Everything has an end or is this the beginning of my new way of working?

Back in December I shared with you that I got stuck in Cape Town due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions - this was where my digital nomad journey started.

I had no idea that it would last 3 months!

Why 3 Months? The German government and global travel restrictions prevented me from returning home. Then Lufthansa changed my travel dates and journey couple times (including demonstrating real bad customer service – thanks for nothing Lufthansa, but you lost me as a loyal customer!).

So after couple of weeks back and forth - I decided to extend my journey to the maximum you can stay in SA as a tourist realising, that working from anywhere is of high value these days. All you need is a Laptop, a strong WIFI (not always the case in SA, plus power outage suddenly changing your plans), and a great employer who accommodates your requirements – thank you Splunk for making this possible.

I could do my job like back home, co-delivered our first ever virtual Sales Kickoff, on-boarded 40+ new sellers into Splunk, ran couple of great workshops for our EMEA sales teams to elevate customer and employee happiness and even ran an interview for PDA group from the other side of the equator.

And I even found time to read interesting articles online (I never find the time at home), I took some online classes to support my growth mindset (feel that I never find time for this at home neither.

Sitting in the airplane now on my way back home, I can say it was a truly exciting time, along a couple of insecure moments on what’s going to happen next, but home office 2.0 during COVID and being in a country during their summer season, soft lockdown, and still feeling safe, was a great experience. Walking early mornings at the beach made the long working hours’ worth well (yes, being 1hrs ahead of Munich made me start earlier and close laptop later), and beautiful hikes on weekends around Table Mountain, exploring the area of CNT .. what a great way of really doing well for my emotional wellbeing and my health.

Also I learned to not take the safe and generous live in Germany for granted, not needing to worry about electricity, stable WIFIs, and enough water to "waste". Basically to live with less and be more mindful is not hard at all. I even came to the decision to start a professional coaching class.

Thank you Splunk for giving me that flexibility, and thank you #IngridJeannot for motivating me to spend Xmas holidays in Cape Town.

So - what’s next? Back in Munich I need to quarantine for 2 weeks, hope the lockdown will be released soon, and I can get my vaccine to go back to CTN for my next “working from anywhere” experience, or to where ever ...

#splunk #workingfromanywhere #remotework