication isn’t a challenge anymore in the new era due to technological advancement, however, adapting to it quickly is a challenge and certainly we as a team have overcome it in no time.

I certainly miss my office desk and chair just like others…? I had soon realized that desks and chairs are designed in the way to spend long hours and make our day comfortable without any physical stress on the body. A sofa chair can certainly be the most comfortable place in the house but not for long hours of work. Here comes the family providing solutions to make my seating arrangement comfortable and giving an office feeling. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t… Who cares family is taking care of everything you need.

In the last 60 days, I was able to spend some time cooking some of my favorite food that I missed eating outside and cooking it in a much healthier way. No junk food going into the system, the feeling is so good and experience of healthy living, Thanks to WFH and Lockdown. ?

I have a sinusitis problem due to dust allergies leading to constant headaches. As the pollution levels have gone down and no travel means healthy breathing giving me an enormous relief from my sinus and related pains…

Yes, there are challenges, some are big some are small. I have grown with these challenges and it has only developed me both personally and professionally. My leadership skills were best tested during these 60 days and also helping to make them sharper as I learned the grey sides and vast opportunities to grow with my employee coordination and constant feedback of my leader and colleagues.

If anything, that I see in this whole WFH experience, it is OPPORTUNITY and LEARNING.

Thank you and Stay Safe!

Best Regards,

Milap Thakar

Hi,

Hope you & your family are safe & fine.

I am Harshikumar Patel, working in ReachLocal (India) as a Trainer. As one coin has two sides, in a similar way there are many positive & negative things that I have experienced while working from home during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. But when we have been told to write down the story for work from home experience, so it is difficult to mention it on a piece of paper.

I have started work from home on the 23rd of March 2020, day started differently. No morning rush to reach on time in office, no need to dress up properly as we do when we use to go for office, not saying anyone to “Good Morning”, no breakfast break, etc.

Suddenly it has been changed to logging into the system on time, in this way I saved my traveling time.

I have a missed office environment, which includes a desk, chair, surrounding cubical nature, a ReachLocal Employee who sits next to me, training room. Eventually, it has been taken place by sitting with 2-3 pillows at back, 1 pillow in lap, sometimes sitting on a sofa, chair, floor, next to the window, and next to wife.

At the time of logoff, while working in the office we were saying “Chalo Ab Ghar Jana Hai”. While working from home it feels like “Already Ghar Me Hu Aur Kitna Ghar Jau?”. But it takes a long day especially for that day where I am fighting with Internet issues, Screen sharing issues on the team/zoom call, solving doubt on the cell phone with the ReachLocal Employees, and to make them understand, I have learned to provide online training to a team member without whiteboard and markers.

I feel like all days are the same, with no different feelings for the weekend. This has been stopped eating all outside food, but it helps me in other ways by saving some money on unnecessary spending & improve my health issues. My wife has cooked different types of testy food for me & always ends up the day with "Kal Kya Naya Banau?".

Social distancing is having been stopped to meet office colleagues, friends, family members, relatives. But we find another way by doing a video call.

By looking at this lockdown scenario, I have seen a problem/situation that is there, but at the same time, it helps me to think about it and how to find a better solution to this.

I have taken this work from home as an opportunity and learn something new in life.

Thank you and stay safe!!

Regards,

Harshilkumar Patel

WFH sounds and makes people so excited and relieved. Due to the Coronavirus spread, we too got a chance to experience the WFH environment, The first thing when I heard about it and the feeling was "Mujhse Na Ho Payega" which has now turned to "Haan Sacchi Itna Bhi Tough Nahi Hai".

But as things going around, the fear of the virus spread WFH has now become a good habit as the first thing it has done has made my family tense free as I am @home for more than hours which I have never been on my weekends.

The precious things such as spending time with family members, getting hot food on every course on time which were disappeared for years are now getting a flashback to the summer vacations during the school days along with the good leadership support of ReachLocal Employees for the work assigned. Yes, there are things such as internet and sitting arrangements which are difficult but now I have found ways to overcome it. The time spent on Travelling has now turned into a time for Self Improvement.

Yeah, sometimes I also feel that Busy Life is Good but this WFH for more than 1.5 months has made life BUSY with too many Happy moments with family. This Pandemic must end soon because now I have started missing office, office colleagues (2nd Family) and especially the Balanced Work, Employee Co-ordination and Fun time spent together.

Stay Home. Stay Safe.

Regards,

Manav Pandey

I joined ReachLocal (India) on 3^rd February 2020 as a Software Engineer. Never in the wildest of thoughts did I think that things would turn out to be so great and so haunting at the same time. It has been 40 days that I have been working at home. From a shift in routines to a shift in attitude, not only me but the entire nation and the world have seen a big change.

For me, this lock-down and the pandemic has been something of a learning curve. I have thought every day in the last 40 days, of doing only one thing living my life to the fullest. I kept in mind the responsibilities that I carry as a ReachLocal (India) Employee and a son to my house.

I would like to also share how I have gradually grown in this company even during such a crisis. The best thing I can take out of such a crisis is how it has got me so close back to my family. The responsibilities that I could not take are something I make sure I follow now.

Being a family guy is something I have always had as a strength because families let you through all the difficulties in life. So, ReachLocal (India) has helped me grow as a person because they did what not every company does for their happy employees. They treated me as a family. From hand sanitization to keeping in mind how well is a ReachLocal (India) Employee feeling to ensuring a lockdown even before the Nation declared it. Coming to work from home and the learning curve, my team leader ‘Milap’ showed leadership support in every way and senior employee coordination motivated me to learn daily and be trained with knowledge even though at home.

Coming to this pandemic, yes, it’s dangerous, yes, it’s taking lives, yes, we are not at a good mind-space; but yes, we should, we can, and we will bring down this pandemic at all cost.

#MeetYourInnerSelf #LearningNeverEnds

Regards,

Nikhil Wadhwani

Hi team,

I have written a short story on how I managed to cope up with my work during this lockdown.

Story:

I, Georgina Taylor joined ReachLocal on 19th February 2020 and completed my training on 19th March 2020 and right after lockdown started from 25th March 2020.

I was lucky to get buddied up with Sana Shaikh, the amazing training given by Ashwini and Sana's explanation gave me the confidence to perform my duty on resolving campaigns all by myself.

I thought work from home will be a challenge for me but I always had my team members having my back and always there to answer any questions I ever had. I was always treated like a team member and not like a new joiner.

I am thankful to have Deepica as my mentor who took time from her very busy schedule to review my cases so that I learn and also don't do any mistakes.

I honestly thought how would I manage all this by myself being at home but my team and Deepica made it easy for me.

My doubts were always given Priority and were solved. I have learned a lot from ReachLocal related to knowledge, discipline, team bonding, etc. and I am looking forward to serving my company to the fullest.

Staying Home and Fighting against COVID-19 is not an easy task, but we need to work as a team, so we can get through this tuff time, and someday in the future return to our normal lives which we all are waiting for.

A big thank you to my Team.

Regards,

Georgina Taylor

Greetings!!

First & for most working from home is not that simple.

While working from home you need to concentrate on work as well as family requirements. Sometimes it feels like you are a football & both sides are playing with you? but because of this, you learned a lot about how to balance your professional as well as personal life.

Jokes apart I am enjoying working from home as I can spend more time with my family, enjoying healthy food, got some time to workout & even learned lots of new dishes which I love to eat. ?

ReachLocal supports a lot with the useful information about the updates during these quarantine days, IT guys help us when the systems are down like the way they help us at the office.

Our leaders are very supportive when it comes to doubt or any issue I am facing. Because of daily team briefing, I am still connected to my fellow team members as well which feels good?

I even played “Ludo” which happens to be an amazing game with my Team Leader – Jacob, Director – Bhavesh Sir & Colleague + Friend – Harshada which I think would not be possible if work from home would not have started. We a whole team used to play Fun Friday at the office but I don’t think anyone would have played sitting at home with office mates after working hours.

Lastly, special thanks love to my family members they are very supportive & the ReachLocal too for allowing WFH during these quarantine days as most of the companies were not allowed to do the same.

This is my "Work From Home Story".

#WFH#Family#ReachLocal#Colleague#MissingOffice

Have a wonderful time Team-HR? such activities feel more refreshing.

Thanks & Regards,

Mayuri Choche

Even though the work from home concept is not new for many, it is completely new for a person like me, who has never worked from home before in the last 15 years of service. Due to COVID-19, the company announced that we have to work from home on a trial basis. I was really excited as it was going to be a new experience for me but due to lockdown when the company decided to continue that for a longer period and even though the situation was very serious, the happiest person on this planet was my wife! For the last 10 years, I was working only in the night shifts and my wife in the day shifts. The only time we were able to see each other’s faces was on Sundays. So this feeling is obvious because we are getting a chance to see each other’s faces almost every day and spend a good time with each other and family as well.

Apart from that, another good thing was that I got the chance to develop some new skills like learning new software with the help of social media platforms like LinkedIn & YouTube which was almost impossible due to busy schedules before lockdown. One more skill that I have developed is the art of cooking with the help of my wife. The transformation from a person who doesn’t know anything apart from preparing Maggie Noodles to a person who can cook daal, rice, cakes to chicken tandoori was totally great experience. So, this is all the good part of my work from home days.

During the initial days of work from home due to lack of proper workplace my lower back started giving me a problem. Gradually it became so bad that I was not even able to walk. But my family was so supportive that they immediately arranged a nice laptop table and after adapting to that new workplace I immediately got relief. The very next day while working the worst thing happened to me as I accidentally broke my spectacles. I was so tensed and started contacting all the optical shops in my area but due to lockdown people were unavailable to give any kind of services. Luckily, I saw Lenskart’s ad on Facebook that they are providing services during the lockdown and I got my specs within 10 days. But those 10 days were stressful because working night shifts without your specs was difficult!  As soon as this problem got resolved my laptop mouse started giving me trouble. For any graphic designer, working without a mouse is like preparing rice without a pressure cooker! Luckily, I managed to find another mouse from my friend, and another problem got solved!! In the office, the Admin person takes good care of all your need but while working from home your family and friends are your Admin!

Now regular team meetings are happening during work from home. Recently, I was really touched by my director’s speech in which he appreciated everyone’s efforts, thanked our family members for their contribution during this work from home period, explained all the after lockdown plans, and ensured our safety when we will be returned to the office. It only shows how much the company cares about every member of the company. This motivation and appreciation from the company is only pushing us to perform better and better!!!

Regards,

Amol Morajkar

Hello Team,

While office culture and employee co-ordination are being missed, working from home has helped enable to eat a delicious hot home-cooked meal at all times - thanks to my mom of course 😉 and spend time with my family.

#Workfromhome

Regards,

Jacob Joseph