Chronicle of a confinement – Week 1

The first week of this new period has come to an end.

In keeping with our values of openness and sharing, we propose to keep a weekly column.

Relating our difficulties but also some successful experiences allows us to reconnect.

CEREALOG has adapted and protected its team members.

Some of us were already teleworking and working remotely with clients. The context is new but the practice is not new for them. For the other team members, no one is panicking ; each of the colleagues involved has been able to set up family tools to work remotely.

Our HR team has obviously identified the personal constraints of each person, in particular childcare and spouses in the medical field

We were able to implement government solutions and facilitate the organisation of everyone.

Everyone’s situation is evolving and will continue to evolve in the coming days. We will have to continue to adapt.

The Paris team implemented a lockdown from Friday 13 March. The agencies all closed on the evening of Monday 16 March. The whole team was ready to work remotely on Tuesday morning 17 March.

CEREALOG helped its customers to adapt.

No on-site services took place this week.

We intervened remotely, in particular on installations or configurations with the users to allow them in their turn to work at home. Setting up a VPN, a TSE connection to access their usual files, and for some, configuring access to collaborative teleconferencing tools

There were many calls in this direction, but our “systems and networks” teams in Bordeaux and La Rochelle responded to each request.

Once again, thank you to them for their commitment

CEREALOG works remotely on a daily basis.

Many workshops were held throughout the week by teleconference. Empathy, conviviality, efficiency, time saving are the results. The teleconference tools we use : GOTO MEETING, TEAMS, ZOOM and … DISCORD

We have had to shorten the duration of the remote workshops. Indeed, after 2 hours of remote workshop, the attention of the participants drops significantly. The speaker may struggle to gather the audience. It is clear that in a face-to-face setting, it is easier to hold a 3-hour workshop collectively.

Thank you to the colleagues who were able to conduct these sessions and thank you to all the participants at our clients’ who showed patience and extra attention. We are working to further improve the quality of the exchanges during these sessions.

In addition to the team meetings, “virtual cafés” have been introduced to maintain a daily link between colleagues. It is important to restore some of the informal communication flows.

The Virtual Café is a small moment of conviviality where the way in which each person manages this confinement is discussed. Some employees may find it difficult to cope with isolation, loneliness or the management of children.

Let’s prepare for the “aftermath”.

This question is also part of our concerns.

There will be an end to the crisis. Preparing for it does not prevent us from dealing with the present. On the contrary, it strengthens the outlook.

We will emerge from this crisis, no doubt with a different vision. We will be able to rethink together our means of action, our economic dependencies, the use of digital technology for human benefit, the implementation of collective security without infringing on individual freedoms.

Of course, we still hope that the situation will be brought under control quickly thanks to everyone’s efforts, and that we will soon be able to meet again ! Continue to take care of yourselves.

Finally, a special thought for the nursing staff who are fighting on the front line against this virus.

Thank you to them !

More next week…

The CEREALOG team