What I thought I would talk about today is what I have learned over the last few months. Even just that sentence should tell you why I is for me!
As we were coming home from the supermarket today, my husband said to me that we have basically been inside for all of autumn this year, which is a bit crazy really. Other than occasional trips to the supermarket, we, like so many others, have been at home.
When it first became apparent that we were going to go into social isolation, I must admit I was dreading it. I am someone who has a tendency to overbook my weekends with outings, get togethers, movies, dinners etc so the idea of being forced to stay at home was quite daunting. And the idea of working from home - no thank you.
So here's what I have learnt about me.
I really like working from home. There are positives and negatives of course. For example, I enjoy being able to get out of bed a bit (or a lot) later and having no commute even though it means that I have less time to read or play my stupid Facebook games. I enjoy being able to be home so that we can eat dinner at a reasonable time, instead of it sometimes being 7.30 or later by the time we get home and get dinner cooked. I enjoy being able to watch some of the early evening quiz shows including the obligatory shouting the answers at the TV.
One aspect that I really like about working from home is working with my husband. I like hearing him talking and laughing with his colleagues, how he leads his team and just generally hearing his voice. I like that we get to interact during the day, and we have lunch together fairly regularly. He went into his actual office a couple of weeks ago and I found that day where I was home by myself really hard. I am not looking forward to when we start going back to the office and we go back to just a few text messages a day.
I did get in trouble a couple of days ago though when I was cleaning up the dirty dishes from his desk ,because I was going to the kitchen anyway, and I took his chosen mug for the day. I heard him say to his colleague that his cleaning lady was a bit aggressive and had taken his mug. The next day when I came into the room there was a sticky note on his mug saying "mug for the day" so that I would know not to take it.
I do find interacting with others quite tiring, especially as a manager of a team of people where I am trying to keep checking in with on a regular basis. I am always trying to gauge how they are doing. Is someone a bit quiet, does that mean they are having issues, has their communication been a bit abrupt etc. And video calls, webinars etc are so draining.
Before isolation and before meeting the aforementioned husband, if I had a weekend where I didn't go out and do something or meet someone by the time Sunday night came I would be feeling quite down. I have learned that I can stay at home and enjoy myself, that I don't actually have all the things scheduled for every weekend. I am finding that we are filling our time with different TV shows from series to theatre to music, blogging, reading, cooking together and for each other and more. Now, I get to Sunday afternoon and realise that there is still so much more that I wanted to do that weekend which is exactly the same as before really, even without leaving the house.
Having said that, I am looking forward to when we can go and do things. Simple things like going for brunch with friends or going to the movies or to an art gallery! What I do need to remember is that we don't need to overschedule!
I have enjoyed coming back to blogging and I think that this period has helped solidify that. Those extra hours at home have given me time to spend visiting other blogs and in preparing my own posts. I currently have a lot of posts in draft at various degrees of completion, some of which may not ever see daylight, but I know that they are there.
I have learned that it is okay to be okay, but it is also okay to have days where we are not as okay.
Now, I'm pretty sure if I went through and counted the number of times I used the word I in this post that is all about me it would make sense that I is for me!
I think it was 49 all up in case you were wondering!
I enjoyed reading about U! U! U! I mean the I, I, I that is you. Now I'm curious about what kind of work you do. I'm not sure I've ever known, even as long as we've been blogging friends. Being retired, I'm here in my apartment alone, with no one else but my cat. I do occasionally get to say hello to one or two people when I go down for my mail, since I live in a retirement center. But we are so careful to keep social distancing while wearing our masks that we don't say more than a few words. The staff have removed all furniture from the lobby so we are not able to sit and chat as before. I "get together" with others one at a time by phone now, so it's very different. My doctor's appointment next week will also be by phone, which sounds strange to me, but we'll see how that goes, since I probably have to "see" the doctor before my medications will be renewed.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, if I recall correctly I joined the Oprah Book Club boards just before One Hundred Years of Solitude was chosen which means we have known each other online since 2004.
DeleteI've been working from home for about 36 years. I really love it, but I work for myself. I can imagine the coordinating with a team could be challenging. The thing I miss most is not getting together with our friends and the idea that I really can't just run out to the grocery to get a single ingredient. We've opened up a bit here, but Mr. BFR and I have decided to stay isolated a few more weeks to see how our area does. Strange times, eh?
ReplyDeleteVery strange times indeed BFR!
DeleteVideo conferencing is incredibly draining and there have been some really interesting articles out there talking about that.
ReplyDeleteI'm opposite of you in that I prefer to have my weekends free to have me time and only reluctantly schedule things into that time, especially since we are in church in the morning on Sunday and in the evening for an Adult Bible Study, which means I only have one actual day to myself. It has been going on long enough now, however, that I'm looking forward to getting together with friends.
For us it has been Spring which we have missed, though we have taken many walks and I've spent as much time as I can outside on the deck reading so that I can enjoy as much of the nice weather as possible before it gets too hot.
We tend to have a day to do chores and then another day to do things. Even this weekend we are out on both days. Will need to take another day off to just relax :-)
DeleteSo wonderful reading this post! Although I don't have a team reporting to me, I work as a project manager and have to checkin with the team frequently - watch the work and also be sure that the team is content in general. It can be tiring and also challenging to do from home. I think I can identify strongly with what you feel and how your typical work day goes. I certainly love working from home - having some flexibility and being able to see comforting spaces actually makes me more productive.
ReplyDeleteMy productivity depends on the day I'm afraid. Some days I am very productive. Other days...not so much.
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