04/02/2020
COVID: Working from Home
Oh my my, what a sight. Keyboard, laptop, monitor, mouse crammed onto my small round dining table, notebooks and headphone on my rattan chair. It was only day 2 working from home, I pondered if I could get used to eating sitting on my tiny stool or if I should start practicing the Asian squat to change it up – it'd increase my ankle flexibility! But I'd rather have my table back.
Around noon my producer pinged me over Slack app to check if I had the support I needed to get a better setup. My exact reply: I doubt I can bill work for a workstation. I don't know if EA bugged my machine, but at 2pm a message from company offering assistance with working from home equipment. Oh damn. Bug away I say.
Where to shop? Office Depot, Wayfair, IKEA, Amazon… too many choices and no time to physically test them all when I needed the items yesterday. Bouncing back and forth between something cheap and temporary to aesthetically pleasing and permanent, my first picks were in the former category.
When I finally settled on a white stained oak desk and a plain grey armless rolling chair from IKEA and ready to place an order around 7.50pm to save my eye blood vessels, in red text the furniture retailer told me they are experiencing unforeseen high demand, unable to process my order today. Really? Everyone is working from home.
But I couldn't stop. Not until the order button is pressed. And the more I searched, the more my budget leaned towards the second category, towards something that would fit the size and look of my place. By 11.30pm, my vision hazy, my right hand hurting, and my new candidates in blurry sight. In IKEA.
I was so tired the not-today message was long forgotten. Delivery checkout button I clicked again, and the order went through this time. How? The confirmation email shed light: the system is on east coast time, green for next day order.
Done I thought. Until I spoke to my friend. She pointed out the rolling chair will damage my wooden floor. Oh damn. Shop again I had to. Another round for my vision, my hand, for an area rug that would suit my living space.
Came assembly time, my lips pursed. The parts way too heavy. Instructions said to lay the tabletop on the floor, flip the underframe upside down and place it on top of the flat board to screw the bolts in place, then flip the desk back up. The diagram depicted a two-people job. No way I can do this when I had difficulty holding two beams at the same time - one leg toppled over, landed partially on the crank handle, chipped the coating on the leg and broke off a small piece of something inside. No flipping I decided. I would put the screws in lying on my back.
The most labor intensive 4-hour job I ever had to do. Wish I had the Facilities team at home. My muscles so achy the next day, I wondered if I'd hit the virus jackpot. Saliva I swallowed to test for sore throat. Hmm. Not sure. Again. And again. If I kept doing this ridiculous test, I will give myself a sore throat for real.
No fever, no dry cough, no COVID, save too much online shopping. And an opportunity to see my people in action. Superheroes they are – IT, Facilities, HR, managers – hands on deck, doing everything they could including having our equipment couriered to us to help us work from home to ensure our safety.
With all their hard work and mine, I must show off the fruit of our labor – a new 5' x 5' home office in my humble dwelling. Thank you! #dicela #ourworkisplay
Around noon my producer pinged me over Slack app to check if I had the support I needed to get a better setup. My exact reply: I doubt I can bill work for a workstation. I don't know if EA bugged my machine, but at 2pm a message from company offering assistance with working from home equipment. Oh damn. Bug away I say.
Where to shop? Office Depot, Wayfair, IKEA, Amazon… too many choices and no time to physically test them all when I needed the items yesterday. Bouncing back and forth between something cheap and temporary to aesthetically pleasing and permanent, my first picks were in the former category.
When I finally settled on a white stained oak desk and a plain grey armless rolling chair from IKEA and ready to place an order around 7.50pm to save my eye blood vessels, in red text the furniture retailer told me they are experiencing unforeseen high demand, unable to process my order today. Really? Everyone is working from home.
But I couldn't stop. Not until the order button is pressed. And the more I searched, the more my budget leaned towards the second category, towards something that would fit the size and look of my place. By 11.30pm, my vision hazy, my right hand hurting, and my new candidates in blurry sight. In IKEA.
I was so tired the not-today message was long forgotten. Delivery checkout button I clicked again, and the order went through this time. How? The confirmation email shed light: the system is on east coast time, green for next day order.
Done I thought. Until I spoke to my friend. She pointed out the rolling chair will damage my wooden floor. Oh damn. Shop again I had to. Another round for my vision, my hand, for an area rug that would suit my living space.
Came assembly time, my lips pursed. The parts way too heavy. Instructions said to lay the tabletop on the floor, flip the underframe upside down and place it on top of the flat board to screw the bolts in place, then flip the desk back up. The diagram depicted a two-people job. No way I can do this when I had difficulty holding two beams at the same time - one leg toppled over, landed partially on the crank handle, chipped the coating on the leg and broke off a small piece of something inside. No flipping I decided. I would put the screws in lying on my back.
The most labor intensive 4-hour job I ever had to do. Wish I had the Facilities team at home. My muscles so achy the next day, I wondered if I'd hit the virus jackpot. Saliva I swallowed to test for sore throat. Hmm. Not sure. Again. And again. If I kept doing this ridiculous test, I will give myself a sore throat for real.
No fever, no dry cough, no COVID, save too much online shopping. And an opportunity to see my people in action. Superheroes they are – IT, Facilities, HR, managers – hands on deck, doing everything they could including having our equipment couriered to us to help us work from home to ensure our safety.
With all their hard work and mine, I must show off the fruit of our labor – a new 5' x 5' home office in my humble dwelling. Thank you! #dicela #ourworkisplay
03/10/2017
Recruiting at Game Developers Conference
Racking my brain I was at the Game Developers Conference. Since I promised to help recruit candidates. What could I leverage? The activity feed! In the GDC app. The strategy I came up with required luck, and a lot of it. Because I wanted to release two consecutive posts each morning over three days, with no one flooding the feed at the same time, cutting in between my posts. I also needed to wait for the picture to go through before posting the corresponding message. My stomach cramped, my hands wrapped around the phone so tight I thought I might crush it. Except I couldn’t. For three mornings. Stressful? Yes. But so much fun!
Below are screen captures of the three-day post. I mosaicked some parts of the images for this article. Read the text accompanying the photo before reading the message following. Hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed making them.
Below are screen captures of the three-day post. I mosaicked some parts of the images for this article. Read the text accompanying the photo before reading the message following. Hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed making them.
