Yup, Virtual Work made fun!!

Susmitha Sakhamuri
f1studioz Insights
Published in
6 min readJun 7, 2021

Tea breaks, brainstorming sessions, weekend hangouts, football competitions, design talks, and whatnot. We made every aspect of remote working more fun. Going to the office was surely fun, we could see each other, work together, laugh, and talk without wearing masks. And then while getting used to the virtual lives filled with zoom calls and virtual coffee breaks we all had to adjust to the new normal.

Back when we could sneeze without worrying…

Life was simple. 17th March 2020 — a typical Tuesday. Everyone was busy with work, deadlines, chats, and laughs. Little had we known it was going to be the last day for all of us to work from the real office space. Amidst all the fun, coffee, and work, no one knew that it was going to take more than “just a few weeks” before we could all get back to normal.

But, we at f1 did not want to compromise our fun sessions in the dawn of virtuality. Throughout the past 1 year, and going on we made virtual work fun and productive. Of course, culture is all about us having the same set of beliefs, attitudes, values. At f1studioz, we always made sure to have a positive work culture, reflecting the same on our f1atics. From the scrum of scrums every Monday to playing ludo, guess the logo on Friday fresh-ups at weekends, we roof up the experiences.

We all wanted to be on the same line. How can anybody redefine a design agency’s culture to match the new normal when half of the force works from the office and the rest from home? Hearing the half of the employees working from home and the rest from the office doesn’t make any sense and believe us it ain’t productive.

The New Normal

Since 2020, it has been a roller coaster journey for all of us. Attending meetings in our PJs to working between the never-ending chaos of home has been nothing but challenging. Clearly, corporate life has been mixed with our personal lives.

But, in a roller coaster ride, there are ups too. F1, at its core, believes that having a pure fun positive work culture enhances productivity. Even during the pandemic, we have never compromised on things that improve our degree of morale. We were so determined to not only survive but to thrive. We kept exploring and expanding. After all, our culture’s core qualities are Curiosity, Playfulness.

Having physical office space helped us in flawless customer service. It is a challenge to deliver the same while working remotely. Again, we like challenges. We needed to take our leadership and organizational systems to the next level. So, our teams went through training and discussions, learning how to continue to deliver a seamless customer service experience. It required a combination of technology and a strengthening of leadership fundamentals.

We swept UX India 4 times.

Who said that human brains are wired to having productive spurts only in a confined space? We have a foolproof situation with us.

Design challenges.

Yup, these challenges act like food to our deprived brains. And I want to take this occasion to mention that we have been the winners of the UX India design challenge 4 years in a row.

This is an attempt by UMO.DESIGN to let history remember this period for the collective power of humanity through stories, and capture everyone’s existence from various perspectives. Our team never stopped coming up with brilliant storylines. Have a look at this beautiful video that our team composed as part of a short-moving storytelling contest.

Thanks to Uxindia, UX INDIA CONFERENCE, KaladharBapu for organizing such a great event across India even during difficult times like this.

Also, we are happy to mention that we haven’t missed out on delighting both audience and the board.

After reading all this stuff you must be wondering what is it like to work at f1studioz design agency. Let me walk you through how a typical week here looks like:

Scrum of Scrums: Unlike other weekdays, on Mondays, we have a scrum of scrums where all the teams get together for a scrum.

Monda: Then we go for the Monda session, which runs for about an hour. This is a platform where we talk about everything under the design umbrella. A platform to learn and spread design knowledge.

Discord Discussions: Then the rest of the week includes work of course, along with the constant communication on various Discord channels

Friday Funda: Ofcourse fundas are fun, filled with design news, aspects, elements. In design talks, we invite designers from nooks and corners across industries to interact with us. Watch these talks by hitting below.

Friday Freshups: Then we wind up the week’s work with a touch of playfulness. Everything from virtual football to mind games, we play it all in Friday Freshup sessions.

Show your talent: On our dribbble and up labs channels, we push designs, that are aesthetic and fun. Whoever you are, if you are part of f1, we shall push it out on those channels.

#HiringAlert

And now we have made the coolest decision ever. As we are thriving during the pandemic, we set up the goal of hiring 50 more individuals across functions. And the best part is we have found a great deal in working from home.

Having hired over 25% of its workforce since going fully remote in March 2020, Slack has changed onboarding processes dramatically, moving paperwork and learning sessions to online having interactive sessions with leaders and teammates. So are we. During the last year, we set up the process of giving smooth onboarding experiences for the candidates getting hired and the candidates taking part in the interviews.

Not only had we shaped our activities during covid, but also we incorporated more fun things during this difficult time. Have a sneak peek at how we have shifted our approach from pre-covid to post-covid, never ignoring the fun element. We are freaking f1atics, always welcoming new talent, fresh perspectives. If you are good at what you are doing then write to us instantly here-careers@f1studioz.com

Finally…

What are you still waiting for?

We don’t know how long this pandemic will last, or what will its full effects be, but we do know that it has pushed us towards growth. We grew in a way that might otherwise have taken us years. It’s allowed us to create new flexibilities to support our employees and new tools to help us optimize.

This situation presents an opportunity to accelerate cultural change and transformation to create resilience for the future. For us as individuals, and as companies, the challenge has been in learning how to survive through this uncertainty. The opportunity is to learn how to thrive. Come join us by sending your portfolio here: careers@f1studioz.com

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