Recently, we launched a new feature on Aion, the News tab. It's a tab where we highlight the top piece of local news in the cities where your team members reside.
This feature had been on our mind since last May when the mount Etna (a volcano in the island of Sicily) erupted. At the time, one of our interns was originally from Sicily, and had we not been avid readers of the news or made the connection we never would have noticed and we would have failed to inquire about how her family and loved ones were doing.
Imagine being worried about the wellbeing of your family and working in a team where no one acknowledges your context, not because they don't care, but because they don't know.
That's when we first formulated this idea that it would be helpful to find a way to nudge team members about each other's context.
For the last 4 months, every morning using AION, our team members all share how we’re feeling. During our standup, or in between meetings we take time to check in on each other. We celebrate the things that are making us happy, and we stand in solidarity with one another when we’re having a tough day, week or month.
Knowing the news is almost engrained in us, as half of us are from Lebanon, a country that thrives or collapses at the slightest shift in global politics. Some of our colleagues who reside in Lebanon often find themselves with less than a few hours of internet or electricity per day, not to mention all the other shortages (medicine, fuel, drinking water). Those of us who have immigrated oscillate between being grateful for the safety of their immediate household, while praying for that of their family members back home, often riddled with guilt.
In the last few weeks, it has been particularly important to have those conversations. There is so much we cannot fix about the world, but we are not powerless. We have the power to keep talking to each other and caring for each other's wellness, regardless of the geographical barriers.
We hope this feature will help you stay connected on a more genuine level with the rest of your team, by getting updated on news you might have not have seen otherwise.
If it's not to much to ask, and you are able to, please donate to one of the many charities here: https://linktr.ee/solidarityforlebanon