📶 🖥️ 👨 Challenges, bald heads and wine. How we at HFLabs endure self-isolation 👎🏾 💽 🚋

In HFLabs work 82 people - including ≈70 [it was] in the Moscow offices. Self-isolating, of course. But at home it’s boring or, conversely, too vain - for example, when you are locked in odnushka with children. It’s hard to work like this for days on end.

Already in the second week of quarantine, the company's main peers were thinking about how to diversify workdays. And threw decisions. I’ll tell you what has appeared in the corporate, I’m not afraid of this word, culture of HFLabs lately.

HFLabs methods are not suitable for every company. If you have decided to fasten all the buttons, to be emphasized serious and business, entertainment from this article will not go.

Challenges for physical activity (and passivity)

The obvious and useful thing about quarantine is to bring yourself into physical shape a bit. Or at least not to lose the one that is. In order not to collide with colleagues in the corridors of the office after leaving self-isolation, which suddenly become narrow, soft sides.

Over the past week we have tried four competitions.

Walking is the first, most successful and stubborn competition at HFLabs. It is understandable - could there be anything more useful than getting out of a work chair and walking around your ~~dungeon~~ with a watch . The eighth part of the team took part.

_{It began with a sudden message in a working flood chat. In recent weeks, he has greatly increased in popularity, I must say}

It quickly became clear that some of the colleagues were self-insulated in the cottages, in spacious houses. It is hardly possible to compete with them to residents of Chertanovsk studios. Then we decided that we would open a separate nomination for “summer residents”.

Then the opportunist wing came forward - supposedly not for quarantine in order to become active. After some discussions, a separate prize was also prepared for such participants.

The result is a competition in three disciplines.

_{From myself I recommend the personality of Adrian Solano . That's really the record for centuries. Nobody has surpassed his performance at the 2017 World Ski Championships yet.}

The results went from 00:00 to 23:59 Thursday. Mostly the owners of fitness trackers participated. It is inconvenient to carry a smartphone around the apartment, and if you forget it on the table, you lose steps.

_{The participant puts the statistics into the chat, making the opponents nervous. In the third nomination it is especially difficult: the lag can still be reduced by strong-willed effort, but you can’t take back the cowardly found steps.}

The result was summed up on a weekly call every other day, on Friday.

_{An idea flashed in the chat: to give the owner of the leukemic goblet an ointment for bedsores. But it did not work out - a serious competition deserves a serious prize. Therefore, also the wine.}

The winner in the “apartment” nomination shared the secret of success: “I just played football with my son for several hours.” Of course, after that he was offered to take the wine to the neighbors.

And the "summer resident" admitted that he did not do anything special. I just went to the refrigerator from the second floor to the first.

Pullups The turnstiles tried to repeat the success of the first competition. Nothing came of it - pull-ups require more exotic equipment than fitness bracelets. Yes, they survived - people have more electronic trackers than horizontal bars.

The same sad fate befell the push-ups tournament. Here, the shell is not needed, but for some reason almost no one wanted to push up.

Running vertically. Another competition is cross-floors. If you can, in your own home. And then go out into the porch to stretch out.

_{Suitable for those who still want to leave the room and make a mistake}

Three people participated, but one would be enough. The winner showed the world a real feat of overcoming: she mastered 100 floors of her own house in a day (according to the Apple Watch scale - 69).

A word to the champion: “To be honest, I did not expect this to be possible. In secret, calves still remember that evening. ” I hope that “evening” is a reservation, and Tanya overcame 100 floors during the day.

Mass Management (to be done). The last of the challenges has not yet been held, just discussing. We conceived the battle of kilograms, and predictably two nominations in the competition.

Who will fold more. While we are thinking how to count, it is a percentage of the initial mass or in kilograms.
Who picks up more. Overeating is not only pleasure, but also work! It would be a shame to ignore the high achievements of colleagues.

I think this week the starting pistol will still fire.

Competition encourages the team well. Yes, the challenge may not take off at all, it may not attract people. In fact, it doesn’t even matter. The main thing is that everyone adds energy to an informal chat. And gulling is not so monotonous anymore.

Zoom phoning with wild backgrounds

Every Friday we have a general conference at Zoom . At first, about 15 people went on the air, last time - already about forty. We chat about work and news. In general - everything is like everyone else.

Zoom at HFLabs steadily and decisively outperformed the rest of the communications industry. Colleagues in small groups sometimes call up on Google Hangouts , but it has not yet become the standard.

_{In exotic niches, even Skype still holds. By the way, recently a nice article on the successes of Zoom and the failure of Skype was}_{released at Habr}

So, with the help of one of the features of Zoom, anyone who wants to _{come to life will} revive even the most dull party. It's about dynamic backgrounds.

_{To replace the background, click in Zoom on the arrow to the right of the "Video" button. Works on macOS and on Windows, on Linux - alas}

With backgrounds, everyone has fun as he can. For example, I liked the collection of native Russian interiors.

_{This magnificence lies at daniv.ru/russian-zoom-backgrounds/}

Since Zoom and udalenka are on the rise, backgrounds are done by everyone who is not lazy. If interested, google it. Even The Village has launched a pack with backgrounds from popular cafes, bars and restaurants in Moscow .

In general, any picture will do. It is only desirable that with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 and a resolution of 1280 × 720 px.

And the last thing about Zoom - the feature is called the “dynamic background” because even video is suitable. The documentation says that MP4 or MOV files with resolutions from 360p to 1080p are suitable.

_{No one bothers to put such a background video so that the interlocutors are a little stunned. The video is not from our conference, unfortunately,}

so that the background does not “fall off” at all, a green backdrop stretches behind the back. Like in the movies. It costs from 1000 ₽, is sold on Ozone . But we don’t do that - the picture sticks even without “green”.

Shaving heads

The craziest challenge born on the sidelines of HFLabs.

_{The idea caused a fair revival. But so far only two daredevils have responded}

Voluntary alopecia - the idea is now quite safe. At least three weeks you can not leave the house. In any case, not to the office. During this time, the hair will grow, if not as it was, then at least acceptable. The best time for those who dreamed of seeing themselves bald. Or bald.

_{Not even the one who suggested this disgrace began. Just waiting for a reason!}

Moreover, this challenge does not provide for rewards. Is improved heat transfer not a reward in itself?

_{The organizer himself also pulled himself up. Apparently, ashamed, the}

Girls actively discussed, but the matter has not yet reached the practical side. Nothing, there’s still time!

Poetic battle (one warrior)

Finally, the last of our contests in a week is a poem. This is a format for the strong-willed, and not the fact that someone will respond. But if it does, it turns out interesting.

_{If the soul asks for competition - just offer it. Even if there are no participants, the challenge will stir the chat. And we are happy to}

write poetry is difficult, especially folding. We managed only the organizer. But even this is enough - it turned out very well.

_{I hope that now Sasha will buy wine for herself and enjoy the prize.}

An interesting effect of the competition is that people suddenly open up from unexpected sides. Someone writes poetry. Someone is painting. Someone is dancing. All this enriches the team - although it would seem that remote communication is “colder” than personal communication. Such an HR quarantine.

Bonus Track: Wine and Coffee

Perhaps you thought that the article too often appears wine. Perhaps that is the case - in self-insulated HFLabs, interest in the drink has increased dramatically. What a stress! Of course, the main topic for discussion is where and what to take.

Wine delivery. We discussed how to get wine without leaving home. Despite the fact that it is still not possible to sell and deliver alcohol remotely, there are options in the capitals. These offices will help out, as colleagues have repeatedly checked.

Invisible (cash only);
Winestyle ;
Lwine (there’s a wide variety of alcohol, it’s easy to google promotional codes for a 30% discount);
Simplewine (both Moscow and St. Petersburg).

Lwine and Simplewine pretend that they deliver only to their own stores (which are closed). In fact, it is enough to call and ask for delivery - they will not refuse.

_{Alas, sometimes no delivery will help in self-isolation. Not easy!}

Fine wine from Pyaterochka. Colleague Ivan wrote a post that really blew up the Internet (within our informal chat). The author can and would like to believe: a person is pretty adept at studying the issue.

_{All wines cost 500-600 ₽ in Moscow. Each Ivan tried at least three times.}

For the afflicted - pearl labels from Pyaterochka:

Well, and finally: in the chat, the question “Where do you get delicious coffee while you stay at home?” Came up well. In the top is a geyser coffee maker. It is better to spend money and buy from stainless steel, it is more reliable and durable than aluminum. Among the publicly available varieties, colleagues advise Auchan Ground coffe and Julius Meinl Wiener Mokka .

That's all with usefulness, I will finish. Unless recently discussed steaks and recorded a podcast, but more on that another time.

If you like the atmosphere at HFLabs, subscribe to our jobs. Now we are looking for a tester analyst , the salary before deductions is from 120,000 to 150,000 ₽.

Challenges, bald heads and wine. How we at HFLabs endure self-isolation

Challenges for physical activity (and passivity)

Zoom phoning with wild backgrounds

Shaving heads

Poetic battle (one warrior)

Bonus Track: Wine and Coffee

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