Season: Summer
Weather: hot and windy in the morning with ongoing gale force winds but with freezing cold torrential rains and thunderstorm by lunchtime
Day of the week: Tuesday
Date: 9th January, 2024
There had been strong winds the last few days and the news was full of reports of broken tree branches, fallen trees, smashed houses and cars from the falling trees and broken branches. Five people were in the hospital from related injuries when a tree came down on a house and smashed the kitchen, and from a car accident involving a tree on the highway.
Going to and from work has been a dangerous affair and so the bosses have kindly decided to have shortened work days during this period of time, allowing people to work from home if possible and overlooking any tardiness. Unfortunately, I still have to go into the office as there are some things that can't be done anywhere else. Only two other members of my team have come into the office and the usually busy place has been rather quiet.
Many of the other team offices are also relatively empty, retaining what seems to be a skeleton staff. Two of the bosses came in to the work and have been kindly wandering the building, inspecting, so it seems. Strangely, the usually busy bosses even bought beverages from the café downstairs for everyone who had braved the strong winds this morning to come in. As a 'thank you' they said.
They chatted with us ordinary workers, obtaining feedback about the latest work reforms and listened to our many complaints about the newest one that sounded good, but upon actual implementation totally stuffed up the usual workflow. Everyone has been stressed to the point of spitting, but now that the bosses had deigned to listen to our cries, our team and the other teams on the floor who had been affected, were able to make our case known.
Llewyn from the team next door even pulled out a white board, calling those of us from the nearby teams to join in the impromptu meeting. Using the whiteboard, he with the help of a few others, drew and wrote down a flowchart with annotations. He showed the bosses the processes before the reform and the processes now, after the new changes.
Some team leaders were called in on video calls and they also provided their thoughts while Llewyn wrote things down. Somebody insisted I write the minutes of this impromptu meeting. It wasn't often we had the chance to speak directly to the bosses about anything.
At the end of it all, the bosses had nodded thoughtfully, having taken a few notes of their own and taken photos of the whiteboard. Their words to Llewyn afterwards seemed to indicate that he was now on their radar and they would be keeping an eye on him. Likely, he'd receive a promotion someday. He had done an admirable job in the absence of his team leader.
I did a flawless job on the minutes as usual and sent it to all the related teams, managers, leaders and bosses as I had been told to. I added a cheerful note to wish everyone safety and a good day.
I had just sent the minutes in a mass email when the lights went out and the computers all went black. Looking out the window, all the nearby offices and buildings had also gone dark. That meant the blackout wasn't just related to our building. There was a blackout affecting the entire street and possibly more.
Llewyn organised us all into groups to check on everyone on the floor and ensure everyone was safe.
His, "You alright, Jane? That's good," had warmed my heart after the shock of the power going out all of a sudden.
Someone rescued the person in the toilets with the torchlight from a mobile phone and then we all gathered at the window to look out at the storm and now pouring rain, while lightning flashed and thunder rolled. We drank our hot beverages the bosses had bought us earlier and enjoyed a little break, calmly waiting for any news from the other floors.
By the time the bosses had come around to check our floor, we had gotten back to work. Not on the computers, of course, but to doing all the filing and other work that we had been putting off because we had been too busy. All those papers and folders had been piling up and now was the perfect time to get everything sorted out and put away.
This big cleanup had allowed everyone on our floor to chat while we worked, with one person even wheeling a recycling bin of confidential papers over to the shredder so that the person by the shredding could continue nonstop.
The bosses had been pleased to see our teamwork.
"You're the most organised and efficient floor so far," they told us. "No need to hang around when you're done with all this. A tree took out the power lines around the corner, the local power station got flooded due to poor maintenance of the drains there and the local high tension power lines have been affected by debris from the gale force winds. The authorities tell us that we might not have power for a week. There's no need to come in for the rest of this week. Work from home like we did during the COVID lockdowns. You'll be paid as usual. The office will be closed for the rest of this week until the power comes back online."
We finished work before 3pm and those of us who normally took public transport learned that the busses and trains had stopped running due to the poor weather. Motorists had been advised to get off the road and pedestrians encouraged to stay indoors and off the streets. The wind speeds had reached even more dangerous levels and likely wouldn't settle down until tomorrow afternoon, so the meteorology bureau said.
Considering the freak weather, the bosses came around once more to inform us of their decision to allow us to sleepover in the office until the storm calmed down. At least until we could all go home. Of the handful of people who insisted on making their way home anyway, three returned. One had been blown off her feet by a strong gust of wind just outside the office and rescued by some of the guys who had been watching. One got in the car and feeling how the winds were buffeting her stationary car, realised how unsafe it would be to try driving home and then ran back inside. The last one had gotten in their car and then had a car accident because of the wind. She drove back in her battered car and was now being taken care of by her colleagues.
The other two people who had left, we later heards from through their colleagues. They had made it safely home, but one of them had made it home to a flooded house.
The bosses called everyone left in the office into one of the meeting rooms, where we had all squished, sitting on chairs and the conference table, sitting on the floor or standing. There, they explained tonight's sleeping arrangements and how the trapped café workers downstairs had offered to help make us dinner. The bosses would be shouting us a meal and drinks.
One of the bosses had also braved the weather with some of the men to the local convenience store two doors down where they had bought all the blankets available for us.
For the rest of the afternoon, people notified their families, wandered about, chatting or doing little chores or tasks that could be done without any power. We also had little meetings with the people of various departments to catch up with each other or to confirm things we'd been meaning to ask for a long time. Things like:
"Are we really going ahead with the Griffin project when the partnering company has fallen into dire straits?"
"Is the order requested for the Yellow Sands job meant to be done by this week or next month? Because different people in the team had given different deadlines."
That kind of thing.
And when we ran out of work things to do, people just chatted, played games on their mobiles or took naps under their desks. Others got to doing various hobbies like reading books, playing card games, knitting or crocheting, or like me - drawing or writing. Such an interesting time.
People visited each other on the various floors and got a guided tour of areas of the building we had never been to. The two bosses with us had also turned amicable, playing drinking and card games using water or soft drinks as substitutes for alcohol, until they were all running to the toilets one after the other with full bladders.
Such an interesting day with both the weather and this 'team building' atmosphere of camaderie. So different from a usual work day. It reminded me of a toned down work Christmas party.
My parents had heard about how bad the storm was in this city and had sent me a worried message. I sent them something reassuring, briefly describing the situation and plan and included a photo of all of us who were sleeping over in the office. We had taken the photo after dinner.
Surprisingly, Bezel had also sent me a short message, telling me to stay safe and to thank me for the birthday present that had arrived. That just made my day.