“O, so sorry. I need more time. my country defending Russian invasion”
My entire team of software engineers are Ukranian, residing in Ukraine (I'm not in Ukraine, nor am I Ukrainian).For the past few weeks our "water cooler talk" has been almost exclusively about the rising threat of invasion, if not directly about the ongoing conflict in the SE of Ukraine. A number of the team signed up for the volunteer defence force and have spent countless weekends training with the army.The morning of the invasion I received early morning messages from a few of the members to the effect of "Russia has invaded. We are going to fight."I have never sent such an emotional and heart felt "Good luck, stay safe" in what is such a vacuous and empty medium (i.e., a messenger client) before. I haven't been able to produce anything since the invasion began because I am constantly watching the news and various social media feeds for updates on the invasion, and it's really hard to pick up a full (now absent, mostly) team's efforts without metaphorically dropping bits all over the place.My work, and that of my team, it just.. doesn't matter in comparison. My boss is asking for progress updates and I'm just responding "Nothing. The guys are focussing on staying safe, warm, and well stocked right now." (with a small side of incredulity.)I've brought it up with leadership and they are going to parachute in some agencies from other places and I can't help but feel we are just abandoning my team members. The people I have, on average, spent 5x8hr days working with for the past few years. My comrades. My friends. Just so expendable in the eyes of my employer.