Jenny Kim is a User Experience Designer based out of Irvine. She has been working from SAP since last year. She is a regular friend here at HanaHaus. Today, she joins us to tell her experience with HanaHaus and her transition from working in an office to working at home.
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Name: Jenny Kim
Job: User Experience Designer at SAP
Location: Newport Beach, California
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When did you first hear about HanaHaus and how was your first experience?
“I heard about HanaHaus back when I was in the Bay Area a few years ago. I visited the workspace in Palo Alto and studied there a couple of times with friends while grabbing Blue Bottle. Then, when I moved for my job at Newport Beach, I was more than excited that HanaHaus would occupy the first floor of the building while my office space was located upstairs. Even more, that it be the first Southern California location.”
With HanaHaus closed and the state-wide lockdown, what are your thoughts on working-at-home?
“COVID-19 has definitely changed the way employees work. No more in person meetings, team lunches, asking about each others’ weekends, welcoming new colleagues, inviting friends and family to work, and most importantly, feeling the presence of others in a creative space that is made for teamwork and collaboration.
Granted, working from home has its pros: we get the opportunity to connect more with our loved ones, pay more attention to our health and well-being, and stay tuned with global news. However, in my experience thus far, working from home has posed more challenges, such as the blur between work and life, difficulty of time management, lack of outdoor or physical activities, and decreased patience.
What I am most fearful is not the spread of the virus itself, but the toll it has and will have on mental health, how unsustainable social distancing is, and the stigma it will leave post COVID-19. I read an article the other day by a Stanford professor Jamil Zaki, that instead of practicing social distancing, we should start ‘distant socializing.’ My hope is that we don’t lose faith and stay positive.“
How have you and/or your company adapted to this new lifestyle?
“My team (Eureka By S/4HANA) demonstrated agility not only in the work we deliver (in software) but to adapt to the lifestyle changes that work from home imposed. Despite a challenging first week, everyone was quick to learn the new mode of communication and even influenced us to explore new tools and collaboration techniques.”
Are there any personal tips or advice you would give to others during these difficult times?
“My advice is to stay connected to one’s friends and families. And re-connect with friends and families you have not talked to in a while. Use technology as the bridge as it remains unaffected (they have their own computer viruses to take care of!). The virus is much a social virus as it is a health virus, so ensure that you feel safe and secure while caring for others.”
What do you miss the most about HanaHaus?
“I miss the bright smiles from the HanaHaus and Blue Bottle staff. From the moment I step into the office, their friendly greetings used to make my mornings. I also miss the HanaHaus working spaces, especially the Berlin room, where the User Experience Design team at Eureka was a regular; it was the room where ideas originated and called for collaboration.”
In our blog series, People of HanaHaus, we present the folks that fill our workspace cafe with life: Start-Uppers, entrepreneurs, artists, founders, innovation managers, students, unicorns, venture capital investors and the people who make HanaHaus unique. We want to learn about their journeys. We ask them to speak about their current projects and how they leverage HanaHaus for their business.