Back to the trenches

I’ve been working remotely from home since the last week of March, when masks and social distancing became real with the Covid chaos. Before I could blink, I was detailed to work with another department considered more essential, and remote work was favored. Ah, the challenges of remote work… especially since a majority of businesses adopted the same plan. I’m not sure there was enough wifi to go around with everyone on their computers and schools using remote teaching as well. Many days, the internet speed was at a slow crawl at different times of the day. And then there were days when all was working well, only to get kicked off the gateway server and spend a hour trying to reconnect. I can’t complain, as there are so many in the service industry who are out of jobs. I wonder if it will ever be the same or if some will reinvent themselves to stave off future unexpected events.

This past week, with the easing of restrictions, I was back to the office and working in my department. It feels good to be home Toto. All meetings went virtual and I could get back to my projects and catch up on a month’s worth of time lost.

Before these uncertain, unprecedented, challenging and trying times, working remotely was frowned upon. The idea being, if they can’t see you working, you probably weren’t. Now, I think remote work is here to stay, since there isn’t a finite end to the uncertain, unprecedented, challenging…  My boss gave me the go-ahead to work remotely when it works for me. Unheard of!