Last night, I attended a year-end party, the so-called Bounenkai with my boss and co-workers. Of course, it's not at a restaurant or Izakaya, but remotely from home using the video conference tool, very work-wise. Has anyone guessed such a style a year ago! I truly miss those days when I used to eat out without any restrictions.
Tokyo made a new record, 888 new cases on Christmas Eve, so we aren't really having happy holiday feeling like usual, but vague anxiety. Under this circumustance, it is rare to execute the year-end party as a company event just like every other year. If the year-end party to be the venue of causing a cluster of COVID-19 cases, the damage to the company will be immeasurable.
Let me go back to the video conference from home, do you prefer a head-set or a speaker with a microphone? In the beginning, I was a speaker with a microphone person but I turned out to be a head-set person now. Although my home office is isolated as a private room, my family can still listen to some contents through our thin walls. Unlike our busy company office, background noise is very low at home. Which means, anything you say will be standout and easily listenable to anyone. That's why I'm now the head-set person. Even though my ears hurt when I use it for a long time 5, 6 hours.
While using the video conference tool at the year-end party, I noticed something. Pressing the mute button is critical essential when you eat snacks othewise everyone can hear chewing sounds loudly. Switching between mute and unmute is troublesome during the conversation, and it's difficult to listen or distinguish each voice unless we speak one by one. To be honest, it was a year-end party that lacking all the excitement and fun part.
Next year, Hopefully, we will have a big year-end party to celebrate a winning against COVID-19!
