Here I am strolling down the streets of London but it is only few days ago when I was in Czech Republic 10 mins away from a disaster that nobody expected. The whole preparation for this trip was very stressful. We knew we needed 15 covid tests in total for my family but until the last minute I was not sure if my husband who has Irish passport is allowed to enter. There is so much confusing information online but luckily the trip was pretty smooth in the end.

Little did I know that the summer storms they were predicting for the region where I come from will turn to a disaster and nightmare for many people. And there it was I was looking out of window at scary looking sky and looking at the biggest hail stones I have ever seen in my life whilst 10 mins away from us several villages were hit by a strong tornado. That is something so rare and so unpredictable and something we Czechs do not have much experience with. And it is also something you cannot prepare for. You do not know where it will hit and how it will end up. You may think your house is well built but it does not matter. There were hundreds of houses seriously damaged and people were left with nothing, there were lives lost and people were injured. The villages looked like there was a war zone. It was a sad sight and I pray for all these people to get through this nightmare as soon as possible. My village only experienced electricity outage, cable tv and wifi outage but now I have to laugh at it as in comparison to those poor people it is the smallest issue. I cannot even imagine what they must be going through.

I was driving following day for my pre-flight covid test and what I saw was very sad. There was chaos, ruined houses and people already busy clearing what they could. I personally contributed to several families and if you want to do so as well here you can have a look at stories of those affected. You never know when you will need help yourself and we must realise nature is much stronger than we think.

Na fotografiich si to kracim Londynskou ulici a v te dobe, kdy jsem fotila tento outfit, jsem nemela ani poneti, co nas ceka pri nasi navsteve Ceska. Jestli me sledujete na Instagramu (evglamazon), mozna vite, ze cely vylet byl trosku stresujici, cekalo nas celkem 15 covid testu a hlavne jsem si az do posledni chvile nebyla jista, zda ma muj manzel, ktery ma Irske obcanstvi povelny vstup. Internetove zdroje byly matouci, ale nakonec se ukazalo, ze rodinny prislusnik, muze bez problemu pricestovat. Nebudu vam lhat, hodne jsem si oddechla.

Pocasi nam vyslo na jednicku a koncem tydne nas cekala letni bourka, v te dobe pouze jeden zdroj tvrdil, ze pri takovych teplotach se casto tvori tornada. Ale koho by to napadlo ze? Je to neco, co se v nasich koncinach vidi opravdu malo a navic je to neco, co se neda jednoduse predvidat a ani tomu zabranit. Zatimco ja jsem jsem pozorovala z okna ty nejvetsi kroupy, co jsem kdy v zivote videla, deset minut od nas zazivali lide nocni muru. Stovky lidi prisly o domovy, o majetek a nektere rodiny i o sve blizke. Nedokazu si ani v nejhorsim snu predstavit, co museli vsichni prozivat. Predstava, ze tento zivel sebere moji rodine strechu nad hlavou a mozna i neco vic je desiva. Zatimco u nas vypadla elektrina, kabelova televize a wifi, tak druzi s hruzou sledovali, jak jim tento zivel bere celozivotni shanu a v nekterych pripadech i zivoty blizkych. Tech pribehu je tolik a nektere az zenou slzy do tvare.

Nasledujici den jsem jela na pred odletove covid testy a takovou zkazu jsem nikdy nevidela. Domy bez strech, znicene podniky, vsude polamane stromy, smeti a uz pilne pracujici postizeni, kteri se snazili odklizet co se dalo. Jedna vec je o tom cist, ale druha je to videt to na vlastni oci. Ja sama jsem prispela nekolika rodinam a pokud i vy chcete pomoci, muzete tak ucinit napriklad tady. Solidarita byla obrovska a to je dobre, jelikoz nikdy nikdo nevi, co se stane jemu a priroda je silnejsi, nez si obcas pripoustime.

Eva

Work-life balance is a word I used to mention daily at least hundred times when I worked in recruitment. I used to sell that dream to my candidates but looking back I am thinking…who was I kidding? I did not have work-life balance myself and most of the people I spoke to neither. In one job I used to come to the office at 7 in the morning and leaving at 9 on most days. When I got home I just jumped to bed as my body just could not do anything else.

I started to think about this again today when looking at these pictures where I am wearing my casual uniform of tracksuit and trainers. Yes got the same one from Femme Luxe in another colour and I truly love them all. It simply made me think about this as covid changed the way how we dress, how we spend time so let’s see if how we work also shifted. How has work-life balance changed? If we work from home did things get better or worse?

London and big cities are the worst when it comes to work to be honest. People are praised to work overtime and are celebrated when they come to the office very early. I just think it is so wrong as it is about productivity and results. The question is how is it now when we can’t see to people’s homes. One thing that definitely helped to people in big cities is the time you save on travel. However, it only depends on what they do with that time? Will do an hour of yoga instead or sleep longer or jump straight to laptop to do more work. And how about the key workers? Surely they had to work harder than ever and that includes medical staff but also couriers and delivery drivers. The demand was bigger than ever. Looking at my husband who worked at home at start and then he had to go to the office and projects nothing changed for him. He works crazy hours and even if working from home he easily turns on his laptop 6:30 and switches off 8 pm some days.

Perhaps people feel more rested as we saved time on other things like going out and doing all sorts of activities but everybody still works very hard. On the other hand the people that were lucky to have a job are probably very grateful. Lot of people lost their job and the aftermath of this will take time.

Eva

Work-life balance je slovo, ktere jsem pouzivala denne, v dobe kdy jsem pracovala v personalistice. Snazila jsem se prodat onen sen, kdy mate dost casu na sebe, ale zvladate i praci snad kazdemu potencialnimu kandidatovi. Dnes se zpetne divam a rikam si, komu jsem nalhavala? Myslim, ze i sama sobe. U jednoho z mych predchozich zamestnavatelu jsem prichazela do prace v sedm a odchazela v devet naprosto bezne a nekdy i pozdeji. Kazdy vecer jsem akorat prisla domu a unavou padla do postele. O nejakem balancu mezi pracovnim a soukromym zivotem nebyla rec.

Dnes jsem se zpetne divala na tyhle fotky v me covidove uniforme a dalsi teplakovce z Femme Luxe a premyslela jsem prave o praci. Jak jsme na tom s balancovanim prace a zivota v dobe pandemie? Je to lepsi ci je to horsi? Jsou veci vyrovnanejsi, protoze vetsina pracuje z domu? Covid zmenil tolik veci at uz jak se satime, jak travime cas a tak premyslim, zda prisla i zmena ve work-lifebalancu.

Velka mesta jsou urcite horsi, od lidi se ocekava brzky prichod do prace a nejvic se oslavuje ten, kdo odchazi z kancelare posledni. Ja v to jaksi neverim, je to prece o vysledcich a produktivite. A jak je to tedy dnes v dobe pandemie? Miliony lidi pracuji z domu a do jejich oken nevidime. Jedno je jasne, ze spousta z nich ziskala cas pro sebe navic tim, ze nemusi dojizdet. V meste jako Londyne je to klidne hodina i vice jednim smerem. Je ale na nich jak tento casu vyuziji. Nekdo si mozna da hodinu yogy pres zoom ci si pospi dele, ale spousta lidi urcite skonci k pocitaci. A pak tady mame key workers, kteri urcite mohou na work-life balance v dobe covidove zapomenout. Spise pracovali vic nez kdyz predtim. Muj muz napriklad pracoval behem prvniho lockdownu z domu a pak uz ne a muzu rict, ze i kdyz obcas pracuje z domu, zapina pocitat v 6:30 a nekonci drive nez v sedm ci osm vecer. Myslim, ze naroky jsou porad stejne pro tolik odvetvi a mozna i horsi.

Myslim, ze lide pracuji porad hodne i v dnesni dobe, je to jenom jina forma. Na druhou stranu ti co maji praci v teto dobe jsou vlastne statni lide, protoze pandemie prinesla velkou krizi a ta tady bude jeste pekne dlouho.

Eva