Fifth Harmony's "Work from home" may have been funny at the beginning of the pandemic and even played purely to dance to, but around two years since China announced the as yet unnamed appearance of covid-19, formerly known as the "Wuhan virus", many, many people are over working from home and lockdowns.
I myself have only worked from home for one calendar month since January 2020 and I think that was because the government, and by extension my employer, weren't completely sure of covid's properties then. After we were back in office there was a large cluster so us working from home definitely wasn't related to case numbers. So I'm lucky.
We also had a strong typhoon while we were working from home but of course we didn't get paid extra because we didn't need to travel.
For the almost negligible amount of time I worked from home, I enjoyed it. Also, everything I needed was in close proximity. My job is one I leave at the office door too, which I think helps in this pandemic where the professional and personal life lines have blurred for many.
I don't think working from home purely as something that has come about from the pandemic will pick up for some jobs. Why? In-person is tangible and builds better relationships and overall health for all parties. In any case, the employer will want regular in-person check-ins. Humans by and large are traditional and in this case that means they have been working mostly in-person for years, it's familiar.
Technology can fail. It can fail in-office too but then you're less likely to get distracted in-office while you wait for it to be fixed than at home.
Ideally, I think many people who have sufficient experience working from home due to the pandemic would agree a separate room for work is preferable. And one per employed person. Which then means you might need to rent/buy a place with one or two rooms specifically to work. And one spare room for isolation purposes. Which not everyone can afford and indicates possibly what needs to be done on a general population level and for the general population going forward. Do we need living spaces with home offices for each person and a room for isolation purposes? If yes, that is new buildings governments have to build for people to live in.
An interesting note: being single and/or alone often seems to be something to be sad about if you're the subject and/or the subject should be pitied. Not being romantically involved and/or living alone seems to be the safest way to live right now to avoid catching covid-19 at home if you don't live with family/flatmates/a friend(s). I mean if you happen to not be romantically involved and/or happen to live alone. And if you feel safe being around strangers and do meet someone from a romantic point of view, it may be easier to go out to eat, the movies etc. as less people is preferable.
Covid-19 has had negative and positive impacts on all relationships.
One 'positive' I see is because it is a pandemic, millions of people have a general collective experience they can understand; and hopefully learn about cleanliness, the importance of the healthcare sector, the importance of teaching etc. SARS impacted Hong Kong the most; Ebola in 2014 Sierra Leone, mad cow disease in the UK (I think). Covid-19 is a connection millions have to varying degrees, but many from different places will be able to talk about mask-wearing, travel restrictions, vaccines etc.
Bisous.
- A.M.
No comments:
Post a Comment