Lock-down Day 5 : 28th March, 2020
From 23rd of March, 2020 our company directed us to work from home adhering to Govt. order. The project that I work in does not have “work from facility”.
“Work from home” which was never a thing in my project suddenly became ground reality. They packed the laptops and desktops and handed them over to respective employees. The concerned teams worked hard to enable everyone to work from home in such a short notice… Even after carrying the machines to home it was a challenge to set everything up.
- Many people do not have WiFi connection at home. Those who have, do not have a LAN cable for connecting the desktop.
- Some people live in areas where power-cut is very frequent. In coastal places, thunder-storm and rain will cause even more power-cuts and network issues.
- Establishing and maintaining a common timing for all is a challenge within the team.
- Maintaining strict hours is challenging too- Sitting for extended hours with work is not a good thing. Whereas misusing the time of office work, seems unethical too. We should ensure that even if we are sitting on rooftop, in balcony, in garden or in bedroom- we can finish the assigned work in time and close the system and dedicate our time and attention to our loved ones. Trying to mixup between office-work and house-chores will reduce the quality time we could spend with family and also affect the office work.
For the first time I had a skype call with my team through my phone. We usually attend all our meetings through computer. Now because of the connectivity constraints, everyday we have to find new hacks so that work doesnot get impacted.
After we had lunch, everybody went to have a short afternoon nap. I too feel sleepy after lunch, even in office. In office, I would take a walk in the corridor and sprinkle water on my face. Normal people go for a cup of tea or coffee- not me. For exception today, I had a cup of strong tea so that I do not give up to the sleep… Specially when I have a bed, some pillows just next to me. It is so tempting to take a nap in-between! I was super-woke today… that cup of tea did its work.
There’s a shelf full of story-books, books that I have a hidden-wish to read…
There is a window next to the bed, from where I can see the empty road… From childhood, I like to look at the street, the people passing by, the vendors, the cars, the stray dogs and cats… It might be meaningless and boring for others, not for me… I listen the conversation of the strangers, make the other part of the story by myself, sometimes I make them characters of a play (in my imagination). Most of the time, they don’t follow my script and walk away…
I restrained myself from sitting by the window and wasting 2 hours looking outside… My span of attention is very less. I get side-tracked very easily, by anything and everything. Even when I open my phone to write something, I forget about that- open Facebook and scroll through it after an hour-then realizing my actual work.
Having difficulty in focusing affects everything I do, I try to keep focused at least when I am at work… Needless to stay, we have to work with strict timeline. Then there will be ad-hoc work too. Sometimes I set timer to remind myself to finish some important work at a stretch without getting diverted. Whenever people see the timer at my desk, they cannot stop asking questions about it, eventually they return taking my sarcastic answer seriously.
At home, I am maintaining a small notebook with all the things I need to complete in a day, I have to learn to manage my work so that I can finish it in usual office hours rather taking it all day and night.
Last but not the least, I am grateful to God that I can at least work from home, stay with my family, I need not worry about the food for tomorrow.
I am grateful to the doctors and the medical staffs who are out there, treating the patients day and night- who cannot work from home, who cannot take leave… I am respectful to the milkman, the food delivery guys, the vegetable seller, the policemen- everyone who is still working to keep our lives safe and hassle-free. They are all heroes who don’t wear a cape and we all should take a moment to appreciate them.
That’s it for today. Check-out my other daily blogs here.
