Working from home

In the new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic lots of people are experiencing what it means to work from home.

In the past, people thought working from home meant spending the day in your pajamas, working at your own pace, and not dealing with annoying co-workers.

I have been working from home for almost a decade and the only part of that scenario that is true is the pajamas.

Working from home is difficult. It requires self-discipline. There are deadlines, especially in my business, and you have to meet them. There’s no boss to check in on your progress—to give you a smile that says ‘deadlines loom, get cracking.’

There are no coffee breaks with colleagues, annoying or otherwise. You’re on your own.

This is probably what I dislike most about working from home—no one to talk to throughout the day. When a story falls apart or an interview subject is less than helpful; there is nobody there to offer a sympathetic ear. No one to share those funny anecdotes about the day’s work. My kids suffer through these comments; but their nods of agreement are just not the same as someone who really understands, someone who is also in the trenches of a newsroom -if those even exist anymore.

And then there are the interruptions. When you work from home, people think you are just ‘at home.’  But you’re not, you are working.

I have to admit there are times that I sit perched in my home office and watch people come to my door, knock and eventually retreat. Sometimes they even come into the house; I just keeping working silently in my room.

My schedule is erratic because news stories can happen at any time in the day or night. I don’t expect people to know my schedule, but I do hope they can understand that I am not doing nothing at home all day.

And COVID-19 has made this whole working from home thing just a little bit harder as now my children are home every day, all day. No school for them means more interruptions at work for me. That being said, they are pretty good at leaving me alone when I a working shut up in my office. It helps that this Christmas one of my kids made me a sign to hang on my door indicating when I was working and needed to be left alone.

It is difficult for the kids when they have a question about something, to leave that question until I open the door and ‘come home’ from work. Sometimes they just can’t wait but the older they get the easier it is.

Lots of people are dealing with the work from home situation right now and it is a challenge, but it is safe. I am very lucky that aside from no longer conducting face-to-face interviews, my job has not changed much—and I still have one.

I have always loved what I do, it’s an important job. Now more than ever, people need reliable, fact-based reporting. After this crisis abates, I hope everyone remembers that working from home is still working and that journalism is an essential service too.