Diaries of a Foisted Home Office

Home Office Worker #32620

Work day 19: In just a few short days, I am proud to announce that I am now happy to be working from home. I have recovered from the initial feelings of job vulnerability that working from home caused. I have embraced my new schedule and proven to myself, and hopefully to the college administration, that I can complete 99% of my job working from home. What I am not able to do is help a faculty member operate the copy machine or stock the three copy machines in the building with paper, help distribute the mail or assist the random community member who is having difficulty locating the planetarium in our building. All important parts of working in an office, however since the building is closed to all normal activity no one needs our assistance.

This opens up a few questions in my mind; why do I need to go to an office to do my job? When the pandemic has eased and our movements are no longer limited; should we just go back to the way we were living our lives?

Thoughts to ponder from author Arundhati Roy and her article titled ‘The pandemic is a portal’. This article is a bit of a longer read and starts out making you wonder where it is going but keep reading. It is insightful, and my take away message are the words at the end.

“What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world.

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

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