For 9 months our team continued to work and support Ukraine. The war gave us a lot of new fears, but also values. And of course, it is reflected in our work. Recent massive attacks caused a total blackout for almost 24 hours, but now the power outages are mostly on schedule.
Some people relocate their home workplaces to safer zones, like bathrooms and corridors. So how to suffer from blackouts if you are working from home?
Improve time management
First, if you have a schedule of power outages, try to adapt all your online work to this period. Wake up earlier or vice versa and stay a little longer in the evening if you have no electricity during the day.
Stay charged
The second one is to collect a little kit of devices that will help you to stay charged during blackouts. We prepared a small list of what we recommend to remote workers and not only:
All modern home devices have a delayed start function, so you can set the washing machine or dishwasher to night or early morning, when consumption of electricity is lower. Try to avoid using a microwave, electric kettle and coffee machine, it will take you more time to prepare food, but save more power. These rules are especially important in the winter period, because of heaters that consume lots of electricity.
Yara, Sales Manager:
“I joined the FeelSoftware team when the war had already started. For this, I moved to a safe place and tried to find work in which I could adapt to an unstable style of life, like unexpected moving. My first rule is to keep my laptop fully charged as much as possible. The second one is to try offline work during the blackouts because waiting for the network is a lot more exhausting than working at full speed. We need to adapt to this situation, stay strong, and won’t stop moving forward to victory together.”
Khrystyna, CEO:
“Lviv is a relatively safe place, сomparitevely. The worst thing is when there is no mobile and Internet connection. So far, we have solved the problem of the Internet – the battery for the router, but we understand that in the case of a total blackout it will not work. I prefer battery-powered lighting because candles or eco-fireplaces burn oxygen and shouldn’t be left unattended. It’s great if the power outages schedules correspond to reality, but I understand the circumstances – coffee made by tourist compulsion is also delicious. It’s a small action, but turning on the power saving mode on the phone and computer, and also closing 1000500 tabs – works and helps to save more energy. Every time I look at the city in the darkness, I remember a phrase I read recently “It is better without lights than with them”.
Kateryna, UI/UX Designer:
“The first days of the war were numb because you didn’t understand your emotions and what to do next. And then you gather yourself and realize that on the contrary it makes you stronger and you get used to new realities – working to the sound of sirens in the bathroom. Then there were blackouts during the attacks – the worst thing is not having the ability to call your relatives and read the news. Now life revolves around emergency power outages, there is light – you work, there is no – you do offline work or other things. Analyzing the conditions in which you have to live and that you even can do everything you always do, you understand that nothing is impossible for Ukrainians.”
Lack of electricity and Internet connection pushes us to spend more time with close people, go for walks, and read more books. It’s the positive side that keeps us stronger.
Sometimes it is hard, but we always can find a key to solve the problem. These experiences completely changed our lives, but also made us stronger and prepared for everything.
Author Yaroslava Volynska
