Since mid-March, all FlyNex employees have been working from home. Here comes a little report about working during the Corona time as a fresh Alumna, in the first, real job.

In January 2020, I, Gabriela Morais de Souza, joined FlyNex. After my studies, I didn’t really know where I would end up, but one thing was clear: A start-up would be great.

The first months were, of course, especially exciting for me personally. Getting to know colleagues, reading a lot to acquire knowledge about the drone industry, and the first “Sorry, I can’t go brunch with you today at 11 am – I’m working now!

Two months later, I barely arrived in everyday life of a full-time working person; things changed.

First Corona cases in Germany – first security measures by the German government. Apart from the fact that brunch would not have been possible now, anyway, new challenges have arisen not only privately but also professionally.

First of all, I had no / hardly any internet in the first two weeks because I moved in March. Best start, I thought!

After the initial Internet problems, the end of the working day proved to be the biggest challenge. In retrospect, though, not really surprising. There were no more outside activities, no more appointments, no other commitments that would have forced me to close my laptop.

Communication within the team and throughout the company also changed. We mainly used Microsoft Teams. However, due to our distributed locations, it was common practice to hold meetings via the program anyway. The need and intensity of communication grew, and our German networks had a lot to handle.

Everything analog was going digital now. Questions were answered on the phone instead of quickly in the office, and I transferred our Scrum board to Trello (Kanban based task management online service) on the last day of work. So our stand-ups took place via conference call.

In parallel to getting used to the Corona situation in general (I’m glad that I had enough toilet paper and do not eat noodles!), my discipline regarding my working hours increased.

After all, everything is a matter of getting used to, and I really haven’t been in a “normal” working rhythm for very long.

We can probably say that we belong to the industries that were not too much affected by the virus. This means that the work did not become less. At times, processes slowed down, so that a lot of work piled up. However, after several weeks in the home office, it improved noticeably. We even created a new digital format because the event and exhibition visits were canceled this year. In the “Take Off“, we talked to two guests about exciting topics, and I was asked to moderate.

After precisely 58 working days and 89 calendar days, we returned to the office (the poor plants). On my first day, I realized: I have been working from home much longer than in the office! Now here in Hamburg, things are going on as usual, and my colleagues are also slowly returning to the office in our other locations.

Our experiences and our perception of working from home differ significantly, of course. Here was my view of things. I hope that you, too, have survived this difficult time unscathed.

Enjoy your flights,

Gabriela Morais de Souza & das FlyNex Team