Thanks to swift government action, the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam has reached a point where businesses in the region are able to safely return to work and reopen offices. A couple of weeks ago, our team in Ho Chi Minh City proudly returned to the office.

While we continue to monitor the situation and work from home in our other global offices, we are thrilled for our Vietnam office and teammates. Watch the video above to see how much they missed the office, the delicious lunch, and seeing their colleagues every day.

How Wizeline Vietnam Managed COVID-19

It has been a month and we don’t have any new cases in the community in Vietnam. Wizeline opened its Vietnam office 2 weeks back, and I’d like to share my quarantine experience.

In Vietnam, we were able to control the virus for a few reasons. But mainly because of the lessons we learned from the last epidemics (H5N1, H1N1, SARS). Not to mention last year was one of the years with the most polluted air in Vietnam, so people were already prepared with face masks.

At Wizeline Vietnam, things were business as usual during the first couple of months of 2020. It’s an advantage that we already have a strong work from home (WFH) culture. It’s normal for a teammate to take one or two weeks to work from home. In the early stage of the pandemic, Wizeline took a step further by announcing that anyone could WFH without any approval needed. This allowed us to help our family prepare for what was to come.

During the quarantine, thanks to the long-standing WFH culture, work felt normal to many of us. Just a bit longer this time. We also hosted several remote events to keep people connected such as team hustles, TGIF, and so on. These events ensured that no one felt disconnected. Wizeline also offered its employees an opportunity to take monitors and other hardware to set up a productive workstation at home.

Wizeline was also extra cautious before opening its office. They sent surveys to make sure that people felt safe to come back to the office. Wizeline leadership allowed people an additional week of remote work so that they could support their families who got to go back to work before them. Whoever felt that they needed to continue to WFH longer were also supported.

Thanks to all the efforts and the culture we have built, the pandemic felt like a long WFH vacation. Fortunately, the only bad experience for me was how much I missed the office, my desk, and fellow teammates. We were able to maintain productivity during quarantine but we surely missed our daily chit-chats, eating, playing, and working beside each other every day in the office. It’s good to be back!