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June 26, 2024
For those who still may think that the war in Ukraine is not business-related, here is how it changed my business:
1) As a military-age man, I cannot travel abroad, participate in conferences, establish new business connections. No, online does not replace it. Surely it has an impact.
2) Some businesses are afraid to subcontract to Ukraine. It takes effort to explain that we are not living in trenches and are not working with a machine gun at our desks. Ukraine is big, and we have an almost normal life away from the frontlines, with restaurants and traffic jams. But of course, war never leaves our minds, thatβs why it is βalmostβ.
3) I feel I am functionally not as effective as I was. Itβs harder to concentrate on management and on strategic planning. Even these posts that I write, they are taking time and energy that I could use differently, but I just canβt stop doing it, itβs become a kind of self-therapy apart from everything else. I am no longer writing about business as I used to do. And I see many people from my team have similar problems. We have even started a psychological support program here.
4) We lost part of our team. Some were too stressed to work, and some left the country and moved to the place with higher cost of life. Some are serving in the army now. We had to find a replacement for them.
5) We immediately stopped working with clients and subcontractors from Russia. It did cause some problems until we found replacement
6) We have additional expenses to ensure stability of work. E.g. Russians are bombing out electricity generation and transmission facilities, so we had to buy batteries that can support the office for 6 hours without a power grid.
β¦ and many other minor things that I skipped here. Some businesses were completely destroyed, looted, or taken away by Russians. I am actually lucky to have a kind of business that does not depend on material assets that canβt be moved. E.g. a farm near Kharkiv stopped to exist as Russians killed all the cows. Not even for food, just for fun. My uncle was restoring the equipment in hospitals that were pillaged by them. And many similar examples.
So this is all very business-related, even if you put all the monstrosities aside.
β¦β¦..
Another post from Volodymyr:
I will block you if you write anything like the following in comments to my posts:
– βLinkedIn is for business, not politicsβ. My business and my life have changed much since the Russian army stepped their feet in my country, so I think I can write about this. Even more: I am fully aware of my performance as CEO and the performance of my team has been influenced by the stress we are undergoing. Some of my team members are in the army now.
Also, I believe business should be ethical because not being so will quickly throw us back to 19th-century-style capitalism. And any business located in the Russian Federation pays taxes that go to war, so I consider anyone who deals with Russians the accomplice. And finally, everyone has a βblockβ button, why donβt you use it if you donβt want the content from me? Itβs much faster than writing the comment and making me do this.
– βBoth sides areβ¦β. It makes me furious. Do you use βboth sidesβ for a robber/rapist/murderer and the victim? It is not so hard to see who started, how events evolved, and so on. You do not like that the victim is resisting, that makes βtoo much violenceβ to you. Such a person is either incapable of logical thinking or thinks his readers are mentally challenged. I donβt want any interactions with such individuals.
– β8 years of bombing Donbassβ. For those who do not know this phrase, their idea is the βUkraine started it firstβ or βNATO provoked itβ, and they put some statements that have never been proven and facts that did not take place. So again: we lived in peace before dirty Kremlin boots came here in 2014. Of course, these cheap trolls will be erased.
– βMake love/peace not war, negotiate with Russiaβ. Thatβs the absurd pacifistic delirium of someone sitting in a safe place. Try that tactic when someone points a gun at you or threatens your family. I’ve heard a story when a person saying such things got his house robbed, and then bought a gun. But when a Ukrainian told him “Why don’t you negotiate with them?”, he got offendedβ¦
So, for me, those phrases are the detectors of Kremlin trolls or simply heavily indoctrinated individuals without critical thinking (wow, so hard to say β1d10tβ in a politically correct way). They are even boring to talk to, can say nothing meaningful and I know their replies ahead, so I just donβt want to waste my time.
Also, I’ve learned that some comments are made just to provoke an emotional response from me, to label it as “hate speech”. I am not buying it any longer after 8 bans, so I am making it quick and clean.
PS: some people are just incurable. I say I’ll block, and they comment to get blocked and say that I am against “freedom of speech”. No, I am against freedom of lies. If you support the criminal and start victim blaming, I won’t tolerate it. Freedom comes together with responsibility.
β¦β¦β¦
And one more :
In recent 2.5 years Iβve seen so many pictures of crippled children, mutilated dead bodies, parents crying on the grave of their children, and small kids hugging the gravestones of their fathers. Also, many photos and even videos of tortures committed by Russians in Ukraine. Iβve seen prisoners starved to bones in Russian prisons. Iβve seen lowered flags on the residential buildings which means someone from that building lost his life defending the country. I am so used to this kind of image that when I saw a photo of a human head put by Russian soldiers on the trunk of a destroyed car, I was not even surprised any longer, because it’s a normal thing for the Russian army and society, reality does not shock you any longer when you understand it. But I am making efforts to explain it to others, especially to those who have not seen wars in 80 years and have lots of idealistic and self-deceptive illusions.
There is a huge pain behind each such photo. And then someone says βwhy are you asking money from us?β, βwhy are you so angry with them?β, βdo not vilify all Russians itβs just Putinβ, “make peace with them now”, and even start victim blaming saying that we Ukrainians are “too toxic”, “too angry”, “provoked Putin ourselves”, and so onβ¦
I see only 3 possible explanations:
1) A person prefers living in a bubble consciously ignoring reality.
2) A person is not able of critical thinking at all and canβt make 2+2.
3) A person is a complete psychopath without any shade of empathy.
β¦ or a combination of them.
Itβs all seen and broadcasted, and all videos and photos are available, just put the head out of the sand and puncture that pink pony bubble from inside. Russia is a terrorist and a serial killer, with millions of Russians directly involved (army, police, FSB, weapon factories, subcontractors of Ministry of Defense, etc), and dozens of millions think βitβs ok as long as itβs not meβ but pay taxes that finance it all.