 All right. Hi everyone. I think we can start. Thank you everyone for coming today. My name is Irina and actually I gave similar talk this year in Pittsburgh and When I got an email from Drupal Conlyll that my session was accepted I thought that I thought that well, it's kind of it feels like a mission for this year for me To be here and speak about our experience as a Ukrainian So thanks everyone for joining today, and I have my co-speaker today, Anastasia Her name can be spelled as Stasia. So I'll call her Stasia today and We'll be covering the topic that you see on the screen about work time period for Ukrainian teams and challenges that we had in 2022 and keep having in 2023 and lessons that we learned So a few words about myself as I said, my name is Irina. I am Ukrainian I came here to you from the city of heroes Miko live. It's really it's located in the south of Ukraine Unfortunately, it's quite near the Frontline However, speaking about my experience. I've been in IT for almost ten years seven years I'm working as a project manager three out of these seven years. I've been Managing Drupal projects and I'm a happy mother of 11 years old son Hi everyone, and thank you for coming. Yeah, my name is Anastasia, but as Irina mentioned everyone can call me Stasia I'm also Ukrainian But I'm currently living in Istanbul in Turkey and I have been living there for two and a half years I actually moved there before the war started just because it was my childhood dream Speaking about my experience. I'm working in management for six years and three of them were devoted to Drupal project and if someone would ask me to Describe myself in a few words. I would definitely say that I'm an adventure seeker and traveler I really enjoy going to new countries meeting people from all over the world And by the way, France is one of my favorite European countries and I'm very excited to visit Lille for the first time All right This is not the last slide of the presentation, but I just want to say and Staisa as well Thank you to everyone who came today because we understand this is not a technical session And we're not going to share any technical news here however, we will be able to share our stories as Ukrainians and Again, thank you all for joining this session today All right speaking about the agenda I'd like to start from immersing you a bit into the atmosphere of morning of February 24th, 2022 and Our first week of work time Next we'll talk about companies challenges Support and lessons we learned as a team and as a company Next I'll share a few real stories about developers who become volunteers and at the same time They are defenders of our country next I'll try to show and Staisa as well and I like to Answer question. How are we now and how we are preparing for? one more challenge in winter season winter 23-24 and Finally, we'll talk about how we are back in our teams and if you have Ukrainian colleagues working with you on your projects Or maybe you have friends from Ukraine and you don't know how to support them how to talk to them We'll try to share some ways on how you can support your Ukrainian teammates or colleagues Let's go To immerse you a bit into the atmosphere, I'd like you to imagine The evening of February 23 So you finish your working day You said thank you for one more productive day to your colleagues You had a dinner with your loved ones and wish good night to your kids and This is the most hard part for me And then morning of February 24 Started so for me this morning started at 5 20 a.m. I woke up actually to the sound of First time for me. I didn't know this actually. What was that? At 5 30 a.m. I sent a telegram message to my best friend. I Said to her listen. I woke up to the sound of explosions At 5 40 I sent a message to my mom and It was quite naive message from me because I said to her that we probably won't be taking my son to the school today and Frankly speaking February 23 2022 was the last day my son visited his school offline At 5 50 I opened my working slack and I realized that the whole team That I was working with that time We're already discussing ways of evacuation and We're saying we have never Ever discussed anything at 5 a.m. In the morning in the working chat, but the whole group was there already at 6 a.m. My partner and I we started back in our backs. We tried to search for cash Because honestly We knew that something was going to happen, but we couldn't believe it would happen in reality Next four slides will represent Real pictures and I would like to say that None of these images are intended to make you feel upset. You may find them chilling However, I do want to share the experience Just maybe share some piece of atmosphere that we had a few years ago First slide is about emergency suitcases here. You have you you can see three real images these are the Stuff that people were trying to put together including their loved ones and This is how I would say the most of the backs of Ukrainian look like In the morning of February 24 Next one. This is a traffic congestion Actually, this is an evacuation because for some of the Ukrainians mornings started earlier than for me And you may see that it's kind of night period and people were trying to get to the gas station Some of the people were trying to get out of epicenters and this is how it looked like These two images they were provided to me by my colleague QA engineer This is your car and this is your hand and this is the bullet hole in the car that they get during the evacuation And they were trying to move from Kiev to the best of Ukraine and lastly These are real images. That's me in front of the government building in Mikolayev This is my best friend in front of business center former business center slash hotel in in my native city Stasya Thank you, Irina right now I'm going to show you the opposite side for those who just joined I just mentioned that I'm leaving in Turkey So when the war started I was not in Ukraine And it is somewhat surprising but I have found out that the war started a little bit earlier than some of my friends in Ukraine and the reason of it was that in Ukraine we have a group chat with all my friends who are located throughout the whole country and Some of my friends woke up earlier than others because of the explosion sounds so my phone was literally blowing and Raining non-stop so needless to say how scared and terrified I was when I woke up and read all of those messages The first thought that came through my mind was that it's a nightmare. It's something absolutely cannot be happening But then the reality hit so hard and I realized that the goal number one for me was to take care of The safety of my mom who was leaving in Ukraine that time all by her own And I was trying to convince her to immediately evacuate to Turkey Which I cannot say that it was not an easy task because as many of my friends and relatives my mom Didn't even consider the possibility to leave her home and to move to nowhere But that and also everyone was hoping for the best You know every was everyone was thinking that this conflict will be resolved quickly And it will not turn into a full-scale invasion, but then after three weeks of hiding in the bomb shelters and Testing my nerve system my mom finally made the decision and started her seven days road to me At this moment I was searching and trying to set up some walkie-talkie and location sharing application so that I can Always stay in touch with my loved ones no matter what despite of power outages or lost connections And that time I didn't even know that that such applications exist, but they actually do and Also, I wanted to mention that I consider myself being very lucky because I didn't see the war with my own eyes I didn't hear the sirens or the bomb explosions But at the same time it was indescribably hard to be so far away from my relatives from my friends and family without Even knowing how can I provide how I can provide physical actual help for them? And that's why at that moment me and my Ukrainian friends from Turkey We started joining volunteering communities so that we can support Ukraine by raising donations by attending rallies and delivering humanitarian aids To Ukraine. I also wanted to share some images. This one is from the Istanbul rallies that we attended and I want to mention that about 30 or I would say 40 percent of people who participated there were foreigners and Particularly Turkish people and I'm beyond grateful to that to that country and to those people who? Not because not become only my shelter, but also my second family and Here a couple of images from the volunteering community that we attended Of course It's just a drop in the ocean comparing to what we actually delivered because buses were going non-stop back and forth and We gathered everything started from food and clothes ending up with medicines or medical and war equipment to help our soldiers And if we were asked to summarize how was our week of I usually call it week of our morning of February 24 I would highlight probably the five main things that we did during the first week when the war started I was working in another company at FFW agency and we had a global chat Where all team members were there and the first thing that I did in the morning when I was staying in the car Jam traffic jam. I said I sent a message so the slack channel with the global team Letting everyone know that this morning Russia invaded Ukraine And if you have any Ukrainian colleagues working with you on the projects, they will probably won't be available this morning and The whole day and they do need your support today We created a dedicated slack channel where all the team members, not just Ukrainian were able to post updates share feedback Share thoughts news ask for help anything We have informed our clients for sure. So we released statements and we were not trying to hide any information We were just sharing updates as they were sharing the actual situation that this happened in the morning We delivered information about how many team members are available How many of them are not available and just try to plan our next steps at least for the next few days Team members started relocating to safer places. Those ones who were allowed to move abroad mostly women and children They were tried to move to the European country mostly Poland Moldova Romania for the first time Those ones mostly men who are not allowed to cross the board and they are still not allowed to go abroad they were trying to move with their families to the best of Ukraine and Finally, we tried to get over the shock and start building the continuity plan So that we can at least try to project the upcoming weeks of our lives Thank you Now we would like to discuss the challenges that companies faced during the wartime how they support their team and the lessons learned But before we start discussing some practical information We wanted to share some statistics provided by IT Ukraine Association and top LLC report Top lead LLC report. Sorry. The work has proved to become a real test for the whole IT industry However, according to the survey 34.3% of the companies have successfully adapted to the new realities and nine out of ten companies managed to maintain more than 80% of their business processes So what challenges companies actually faced and how they overcame them? First of all stayed in touch with the team when the war started our team was Interviewed to ensure that we have all necessary information about every single team member about their partners and their family members We should have known exactly what they are going to do in case of emergency How would they evacuate by their own car or do they need any help as well as we created a communication channel where everyone can share what's going on around and Get support and ask for help and these activities helped us to know plans of each other and to be able to support one another The relocation support of course companies helped their team members to relocate to safer places as Irina mentioned either to Eastern European countries or to the west part of Ukraine and covered all necessary expenses for that and Also some data provided again by the IT Ukraine Association There's seventy point eight percent of IT companies conducted an unplanned relocation abroad However, 81.5% of those companies who relocated abroad still plan to return their businesses back to Ukraine and Relocation support helped to ensure and create the safe environment so that the team can continue to work in a safe environment Psychological support is also a huge impact for the teams and in the company where we are currently working and five jars We are conducting informal online team meetings such as open mics where our team members can share any experiences or discuss any not necessarily technical or job related topics and Happy hours those are our weekly meetings May aimed just to communicate and to get to know each other better and Daily short 15 minute water cooler talks just to share common coffee breaks with the team Also, the HR department initiates one-on-one Meetings with the team members and this is a nice time for the team to share their feedback to get the support again Or to ask for the help Some of the companies also hire Psychologists so that they can explain what to expect from the war in its certain period How the body can react on it and how to actually deal with those reactions? By the way on the image on this slide There is a footage provided by one of our team members who joined the happy hour meeting During the power outage so he was joining with his phone surrounded by candles And I think that this image proves that those meetings are really very important to us and no one tries to skip them And 24 per 7 chat rooms with the team members were created So all these initiatives helped us to ensure our team that they are not alone that together We can overcome any difficulties and that we are here to support them The financial support Companies allocated additional budget not only for the relocation purposes But also for the volunteering needs for the one-time payments to buy generators or starlings The emergency time off was also introduced that was a special task where team members can lock their time in the For for the emergency breaks instead of spending their sick leaves or vacation days By the way speaking about the vacation additional time was also provided for the team members who requested it and Paid off time for all days when the team members didn't feel ready for work or wanted to work part time and It was necessary and I would say essential to stabilize the business process and take care of the team Here is also some numbers to support the previous slides in October 2022 Russia carried out a massive missile attack on energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine and this in turn led to Power outages throughout the whole country and the complete blackout And of course this situation required Antichrist measures from the companies and they had to allocate additional budget for such things as acquisition of generators Using starlings full procurement purchasing power banks Organizing offices or co-working spaces so that the team can safely continue their work Flexible and careful project management probably one of my favorite Parts to talk about since we are project managers and those approaches relate to our job And as a project managers, we always should know about the situation that happening with every single member in our team I would daily stand up got updated and by updated So we mean that instead of asking our team members what they were doing yesterday how they are going to start Today Instead of this we are asking. How are you? How do you feel to are you safe? Do you need any help? And similar questions Also, we maintained the detailed technical documentation for the newly joined developers so that they can dive into the project details easier As well as we were ready to process flexibility and we also created a so-called what if Document this document describes all necessary actions and steps that our team members should take during the Emergency or urgent situations as an example I can I can say for example Let's say we have a strict deadline or we have a production deployment scheduled and our tech lead Is not available due to the power outage or for example if we have a meeting scheduled with the client and project manager can Unjoin so this document describes all these Steps that we need to take and I wanted to point here that it's a very detailed planning We have to be ready to plan everything not neither in months not in quarters, but in hours The transparent communication with the clients was always our high priority and it remained the same so we are providing updates to our clients in the timely manner and we Always we are always honest with them and we are also extremely thankful for their support for the Understanding and for the help that they provide for us And of course as a project managers We need to take care of ourselves as well because we are leading the teams We need to motivate to inspire and in order to do that We need to keep calm and not to give it into panic by ourselves and To conclude understanding the situation and risks helped us in managing Expectations and staying always on top of uncontrollable circumstances The hiring didn't stop and according to genie analytics, which is one of the most popular hiring website for the IT developers in Ukraine in 2022 hires went down by 13% and this happened for the first time in the last 10 years However, despite of all the challenges Ukrainian IT faced we managed to adopt and in 2022 five Charts has grown by 15 percent since 2023 by 44 percent, which is the great result and yes We are we are keep straightening our team with the new members Let's now talk a little bit about the lessons we learned as a company First of all, we accepted the challenge Ukrainian IT show has shown its resilience We definitely improved our risk management skills because war taught us how to Mitigate various risks simultaneously such as members availability relocation temporary accommodation purchasing generators and so on and As one of the major principles of agile, we definitely know how to adapt to changes quickly now Safety of our team is always a top priority Needless to add anything here. We are keep doing what we love with the high quality to make our world better And this is our motivation and this is what inspires us and also during the interviews We now place greater emphasis on selecting team members because we are trying to build the community with People of common principles and views and our recruiting team has already developed new tools that help them during the interviews Also, we asked the founders of five jars about the changes they have experienced in 2023 comparing to the previous year and I wanted to share some insights It has become clear how to react and what to prepare for the only one thing that has become more challenging Is that the team in Ukraine has grown and it means that now we have more responsibility for the guys and we need to show more care The main lesson learned this year is that we need to be flexible and need to be ready to cover each other We must not forget about our families and loved ones because it is their direct support that enables us to do what we do and Shortly would like to share some lessons that we learned as a team first of all We became more cohesive than ever and it's not only internally within our team, but it's also Cohesive with the clients work has become a way to stay sane Ukrainian people shown their strengths of mine and that they can adapt to any different circumstances so we can work even from the bomb shelters But we don't want to adapt to this and that's why we are trying to improve everything that we can and the company tries to help their team members to Continue working in the safe and comfortable conditions Support for the economy is perceived as a personal challenge. That's also true because during the war every Ukrainian has their own mission and By doing what we love and by providing and keep providing high quality services we are also helping our economy and Our country in general we have one common goal Life goes on I would say here that I'm very amazed by Ukrainian people how they preserve their sense of humor how they stay positive how they remain strong Especially including the fact that there is no no more work life balance the new reality is called war work life balance and If you have colleagues in Ukraine, please keep it in mind and this is something that needs to be respected and Worst put attention to thank you stasia now let's Talk a bit about the real stories of Ukrainian developers who became volunteers and at the same time they are defenders of Ukraine Here on the slide you may see Andrei Luhvishik Andrei is our colleague. He is a front-end Engineer at five jars, but at the same time he is a volunteer at Assembly of God Church in Lutsk and As part of his volunteering activities, he delivers humanitarian aid and covers some military needs By military needs. I mean he's providing uniforms sleeping bags protein generators and stuff like that When we asked Andrei What keeps you motivated? He said you may see his quote on the slide that Many people are used to what's been happening for the last year However, he is inspired by those people who keep fighting no matter how difficult their lives are By difficulties, I just want you to imagine that people who spent about eight months under occupation they might have No water no light No roof over their head, but they keep fighting and just show keep showing their strengths and I Usually come to Andrei for videos because when I was presenting similar topic in Peaceburg He was sharing a video with me from one of his recent volunteering trip. This video is in yuan You probably heard in June What Russia did to her son area when they destroyed Kahovska damp? And actually Andrei was one of the first and his team as well who went there With his and when humanitarian Purposes and he actually shared the video just short video up to one minute where you may see Andrei and Actually what he is him is and his team were doing during that time Is very important and on a land and Unfortunately in the water that's real houses how they look like after this Okay, uh, Anatoly I I'm sure the most of you know him Anatoly is a software architect at imagix and He has been working with Drupal since 20 of 6 and he has been registered Drupal org for 10 years already He is an active Drupal contributor and at the same time since 2022 He's defending our country as part of the armed forces of Ukraine Anton Anton Martinuk is a Drupal developer at open bet He has been working with Drupal since 2015 On Drupal org he's staying for eight years already He's an active Drupal contributor and he also Defending our country as part of the armed forces of Ukraine. This is his actually a real picture and I Was thinking what would be the best way to summarize all these slides and I? found a quote By our president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky He said that our victory in this war will be shared by everyone who was bringing it closer So glory to every Ukrainian hero Thank you But you know to support the previous lights I would say because my husband he is not a part of Drupal community, but he is also a developer and I know these guys and I know my family story They managed to combine Doing their important job in the morning I mean defending our country and they still find time to work So my husband he works probably 24-7 when I asked him how you managed to handle this He said that you know it's something that keeps me alive So I'm doing this unusual job for me in the morning and in the evening and then at night He can just keep coding because this is something that keep him at least his mental health is Stable by all these actions. He is doing same as people that we just discussed So how currently we are and how we are preparing for Upcoming winter season. I found another quote that I think fitting the best the idea of these slides It was said by metro Kuljaba. He is a minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine He said that working in Ukraine during war is challenging but feasible and he was right So, I don't know. This is my answer to the question how we are doing So I just kind couldn't find some proper words. So this is the jeep that probably Describes this best However, if I were asked how we are doing I would answer that we are swimming in the storm However, we are resilient and we keep control we keep focus on those things we can control What we can control I can control my mental health. I can control my family situation my work the environment that is around me and Of course the routine the stuff that I'm doing on a daily basis, which keeps me at least alive There was actually a survey conducted in June 2023 by Rating sociological group and They were trying to ask people from Ukraine how they maintain their resilience So the survey showed some results 86% of Ukrainian answer that they maintain resilience due to their face in the armed forces of Ukraine 61% of people feel support from family and loved ones loved ones And this is the main factor for them and 31% of people are holding on due to daily work There were some other answers, of course such as facing the state facing God volunteering in donations and of course some certain percent of people said that they can maintain their resilience by just eliminating news how we support each other we meet and this is a Picture an image from the event that was organized by our Ukrainian friends the branch agency They supported the initiative of Drupal global contribution weekend at the beginning of 2023 They organized and hosted a seventh in the row event in Lutsk and Lutsk is known as Drupal capital in Ukraine We support the country and these images Represent some examples of how this support looks like so we are we are we in camouflage nets for the military We are providing meals for Ukraine military and civilian by the way The girl which is like the second one on the photo is our lead of recruitment at five jars and she just shared this photo with me and We are receiving and sorting humanitarian aid by the way this Image it's actually a cinema hall. It used to be a cinema before the war now It's a humanitarian center and hopefully it will become cinema again We support each other Actually, we know that we are overcoming these challenges together as a team and I would say it feels much more Bigger than a team. It's now kind of a small family and we meet we talked to each other because we have this common context around us and We have a photo shoot recently in summer. Just I just stole this picture from my marketing team How I am preparing as a Ukrainian for my winter season So there were some equipment that I knew about in 2022 now. I know how the generators look like What the power stations are and I think I'm already an advanced user of Starlings So I know how to order them Now to configure them. So these are kind of the things that I have in my house and hopefully they will help me to stay Find during the upcoming winter season Thank you, Irina and we would like to finish our presentation with telling you how we are back in our team and Share some recommendations on how you can support your Ukrainian colleagues or friends So first of all, our team is fully distributed We have people all of all all of the roles located in Ukraine and in other countries And we are trying to allocate our talents in the way that we all can always cover for each other As I mentioned before we give team members extended vacations if they feel that they need to and As a project managers, we are also putting more attention to our planning So that we plan everything around those time of plans and some of the team members Relicated abroad for this winter season How can you support your Ukrainian colleagues and teams the first tip is to create a trauma-informed environment This recommendation was actually shared by psychologist and I think that this tip describes basically everything that we mentioned during this presentation It is very important that if you have your Ukrainian colleagues working with you, don't ignore the fact that there is a war in his or her country Sometimes people just need to talk and they really need someone to listen to them And I believe that it's very important to create this open Environment where your colleagues may feel safe where they know exactly that they can get support from their team and their colleagues So this is about creating the trauma-informed environment check in on the one-on-one meetings We also discussed it a little bit earlier, but I just wanted to mention here that during the wartime I believe that it is necessary to increase the frequency of those one-on-one meetings with people who are located in the war Psychological support is vital and it's very important to timely recognize the fatigue and to convey your team members That sometimes it's better to take one or two days off or even a week if it's needed Rather than pushing themselves through the projects In order to be more efficient and more productive. It's better to be flexible and give this opportunity to your team members Donate This is not a call to action This is just a recommendation if you would like to support our country or your friends or colleagues You can always ask them. Maybe they know someone personally who need help Otherwise, you can also use the governmental platforms such as united 24 if you would like to help and the last but not least show empathy of course, I Also want to mention that the war taught us to appreciate and to value a lot of different small moments everyday moments in life Maybe some things that we used to take for granted before and also many different simple word words obtained to new meanings right now For example ask how are you because currently how the new meaning of how are you is I'm worried about you and I care for you Thank you very much for your attention Thank you We would love to hear your feedback if you have anything to share with us and if you have any questions We are here to answer. Yes Yes, sometimes I meet people and they're from Ukraine and Maybe refugees or something and or their colleagues and I don't know if I should how much I should ask or Because I don't want to ask too much and push them And but I'm also want to give them the opportunity to talk to me if they want to so what is the best way I Would say just a simple question. Maybe Maybe it sounds for me too simple But ask just how are you and you will understand from person if he or she wants to share like more details you will listen to a story if You know the person just doesn't open to conversation They will just let you know that I'm fine or maybe ask for ask for help So just how are you you don't need to you know go dive deep into the details or questions Just how are you will work because I can speak about my experience, right? I can't speak about like all Ukrainian If people who I work with even from different countries just ask me at the beginning of my day, how are you it gives me kind of Warm feelings, you know, just you don't need to ask a lot Just just how are you and I will be ready to answer that yes I'm fine and inside me. I will be happy, you know that somebody is asking it at least I can share that's yeah All good with us Thank you Any other questions? Yep, go ahead. Thank you so much. Thank you any other questions. I know we're running out of time, but still yes Go ahead. Thank you for your question. Would you like to it or would you like me to take this one? I? Would start probably I would say that the first rule for keeping communication with the client is Transparency and be honest. This is the rule that we set for ourselves from the beginning and as I mentioned and in the start, you know my presentation that we Didn't mean to hide anything. So my clients who I work with they know everything which is happening in my life with my team I try to keep constant communication with them. I would say in 2020 through the situation is I can't say better at least it's more predictable and When the war started we kept communication with them You remember we were saying we were planning in hours So that was the communication that we had with the clients. Good morning. We're like Working everything is okay. The team is available. So we're moving according to the plan if something went wrong Ron I was like jumping in a call with the client saying that listen we have this risk if we for example Just just an example you remember Andre who we shook with our front-end engineer when these Situation happened with the Kahovska dump. He sent me a message. He was assigned to a project I was leading he sent me a message that arena. Sorry. I just can't be here next week because I'm gonna Go to here's on area and help people. So what are the options the first thing that I did? I came I came to the client. I said him, you know, this is the project We just running and this is the guy who is assigned to this project He will need to go to this area to support people I do have for you a few options either we put on post this project for a week And we accept this risk that the project will be delayed by one week or I can just do another way I can reassign people just invite another developer to this project do a quick onboarding and he will be taking part in This project while Andre will be out. So I would say transparency honestly constant communication and I would say these plan works because we we work with multiple clients and they Appreciate the transparency and you know on different levels like on account level. I'm a PMO manager I can ask the client, you know from my PMO perspective We usually check with them how they feel about our communication our delivery delivery Because they know the situation and I would say all the clients are still with us None of them left us and they appreciated the transparency because they know we trust you you never hide the situation You show like the actual status of the project if something goes wrong because of the war we are aware of this So we trust because we know that you will communicate SAP if something goes wrong I'd like to add something I Also wanted to mention that the trust that we built with our clients before the war started was a big plus in the beginning But me personally after the war started never faced any critical situations And this is about your what you're we're asking about how we are making up what we are doing as a team for that And I wanted to mention that it's very important to be transparent and honest not only with the clients but also with your team and after the war started we try to Share the knowledge about the projects with the with all of the team members and try to onboard many more people To those projects so that in case of emergency emergency in case of something happened Many people can cover for each other during the projects. Maybe that's why we didn't Really faced with any critical issues. I know if I'm not available Then I'll just let Stasya know and she will cover for me as a PM same with the developers So we have tech leads who are sharing a knowledge. That's why we have this open mics and Some in internal informal meetings and people are aware and we have all the roles Represented in Ukraine and abroad so that if something happens, somebody can just step in and cover Thank you All right. Yes We Thank you everyone, thanks for those who came who listened who ask questions. Thank you