08 July 2020

Working From Home During COVID


It has been a dream of mine for a very long time to work from home.  When I had this dream, I never imagined that it would happen because of a global pandemic.  Let's rewind to March, shall we...


February and March were not great.  My grandmother got sick and declined rapidly.  I ended up flying home to Rhode Island twice.  Once to see her one more time and once after she passed away for the funeral.  She was her usual self right up until the end.  Grandma had a very sharp wit and a touch of dark humor. When I went to visit her the last time, she saw me and said, "I must really be dying if they brought you all the way here to see me."

Flying that first weekend in March was interesting.  We hadn't seen full blown spread, only a case here or there on the coasts.  We were careful and wiped everything down with sanitizer wipes before we touched anything.  There were very few people wearing masks and planes were only slightly less than full.

Less than two weeks later, I was working from home.  And it looks to be indefinite at this point in time.  The first couple of weeks were ok.  We pulled Henry out of day care and kept him home as Mr. Fisher and I were both working from home and we juggled care for him with our full time work.  My colleagues were all to happy to have Henry pop onto a conference call.

Three weeks in, Henry learned how to pull himself up and working from home got exponentially harder.  He was no longer content to just sit and play in the pack and play.  He wanted to be out cruising around.  I tried to plan meetings around naptimes and did some work at night after he was asleep.  Let me say though, that as much as it was a challenge, I was so happy I wasn't also trying to home school him while working full time.  Shout out to the parents who became became home schoolers overnight.

The beginning of May, our stay home order was lifted and my husband went back to the office.  We made the decision at that point to send Henry back to day care.  There was no way I could work full time and care for Henry full time alone.  We were starting to get heavy into Fall planning on how we were going to operate as a University for Fall and I had too many involved meetings and projects.  His day care has exceptional protocols though - temperature checks for parents and kids at drop off.  All staff wear masks, only kids and staff allowed in the building, condensing of rooms to make cleaning more frequently easier, and temperature checks for staff throughout the day.  He has done great since going back.  I was nervous that after only being with me and Mr. Fisher for so many weeks, that he would be hesitant about going back.  No tears or anything - he went to them no problem!

Here are some pros I have discovered working from home.  I love being able to workout when I can.  Sometimes that's when I get back from dropping Henry off at day care, sometimes it's at lunch.  But I like having the flexibility.  No commute means I am better able to dinner prep at night, which is helpful with Henry being on table food now.  I have been home for the HVAC guy, the pest guy, etc. without having to plan it in my day to come home and go back to the office.  I do still go into the office once a week because there some things that just feel easier to do in the office, but generally I am the only one there as we are not open to foot traffic at this time.  I wear a mask when I go and when I am out in the hallways as masks are currently mandatory in my county and on campus.  I hand sanitize often and keep social distancing in mind when interacting with others in person.

Cons to working from home?  I miss my staff.  When I say that the people who work in my office are rock stars they are.  And I miss seeing them and chatting with them every day. hearing about their kids and their life adventures.  I have good people and I miss that daily in person interaction. 

What has helped keep me sane during this time?  Lots of podcasts and music when I am not on a call, otherwise the house can get too quiet.  Some recent podcast discoveries: Guru, Medical Forgeries, Rabbit Hole, Dictators, and Cults.  Music - I got a free three month trial of SiriusXM from my last car service and I have been enjoying the 80s, 90s, and 00s station.  Getting back into blogging has helped too!  I've missed it. 

If you are working from home, how are you making it work?

I'll be back on Friday with some office favorites - both for the office and the home office.  Make sure you swing by!  And don't forget - you have until Friday to enter the giveaway!

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