Quarantine Kindness: Zeta’s ways to make work from home fun and easy
Work from home in the quarantine has fatigued our mind, body, and soul. So, Zeta’s design team took a new route with Quarantine kindness to turn boredom into fun!
Just like masks and sanitizers, working from home has become a new norm during the COVID pandemic. In the pre-COVID world, work from home was always seen as the ultimate fool’s paradise which gave an impression of some work on a holiday. Waking up late, no hour-long atrocious commutes, getting to stay in the comforts of pyjamas throughout the day, catching a pleasant siesta — and the list is endless.
The wonderland of work from home
So, when the pandemic hit and work from home was mandated, our design team members thought it to be more like a gala time with a bit of work and getting to enjoy the perks listed above. It was just too good to be true.
For the first few days, work from home was like being in a wonderland. We set up our new workspaces and plugged in our headphones. We could loosen up whenever we wished, as we now had the whole bed the entire day to ourselves. It was all just magnificent– tasty homemade food, naps, Netflix, and some work in between.
However, by the 5th day, our enthusiasm had faded; it was like being on vacation but staying put only in the hotel room. We were winding up crusty and grumpy, staring continuously at our laptops. The craving for socializing led us to call family members at home and to reach out to flatmates for small talks. Gradually, we all started missing the little social circle we always had — our office family, our design team. We began to miss our happy times in the office.
Our design family, which has 21 team members, is like a group of friends at school with whom we are obligated to spend at least 8 hours every day. From chai breaks to heartbreaks, we shared it all, and there’s no leaving any team member. For some of us, it was the only lasting relationship we’ve had.
When the work from home became exhausting and blurred the line between home and work, it was hard to stay motivated without the buzz of the design family, and the loneliness was setting in all of us.
As a result, the great minds felt the need to counter the darkness of loneliness which had crept into our design family. To build rock-solid bonds and help each other out during these difficult times, we thought why not have fun by gamifying the work from home experience.
So, a few months ago, we started our journey of ‘Quarantine Kindness’.
The act of kindness
Quarantine Kindness is a team-building initiative where we share spaces online together. It is a virtual team-building activity where the idea is to share positive thoughts and rain ‘kind acts’ that will help us all in overcoming the gloomy times of the lockdown.
For the Quarantine Kindness, our family of 21 is divided into smaller teams of love, hope, and goodness.
So, we begin by setting up some relaxed customs:
- The purpose of this initiative is not to compete but to help improve morale.
- Each time someone does anything kind, like sharing a fun video or having a virtual lunch or sending a greeting, their team was given ‘Care Counts’ — the counts that matter.
- Our team’s WhatsApp/Instagram/Flock channel will be used for sharing the kindness acts.
- Preface the messages in the chat group with #kind for distinguishing them as kindness acts.
Following is the list of fun activities that we take up to break away from the monotony of the quarantine period. And if you are also looking for some team activities during this lockdown period, we have classified the activities in duration, type, and tool so that you can choose the ones that suit you.
Virtual Chai session
Duration:20–30 minutes
Type: Group, Real-time, for fun, emulating the office chai times
Tools required: Zoom, Google hangout, a cup of your chai/ coffee / whatever you like.
Frequency: Twice a week
All of us were missing ‘Chai Pe Charcha’, a daily socializing routine we had for the team to unwind from work and chat about everything with a hot cup of tea and some snacks. This used to help us get to know each other better and served as a good break after a couple of hours of work. So, naturally, we wanted to continue with Chai Pe Charcha during the lockdown too. Now, it’s a virtual happy hour where we share a cup of our homemade chai with variations in the fun activities and conversations.
Virtual workouts
Duration: 20–30 minutes
Type: Group activity, for fitness, not very often
Tools required: Zoom, Google hangout
Frequency: Twice in a month
When we work at home, we tend to forget to move around and tend to stick to our chairs and end up without much physical activity. To escape dullness, we pick up small workout regimes and do a workout together over a video call.
Socializing and sharing kind messages on group chat
Duration: 30 minutes
Type: Group activity, for fun, individual
Tools required: Whatsapp, Flock, and Instagram.
Frequency: Every day
Group chat is the best way to stay connected, not just for work but also for fun. We share soulful articles, GIFs, and videos, and everything that can make work from home better. Almost every other day, someone will share some Instagram worthy yummy homemade food pictures with recipes, which made us realize that we have excellent master chefs in our team.
Collaborative artwork
Duration: 30 minutes
Type: Group activity, for creativity
Tools required: Google Sheets
Frequency: Once a month
Google Sheets is a synonym for number work. But one of the amusing things with spreadsheets is to create Pixel art which is to colour cells to draw and represent objects. Pixel was not only a fun activity but also enhanced our creativity as designers
Funny Videos
Duration: 20–45minutes
Type: Group activity, for fun
Tools required: Zoom, Google hangout
Frequency: Twice a month
All the teams were conducting exciting activities in their group. To share the entertaining stuff with everyone, we started recording our activities and uploading them on YouTube. We made some knee-slapper videos of war cry, pop-top challenges and many more just to share the love and laughter.
So, check out our laughter riots!
Birthday celebration
Duration: 20–45minutes
Type: Group activity, wishing birthday, for celebrations
Tools required: Zoom, Google hangout
Frequency: As per birthdays
As a team, we loved celebrating birthdays in the office. But when the pandemic hit, the physical birthday celebration shifted to the virtual space. Now, the cake cutting ceremony has turned into a feast with amusing videos. To add the element of creativity and design, we sometimes make cool greeting cards on Figma and wish ‘Happy birthday’ in creative ways in videos.
Virtual games
Duration: 30–45minutes
Type: Group activity, for fun
Tools required: Zoom, Google hangout
Frequency: Twice a week
Before the pandemic, whenever we were on a team outing, we always played group games such as Dumb charades, Pictionary, Catan and others. We still wanted to continue playing games in the lockdown period. Thus, we shifted into the virtual game zone. We started with Drawize, which is similar to Pictionary but in a virtual space. The game is very entertaining and also helps in improving our drawing skills. The other game we play is Codename, a word guessing game. These virtual games are quite different from regular party games as they are more challenging and exciting.
Turn things around and look at the bright side
Although these activities are designed specifically for these tough times, they have helped us to stay connected. When our team doesn’t sit shoulder-to-shoulder, it is easier to sweep problems under the carpet rather than address them head-on. But small issues have a way of growing into larger ones if we’re not paying attention, and eventually, we end up with unavoidable crises in our hands.
During this gloom of a never-ending work from home, sometimes it’s just hard to stay motivated. Besides the blurred lines of work and life, and a relay of meetings, somewhere we have forgotten the importance of breaks in our workspaces. Therefore, the foremost intent of Quarantine kindness was to bring back our break time so that we could unwind from work and bond together as we used to. After all, breaks are the key to working efficiently and being creative.
In these difficult circumstances, Quarantine kindness has given us hope to turn things around. It has shown us a way through creativity to look into the future and be excited about each day, even in the lockdown.
So even if the pandemic isn’t over by this year, we will be fine, as we always got each other’s back and this is for us.
This is our story to remain positive in these times. Please do share with us how you and your team are staying connected and motivated. We are all ears!
