Welcome to the first installment of a 5-part blog series about working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next five weeks, every Monday, a new edition of this blog series will be released.
My SBCS colleague, Brittany Spencer, recently wrote a blog post about adjusting to life changes caused by COVID-19 and the enforced quarantine intended to mitigate its spread . Among other topics in her post, Brittany included insight about how the world of work has been impacted by the pandemic. Whereas Brittany’s writing covered a breadth of issues, the goal of this upcoming series is to focus in depth on the issue of work in particular: more specifically, the issue of working at home when you didn’t before.
As the first day of the traditional work week, Monday has gained a bad reputation. For the next few weeks, Mondays will also herald the arrival of something new and hopefully less unwelcome: posts about how to separate work from home when you work from home. In addition to providing potential explanations for why you might be struggling with this adjustment, these posts will offer practical suggestions and recommendations for how to address these snags.
Photo by Tina Witherspoon via Unsplash
Many people who now find themselves working from home due to the current state of the world did not envision themselves performing their job as such when they accepted the position; this is not what they signed up for. In many cases, if the option to work from home was a priority and a possibility, it was utilized or at least acknowledged before this pandemic sank its teeth into the globe. Granted, even if this option were available to everyone in typical times, not everyone would choose it for a variety of valid reasons including sociocultural factors and personal preferences.
Depending on a plethora of circumstances, the notion of working from home may feel like a lucky luxury (“I can’t believe I’m allowed to do this and get paid for it!”) or a like recipe for disaster to be avoided at all costs (“I would rather work on Jupiter - thank you very much”)—or anything in between. For some, it may have been selected or accepted out of convenience, not because it was a first choice (“Doing this allows me to make money while taking care of my kids”). Often, telecommunication was something that was allowed rather than enforced (“Sure, you can perform these tasks at home as long as you are productive”). But now, like it or not, “WFH” is a part of our national vocabulary (even though “work from home” has fewer syllables and therefore can be uttered more quickly; however, the acronym does allow for faster SnapChat captions and trendier hashtags).
If, after reading this far, you are thinking that this information is relevant to your work situation and you are not put off by the abundance of parentheses, tangential commentary, and tongue-in-cheek remarks (like this one right here), check back next Monday for the next post, which will discuss the part control has to play in our perceptions of working from home.
Meet The Author: Anna Kozitzky, LGPC
Anna offer therapy for individuals at Space Between Counseling Services. She specializes in treating interpersonal trauma, particularly related to sexual violence, and is motivated by the idea that if she can’t prevent people from harming each other in the first place, she can at least help out with the healing process after it happens. In addition to serving people who have directly experienced traumatic violence, she also works with supporters of these individuals. Anna also sees clients who are dealing with depression, anxiety, and major life transitions.
She appreciates creators who see and highlight the humor in the absurd elements of humanity (e.g., Marcel Duchamp, Igor Stravinsky, E.E. Cummings) and, where appropriate, considers it helpful to find moments to share laughter with her clients during their sessions. When she’s not working, Anna enjoys making things—especially food and crafts— to nurture her loved ones. She doesn’t just have one sweet tooth; she has 28 of them. To balance out a sense of cynicism brought about by some of the doom and gloom in the world, Anna likes to play pleasant video games like The Sims, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley.