1. Where do you live? Your job?
Havant, Hampshire UK. My job, Researcher Developer, University of Southampton
2. Your age; Your gender
51-57, female
3. How your working time and work habits have changed?
My University closed most of its buildings and instructed non-essential staff to work from home on the 24th March 2020. Although I had been trying to work for home on one day a week prior to that. There is considerable irony in this, in that prior to the lock-down, line management was not keen on me and my colleagues working from home at all – although, for me (and I know for others too), it is actually more productive. So I am hoping that Covid19 changes employers’ percptions of remote working What I have enjoyed is sharing meetings with colleague’s children! This is the new normal – so instead of worrying about being interrupted by children, we should all welcome their presence either in the background playing or the foreground being cuddled and joining in! For too long the separation of work from family life has rendered large portions of people’s lives invisible and by default as irrelevant to work, Covid19 is demonstrating how important family life is and how difficult it is to manage alongside work. I hope employers take better notice of this and have proper ED&I processes, and not just give them lip service in the future. One of the downsides has been the endless online meetings, which have been overwhelming at times. Quite often I have found myself sitting down for 6 hours or more, going from one online meeting to another. Because you need to concentrate more online, it has been very tiring and my hips hurt! A key problem, from my perspective and I suspect I share this with colleagues around the world, has been holding meetings in a variety of platforms, some of which are more intuitive and easier to use than others, i.e. zoom and skype, as well as maintaining internet connectivity. I hate all of the microsoft stuff because I can’t use it properly and was not provided with any systematic training – I am sure it is very powerful software but I have found that just being expected to use it without support, other than online training that you need to know where to go to find it, has been time consuming and a real struggle. I haven’t had to move my courses online yet, so do have the benefit of being able think carefully about how I will do that. I feel very sorry for my academic colleagues who have had to move all of their teaching online at very short notice – often without much previous training and support provided by the institution.
4. What has changed in your daily habits? In leisure, socializing, personal and home care, nutrition?
Working from home means I am able to go for a short walk and get some exercise before breakfast in the morning, and I have a more civilized start to the day now. Rather than the usual rush out of the door to drive to the University, which meant sitting on the motorway in traffic, sometimes for as much as three hours a day! I don’t miss that and really enjoy the fact that I am able to get a little bit of exercise in before I start working – as it has been years since I was able to do that. Although I have not been able to have a proper lunch break everyday since working from home (due to the volume of online meetings) I have made an effort to stop for lunch. On a few days, I have even been able to make a better lunch such as a salad or to cook pasta. This is a vast improvement on eating a sandwich, whilst working at my desk. I have also been able to sit in the garden to enjoy my lunch too. I still shower and get dressed for work on workdays. But I’m not wearing any make-up or fussing about my hair. I am pinning my broaches higher up on my tops so they can been seen on the webcam! One of my friends described it as ‘getting dressed-up for delivery’, which I liked. My day begins properly with a virtual coffee/tea brak shared with collegues from the UK and African countries. It is good to touch base with these collegues and to exchange stories and Covid19 updates from different perspectives. I’m cooking from recipes, baking bread, sewing, tidying my house and garden – all things I neglected before. I have also been in touch with family and friends more than I would. So these are all beneficial and good things. Currently and overall, I feel much less stressed – but I suspect the longer this goes on the more I will miss human contact. Although, along with the coffee/tea breaks in the morning, I have shared a virtual dinner with a friend and have more planned.
5. Did you take advantage of this period to do something that you promised yourself, but you didn't have time to do?
Yes! Excercise more, be kind to myself (see above) and also to tidy up my house and garden. I see this as an opportunity to realign my priorities and that begins with giving my house a thorough spring clean and clearing out a lot of surplus stuff! I’ve started, but still have a long way to go! Too many academic papers to sort through!
6. In this isolation with whom do you feel most in tune?
My freelance colleagues in the South East of England region and colleagues across Africa (on an international project) who are also locked-down and working from home. I don’t feel much connection to my institution at all the moment.
7. Where would you like to be now?
I’d like to be out walking over the South Downs with a close friend, and to see the bluebells, as they are in bloom at this time of year, and then to have a pub lunch with her! We do that a lot in the Spring and Summer, but I haven’t seen her since the beginning of March.
8. What do you miss most?
Being able to just visit people and places freely. Talking with people by phone or online is ok, but not the same as being with them for hours on end.
9. Did you discover the importance of something that you didn't give any weight to before?
It is not so much that I have discovered something that I had ignored before (or did not give any weight to), it is that I was not able to enjoy so many things before because of the volume of work and the time I spent commuting to work. Working from home is enabling me to rebalance my life and to re-discover the joys of cooking, reading, sewing, painting, writing and tidying up, as well as reconnecting with my body and political discussions. All things that I used to do but have lost sight of in the past 4-5 years.
10. Is there something that you have rediscovered and that you will not want to give up afterwards?
Absolutely! I have a much better work-life balance and lifestyle, in spite of the long days of virtual meetings. Working from home suits me emotionally, spirtually, physically and intellectually. I really appreciate the perspectives of colleagues around the world; it reminds me of how we are all in this together. I miss personal interaction – but I don’t miss working in the office! I’d be very happy to carry on with remote working – let’s hope all employers take a more enlightened approach after Covid19.
11. What will change next? What would you like to bring with you when this experience will be over? What would you like not to?
I hope everything changes – especially the way we/I work and live together as society. On a personal level, I would like to remember how taking care of my family, friends and neighbours is more important than sitting in a traffic jam! On a broader level, I hope relationships across the world change and that we don’t close in for self-protection but remember it was with the help of others that we all got through this. I hope that the world of work generally realigns to suit peoples’ real-life circumstances (including our caring needs) far more appropriately than previously. And I also hope we all remember how quickly we changed the way we do things for a public health problem and that we don’t forget this when we think about climate change.
12. How do you perceive change in others? What are the questions you have asked yourself about this situation and that you have never thought about before?
I am not sure about the changes in others – many people talk about wanting a different world afterwards and of being more socially minded, but we will see. I would welcome a change in politics and social organisation. For me, this is like revisiting the past. I left school under Margeret Thatcher and joined the ranks of 5 million unemployed in the UK. When I did find a job, my family were very hard-up financially and we all had to contribute heavily to pay essential bills – but I know we can and will recover from the economic effects eventually, as we did in the 1980s, even though it will be very challenging for a while. But it is the question of what kind of society we want that I feel we need to discuss now, because the answers that have dominated the past 4 decades (and since Thatcher) have all been focussed on economic growth and that more money, more stuff, ore of everything is the mark of success. Covid19 has revealed how fragile much of our society is and how the people we really should value (and did in the first half of the 20th century), the doctors, nurses, carers, local council workers, and educators, who have been neglected, underpaid and sidelined in preference of the bankers, money makers, and CEOs. I hope the latter end up paying more taxes so the former can be treated better and respected in their roles.
Comentarios