Home Office at Metapack: Surviving at home
We always encourage Metapackers to maintain the proper balance between family and work life. But what if the two forces have to be joined together? In the next chpter of our guide, we look for ways to keep balance – this time the mental one – while working in the home office mode.
Tests on … household members
We asked our employees a little perversely if they had noticed any new habits among their household members that they had not been aware of before. Staying 24 hours a day in closed walls creates good conditions to discover each other. It turned out that the vast majority of Metapackers know their other halves, little ones and four-legged friends inside out. Thus, the implementation testing and behavioral analysis of the household members were passed with highest scores.
My family members have already been tested on humans, so production errors do not happen.
No errors. Though the neighbors apparently decided that the lockdown was the best time to start home renovation.
None, I know my other half better than she does.
I was aware of all the disturbing habits.
Not yet, even the cat is more polite than I suspected. After working hours, he meows all the time, but is reasonably quiet until 4 pm.
I know my family so well that they cannot surprise me anymore.
Everything works fine. The partner knows I'm at work and acts as if I wasn't even there. Which allows me to work in quiet.
I don't have any household members, but my disturbing habit is eating all day long!
We all eat more at the home office.
I knew about everything, I learned more about the habits of my neighbors, though!
A third of Metapackers, however, admitted that some disturbing signals had already appeared in the first days. Is it just the result of an unusual situation or constant habits? Only time will tell.
They sleep for a long time.
My son walks all the time with a pacifier... And he's a terrorist
Habits are one thing, but the difference in political views between family members has never been so dramatically huge.
During my home office work, I requisitioned a teenager's son's room. The room looks like a construction site. Virtual background rulezzzzz!
The fiancée is constantly cleaning up, I didn't realize she does it so often.
My husband likes to sing his own repertoire, the 10th day of lockdown there's more wailing than singing.
How many times can the cupboards be washed and cleaned... Soon there will be no cupboards... No, NO, not MY shelves in the garage!!!
My children are very demanding when it comes to fairy tales. My wife is talking to herself.
I'm getting too many kisses.
And what do pets do during the day, having their owners all to themselves? It turns out that quadrupeds (and other creatures) can surprise you both positively and… a little less positively.
I noticed that my 3D-printed goose likes to fall off my desk a lot.
My cats always want to sit on my face!
My dog eats computer mice. With batteries.
Our cat goes crazy in the morning! We didn't realize it because when we came home from the office, he usually stretched after a nap.
Parenting tips for the lockdown
Let’s face it, the biggest challenge in home office are children. To make it easier for Metapackers to reconcile work with parental responsibilities, we accepted the youngest experts in virtual team meetings with full approval. They sit on their parents laps, wave cheerfully to the webcam, and occasionally throw in some important observation.
We also allowed parents to be more flexible in their work. So that they can go for a walk during the day, organize games with their children or relieve their partner from inventing attractions for tireless children for several hours.
Our brave Metapackers quickly developed their own ways of coping with the job while taking care of their offspring:
Accept that it will be dirtier. Deal with the fact that children don't understand that you are working. Be honest with your supervisor about the conditions under which you work. Monitor and record the time of your work and breaks. Maybe it's not as bad as you think and you will help you with remorse.
A separate key room.
Children always want to help!
I show the children who I talk to, sometimes I take them and show them on the webcam, and when there is a crisis, I turn the camera off .
Unfortunately, a separate room with the sign - Dad's work. From time to time, take the children on their laps, let them wave at the camera, someone will wave them back, and they will continue to play happily.
If possible, organize your own personal office in a secluded room. Preferably locked.
Surely, talking as equals with children will help them understand that there are times when they need to take a back seat, wait and give adults space to act seriously and very responsibly. TREAT CHILDREN AS PARTNERS, not like children.
Routine. One fairy tale, playing by themselves, creativity games, gymnastics, coloring books. Clear rules - when daddy has headphones on, don't come over.
Yes, WhatsApp with grandma in a separate room combined with loud music in the room where you currently work
Cover the child with toys so that it takes 8 hours for the child to take each of them in his hand and throw them away after a minute! You'll need about 480 toys.
There's no general advice. Everyone has to adapt to their own conditions.
There were also suggestions from people who don’t have children. They included rather radical methods of immobilizing and silencing children, so we will not share them;) However, there was an idea among them that we liked and we wonder what it would look like in practice:
Playing corpse (the child pretends to be a corpse and the parent checks to see if it's moving).
What do you think? We are awaiting the results of your tests on household members on our facebook profile Meet Metapack ! 😉
