Discouraging Your Co-Worker from Sitting On Your Lap…

and other wild tales of working remotely! Humorous online suggestion recently was to consider your family and pets as co-workers when you are working from home. Personally, I have an older dachshund that thinks this means “nap-lap” time. Feline friends certainly can relate! Since the social distancing situation may be longer than a few days, but weeks, this new reality (or coming soon to a business near you!) may need some news to use.

Pretty sure the world woke up when Italy became the first country to announce a national quarantine. Escalating level 3 TSA from 5 to 26 countries overnight last week was a huge wake up call. Plans were seriously disrupted and around the world you began to see a change in people’s actions. So… now a lot of people are working from home, or should I say LUCKY ENOUGH to work from home. Let’s keep this perspective in mind as I’ve heard from many people about the cost of buying new monitors, reevaluating their Wi-fi providers and horror of all horrors… no IT department to manage issues! Some jobs are lost and/or pay suspended. I have confidence our community will persevere.

For those new to working at home? Get a comfortable chair to work from… nothing is worse than a bad back, no matter your age! Self schedule exercise, meal and breaks whenever you can manage. (Walking the dog or vacuuming are always satisfying for exercise and productivity!). Call, text or Face Time a coworker when you’re needing to brainstorm and/or collaborate on an idea and need some feedback. Camaraderie is so vital and certainly is best at a face to face level but when desperate times call for desperate measures, we have the technology! Stay healthy and snack accordingly. I bought a bunch of childhood “comfort food” at the grocery that even had my family scratching their heads at my rationale. Oh well, nobody’s perfect. We’re all trying to make sense out of these very strange times. Personally, I am buoyed by the sense that we will recover with a robust economy that will showcase American patriotic pride.

Washing my hands and looking forward to when we say: “Do you remember when?” Be safe.