My new world

[cris_hansen]

Hi Community,

No need to say that we are living in a new world, not after, but during COVID-19.

I am not sure about you, but I wanted to share some of what is happening here, in my little corner of this huge world: what changed, what seem to be changed, what doesn't change.

For starters, my job remains pretty much the same: I am a SAP Support Engineer, with almost 13 years experience. Despite the fact that I am working from home from 3+ months, I still can answer SAP Customer's incidents, make calls, answer SAP Community questions. I still have team meetings - virtual ones, of course. Even though it seems normal, I miss the office. I miss my colleagues, my desk, my BIG monitor screen, the coffee machines (a bit obvious, I guess).

Now, working from home is different: my wife can work from home too, so our home office needs to be shared. My son is having online classes. So the three of us are together all day long, for several days now! This is different! Establishing a routine at home became a big project, and now we are executing it fine. We can do the meals together, talk about all sort of things, and go back to the office (or classroom) in a few steps. Ah, forgot to say that we also have the companion of our Shih Tzu, called Chewie: he divides his attention and caring to all of us: sometimes he is near me, then go to my wife, then to my son. Since we have it for 4 months now, we really appreciate his companionship. So nice and different to have him around.

But I cannot stay at home for 3+ months in a row without leaving the premises... Groceries are needed... So, it is up to me to leave home and do some shopping. But only fast enough to get the necessary things and go back home, with all the safety protocols recommended by WHO. We don't want to get sick, as the newspaper headlines are too impressive, too many people going to hospital, needing care, going to ICU... So, stay home is safe and we do this like a mantra.

Going outside is different. In late March, it was like the movie: I Am Legend, with almost no soul in the street. Riding my car to the grocery store, hard to see someone walking, almost no cars parked downtown, no stores opened. But things changed, now it looks like there is no COVID-19! I start wondering whether corona virus was a bad dream and I woke up. No, I was wrong. With so many concerns, people afraid of losing jobs, started to get out, living like there is no invisible virus right there, waiting to infect and cause havoc. Downtown so crowded... the only difference I can tell is the masks: all sort of shapes, sizes and colors. Ah, of course, there are stubborn fellows without mask.

Then I get worried about family members scattered across this huge country. As age is getting to all of us, uncles, aunts, cousins, some in the group of risk, what is happening to them? Thanks to social networks, a message can be sent quickly and gets answered in a heartbeat. But not always good news: a cousin infected with corona virus, but already out of the woods; 3 or 4 cousins/physicians, working in ERs, worried about getting infected, mourning lost colleagues. I also have family members living in Europe and Canada: there are some differences, but the concerns are the same.

What to say about vacations? We had 2 family trips planned for July, both cancelled. We are not sure whether a trip scheduled for October will happen. Uncertain times we are leaving. We hope that a vaccine will be tested, approved, produced and distributed before Christmas. I wish this dream come true.

In the free time I have, I dedicated some good time with my family (watching a lot of streaming content!). But not only TV... I spent some time doing our SAP Community development missions, not to say amazing OpenSAP trainings. Nothing like putting the brain to learn something new! Ah, I am also doing a new postgraduate course: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - virtual classes, of course...

I hope things get better soon, maybe the old reality can come back.

Stay safe. Andrà tutto bene!

All the best,

Cris

[MarisaSepulveda]

Hi Chris, great post!

I feel related to you in many aspects, bar the office coffee - my coffee machine is better at home - and that I have two kids. Fortunately, they are still very young, but they have become great companions.

Our worry is not only about our family, my partner and I also have some conversations about what would happen if both of us catch the virus in a bad way, at the same time. Being our family in a different country, which of our friends would be willing to take care of two possibly infected children? There are many more, but this reason is strong enough for us to still be quarantining.

I am also catching up on some OpenSAP and other training, and having lots of family time. We knew it would take a few weeks, but we have found a balance now and we feel very fortunate we can still work from home.

So keep going - Anch'io so andrà tutto bene!

[sveabecker]

Hi Christiano,

Thanks for sharing. We had a SAP Community meet-up last Friday where we talked about this topic, too, and started also some discussions in our SAP Community Coffee Corner area - maybe you want to join those: https://answers.sap.com/articles/13077993/sap-community-coffee-corner-meet-up-work-life-bala.html

I am almost in the same position with 2 children and husband working from home, and I understand that you miss going to the office, chatting with people, seeing the colleagues... I hope it will be possible again sometime so that we didn't get disconnected. In the meanwhile we have to stay connected virtual, which works quite well I guess. For example, I met with some of my friends in person last Saturday, the first time again after 3 months. In comparison to the virtual meetings we've done since the pandemic, everyone talked almost at the same time in smaller groups and I couldn't follow everyone or every single conversation. When we were chatting online, only one spoke at a time... definitely an advantage of online meetings 😉 You see, I'll try to stay positive!

Stay healthy!

--Svea