 |
| Weekly Family Calls |
Anyone having anxiety attacks? Confession - I am. I have never felt so trapped before ever - and the Yangon International Airport just announced that the airport will extend the closure till end of April. My anxiety really stems from my fear of not being able to get to my parents if an emergency happens. And then I'm worried for SoyAi and the children, and then I'm worried about my students and my mentees. Of course, I try to remain positive and strong, and I tell my students or my mentees that I don't miss them and that I need them to stay alive otherwise I have no one to throw under the bus (you know who you are!! LOL!) and furthermore, I have so many unclaimed lobster debts!! But still I worry. These are unprecedented times. Who the hell knows what can happen? I worry about so many aspects. But I try not to dwell on it. Still, sometimes, I would be in bed, seemingly not thinking about it, and all of a sudden, I would, and my heart rate would go through the roof and I can't seem to breathe. I have to calm myself down and bring my thoughts away to the good thoughts. I am talking in my sleep most nights now. The other night, according to my other half (MOH), I was waking myself up calling out "Eileen! Eileen! Wake up! Wake up!!" Well, at least he's having a good laugh. I hate that I can't control something. And for a control-freak, this is tough. But then again, I try to work on things I can control instead.
Like work. Well, I've been doing the WFH thing for the past 3 weeks and for an introverted person like me - it's awesome because I don't need to meet people! I don't have to dress up (I'm naked all the time so it's usually screen-off for me during video calls 😂😂😂) I don't have to waste time sitting in traffic. The only down side to it is that I can't physically scream at someone for doing something stoopid or pummel them to death when they annoy me 😂😂😂
First off - my hate for talking to people and being in meetings have trained me very well for times like these. I pride myself to be someone who can get things organized without needing to talk. For me, working on any projects at all, the first thing I need to do is to GET ORGANIZED and PLANNED. This is through and through my Papa's genes in me. I can whip up a Project Management excel sheet or a WIP Checklist in 20-30 mins to get organized. And my detailed written brief is on point - I colour code the items for different teams in the file and then I detail out the follow-ups and tasks in an email. AND because I know 90% of email recipients do not read long emails, I make it easy for everyone too. I tag people only in the colour codes where they actually need to read and do a task or follow-up. And then I go back into the chat and tell them that I've tagged them in the area where they need to do a task. I realized that many people who enjoy the benefit of F2F verbal communications are now having a hard time adapting. They find the constant ping-ing of the chat driving them up the walls, they can't catch up with the long emails..... they even miss chat messages (because 20 people in a group chat and everyone talking and messaging almost at the same time! LOL!) Well, stay calm, breathe and get a grip people! This IS the 'new normal'. Those who reply emails and chats after 24 hours or simply miss messages or emails - newsflash - the pigeon system has been obsolete for centuries. 😝😝😝
But this Covid-19 situation had drowned me out at work though and MOH too! The downside of WFH? I've been sitting in front of the computer from 8.30am till 6.30pm, sometimes 7.30pm every single day for the last 3 weeks! (I try to limit the hours on weekends though) but it had been unbelievable even for me. My ass is sore from just sitting down. Even on my supposed off days, I'm there 😣😣😣 Well, MOH and I are both in the communications line of our respective "essential business" categories. This is the time where communications is super important - both internally & externally - to allay fears, to reassure people, to do the usual ra-ra and tell them hey, we've got this.
Some days, I find myself writing up to seven PR statements about Covid-19 or sometimes, writing up to 36 contents for Covid-19. Those are days that I swear to God, if I wrote another press statement regarding Covid-19, I would literally puke. And then I do it all over again the next day. LOL. Once or twice, I created a new virus - Covid-10 and Covid-18 in my press releases 😁😁😁 Somedays, I have to make like a hundred changes to a statement. It frustrates me and annoys me. I understand people have the FOMO syndrome - the fear of missing out. But for on-point comms, we need to focus people! Because the general public cannot digest too many bits of information at one go! And then all of a sudden, we have ten thousand people who wants to add their say into the comms. On top of that, all the other work outside of Covid-19 needs to carry on! But seriously - talk about Covid-19 ramping up all the digital efforts suddenly. LOLOL.
Well, since I cannot punch people now that we are all WFH, I end up just banging my head on the table (the worse part is my MMA classes have stopped for now, so I have nowhere to release my anger and do anger management! 😵😵😵) I was bitching to my bro the other day about some annoying issue at work and said "I'm about to lose my shit." And his response was : "To be honest, you lose your shit all the time!" 😂😂😂 (And in the same hour when he said that to me, another colleague of mine mentioned the exact same words!! LMAO!!) Which was true. So now, I've changed my go-to sentence for annoying situations - "Don't make me flip the table!!" 😂😂😂
But on the positive side, I am glad to be drowned out in work because otherwise, I might rot. Further to that, in this new normal, everyone is a bit more understanding of the situation and we all try to keep each other sane. Me being me, I will straight up tell people I am naked and can't do a screen-on video call. I would ask them to get naked too for the #NakedVideoChallenge LOL. Some others would send joke of the day. But no matter what, we are all trying our best to get shit done. And then sometimes, shit hits the fan over and over again.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that this unprecedented crisis weeds out the doers from the NATOs (No Action Talk Only). The NATOs actually have nowhere to hide in the face of this crisis. And their NATO-ness is stark naked right out there. But the doers and those who step up would also clearly be seen.
I am very lucky that one of my students is on my team. And this boy, he had leveled up several times in the past 3 weeks. Well, he did fall off the wagon for half a day - he felt that because we were also working on weekends that he had no time off and he took a half day rest because he was stressed out and I gave him such a shelling that the very next day, he leveled up 3 notches! To be fair, his point was valid. When we WFH, it is hard to draw the line between personal time and work time and for alot of people, this is a first experience for them. However, I'm kind but I will never show my kindness when it comes to pushing my team. Well, some people you push and they break at the seams. Some others - like this boy - he's been one step ahead of me for the past 1 week which is saying something. I am so proud of him for his attitude. AND, now that it is the Thingyan holidays, he even told me that he would be on "standby" online for any urgent crisis or things to do. Of course outwardly, I told him - "Good cos no Thingyan holidays for us." but I'm really avoiding messaging him about work. I also realized sometimes, teams look up to their leaders. If their lead is fighting alongside with them in the trenches and not just shouting instructions from the sidelines, they tend to level up faster. Anyway, proud of him, really proud of him.
I've also seen others that I coach or mentor level up during this period. Y'all know who you are. I see the responsibility level-up, I see the maturity level up (for some, not all!!) Sure, there are things that needs to be improved. I know it's tough as y'all are adjusting to the new normal. But you guys are all young and adaptive and innovative. Don't look at a problem as a problem but try to see the opportunity in a crisis. You've all got this ok??
On the personal front, I'm trying to stay sane and I'm keeping my normal routine of the morning workout as much as possible. I still wake up at an unGodly hour (maybe much to my neighbours' chagrin) and now that it is home-training, I've had to get creative with what I do. The fit community that I know are also very supportive - we share workouts, we give shoutouts... I even got a kettlebell on loan! Some of the girls join me for live online sessions. Not so much of coaching really, but just a couple hours of being sane and laughing together. That helps me and I hope it helps them too. I mean, simply said, it's what working out is all about. Just a few hours of just forgetting the rest of the world and focusing on "not dying" during the training 😂😂😂 Hope they keep their consistency. We're gonna be seeing some fab bods after this period. LOL. I'm also thankful that it hasn't been a full LD here in Yangon so me and MOH had still been able to go out for our runs at least.
Now that it is the Thingyan holidays (we were supposed to do a big trip with our parents this period), I'm gonna use this time to catch up on my lessons and assignments for my social psychology courses. Ever since the WFH started, I have been so far back with my lessons and assignments!! Ugh. Then, catch up on some reading as well and also I wanna see if I can carry on with my digital strategy lectures but in a different way. And maybe more writing, hopefully!
Other than that, two introverts are enjoying the time indoors too. We're doing a bit more cooking at home of course. But it's getting to me a bit. I mean, I usually get by on normal days, you know, meal prepping the healthy stuff and basically, I eat those 3 times a day whereas MOH only eat that once a day. But now, he can't deal with having to eat the same food for lunch and dinner and that's where my challenge comes. LOL. For some reason, he's been announcing to me restaurants that are opened for delivery every time he came across something. He must be desperate!
Yangon in this period had returned to the state it was in when we first arrived in 2012. Not many cars, a bit more slow outside and no crazy honking and stuff. There are people about but no one really in your face. It takes a pandemic sometimes to find our zone again. (it also takes a pandemic to wipe out all the work you've done for the past months or years!). And for the first time ever, Yangon is quiet during the Thingyan Festival. Our 8th year here in Myanmar and the first time we've experienced this kind of peace and tranquility in Yangon during this period.
MOH and I, together with one of my students, went out over to East Dagon slum areas to donate some of my Mobile Soup Movement Care Packages to the people there. These are generally the unregistered odd job labourers who would be the most impacted from the economic brunt of Covid-19. We took all the precautions necessary to protect them and ourselves, disinfecting the packages and ourselves before distribution and making sure to practice physical distancing and limiting the talking. I felt helping people was something I had control over and I could do. My heart goes out to those whose life would be so FUBAR-ed from losing their income. My miserable amount of care packages could not reach every household in that area. As much as I wanna help, there is still so much more to help. But we do what we can. Something is always better than nothing. We just do, with all our hearts. 🙏🙏🙏
Again, during these times, especially it being the Thingyan and Myanmar New Year period, to those who are able to be with your family - then do spend quality time with them. Put away your phones or whatever and just spend time with them. Play Scrabble or UNO or Jenga. Whatever rocks your world as a family unit. You don't know how lucky you are that you are locked in with them. There are people like us here who can only video call our parents. When this shit is over, the first thing I'm a do is to take the flight home.
#StayStrong #StaySafe everyone!
