Starting a new job during the Coronavirus lockdown
Callum Conway reflects on his experience of joining SumUp in the midst of a global pandemic.
I imagined my first day at SumUp would begin with my new daily commute to Alexanderplatz. Instead, I sat at my dining table, ready to enter my first Zoom call with colleagues I’d never met before. My hardware pickup was replaced by a DHL delivery, but I have to admit that a new laptop arriving in the post made it feel a little like Christmas. You have to cherish those moments — I’m sure anyone who’s been online shopping during the lockdown knows exactly what I’m talking about.
The closure of SumUp’s global offices on March 16th coinciding with my first day wasn’t a total shock. I knew that SumUp had conducted a work-from-home simulation the previous week to test the waters. And like everyone else, I’d been following the news, so I guessed that stricter lockdown measures were imminent. Sure enough, on March 13th, the email came announcing that work-from-home measures were being implemented company-wide. I was naturally disappointed, but pleased that SumUp was acting cautiously and putting our well-being first.
The main onboarding sessions happen at the beginning of every month, so I spent my first week getting to know the Employer Brand team and easing into my new role, which involves creating content to attract potential SumUppers and keep current SumUppers connected. It’s important for new starters not to feel overwhelmed during their first few days, especially in a situation that lacks the structure of normal office life. Thankfully, my team made every effort to ensure that I wasn’t being pummelled with new information.
For the first few days, wrapped up in the excitement of a new job, and many, many Zoom calls, it was easy to forget about what was going on in the outside world. But as non-essential businesses closed and more social distancing measures put in place, I realised that my upcoming haircut wasn’t going to happen. It only took three days of lockdown to go full buzzcut. If you’re considering it, I recommend it. It’s one less thing to deal with in these trying times!
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to connect with colleagues on a personal level, with no opportunities for team lunches or drinks for the foreseeable future. But we’re making do with after-work beers via Zoom in the meantime. I’m not much of a beer drinker, so I usually take the opportunity to make a cocktail instead. It’s a nice way to end the working day, share thoughts, and talk about how we’re dealing with our common enemy.
Slack is another great way to stay connected in real-time, whether it’s something work-related or just to chat and send memes (one of our main sources of joy at the moment). We have a channel named #apart-but-together, where everyone’s sharing pictures of their home office set up, their pets, and even pictures of themselves recreating famous paintings. These small acts of humorous solidarity are making it easier to stay sane and act as a reminder that we’re all in this together.
After two weeks in lockdown, and a bunch of new joiners starting at the beginning of April, we began our three-day virtual onboarding ‘Welcome Days’. This is where the lack of natural socialisation became more apparent — in a conference call with 50 people, there are few opportunities for those small interactions that naturally occur when you’re in a room together.
However, during a session about merchant profiles, we split into smaller breakout groups and worked together to create a persona. I thought this was pretty neat, as it gave people a chance to chat in a more informal setting and get to know each other a little.
In subsequent sessions, we learned about SumUp’s different departments, our current and future products, and our culture and values. I also got to grips with some essential terminology, like OKRs and Agile Transformation (it turns out there are a lot of acronyms and buzzwords in tech).
It was interesting to watch a tutorial on how to use the card readers, since they’re what our merchants work with every day. Every new joiner is given a SumUp Air card reader as part of their welcome package, but we won’t receive these until the offices reopen. I’m looking forward to selling something on eBay Kleinanzeigen and offering the option of card payment when the buyer comes to pick it up. I think they’ll find it funny that I have my own card reader, given the notorious lack of card acceptance across Germany. Moving from England, this is one of the things that took a while to adapt to — on many occasions I found myself in the uncomfortable situation of having to borrow cash from a friend.
To finish off the onboarding process we all took part in a quiz, I usually equate ‘quiz’ to ‘test’, but this was just a short round of general knowledge questions about the topics we’d covered, including the all-important question, ‘When does the Korean food day take place?’ (it’s every Thursday, by the way). A Korean food vendor comes to the office and we can buy discounted lunch. I’m yet to experience it, of course, but I dream about it all the time.
Life in lockdown isn’t always easy, but communication and a sense of community are making this experience far more manageable. I still find it amazing that one week I was unemployed, and the next I was part of a meeting with over 800 colleagues from across the world, without even leaving my apartment. I wonder how we’d cope without modern technology keeping us linked together. Thankfully we have some amazing tools at our disposal and we’re using these to collaborate and overcome the challenges of the current crisis.
