No electricity in the office

Today I am working from home, not because I like it but because the government decided to cut electricity in the neighbourhood where our office is located. And without internet access it is a bit difficult to run an online gaming & game development company. So the whole company got a day off, and most seem to be enjoying it because only a few colleagues are online at home (no, I am not checking on them, just noticing it :-).

The good thing is that today is Woman’s Day in China, and as a good employer you are supposed to give the ladies in the office a half day off on this day. Well, I did that this year – although not completely voluntarily.

I won’t complain too much about the electricity cut, I already did that when we got the notice. And I learned that sometimes I am still thinking way too Western: the general opinion among my colleagues was that I should not get upset about it (you cannot change it anyway), but be happy that we at least get a notice in advance. There is a lot of truth in that.

And although it’s bad for general company productivity, it also has it good sides. I noticed that I got a lot more things done this morning than in the office. There people walk into my office all the time (which is fine, I even stimulate that), making it difficult to think some things through or focus on a more complicated email. Today it’s nice and quiet without any external disturbances, except for my ayi who keeps walking in with drinks and fruit. I managed to catch up on a lot of business mails, which gives me a good feeling. I will now go for a lunchtime run in the gym downstairs, also something I cannot do when I work from the office. Maybe I should consider working from home one morning per week?