Blog
Remote Working
Did we mean to describe Remote Working so accurately?
A straightforward Google Define reveals the incredible accuracy in which we've described our work-life during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Remote – situated far from the main centres of population; distant.
As the coronavirus began its plodding but certain journey across the globe, a number of concerns occupied my fraught mind. Will my young children be okay? How will this impact the lives of the children I work with? As a mild asthmatic, do I have to worry?
I never really lent a thought to the challenges of working remotely. I thought my spheres of work and life were already blurred; remote-working taught me the difference between blurred boundaries and complete amalgamation.
Telling my four-year-old son, 'I’m here, Edward, but I’m not here' broke my heart, even as the words barely passed my lips. He clearly has a beautiful way of separating my work-life from my home-life; that contrast between us made it all the more painful.
Please don’t get me wrong, our little family bubble is coping remarkably well with being in one another’s company for such an extended time. These difficulties pale into insignificance in comparison to the ongoing plight of the NHS, Police, and other key-workers. But knowing and owning one’s feelings allow us to better appreciate how others are faring.
Then there’s the messaging and emails. As an English teacher, I was confident that I could express my thoughts and feelings accurately enough to get by with working remotely. Remotely humbled. The social cues we share and receive must work wonders to reassure and support one another, because the clinical feeling of the words I send and receive now seem somewhat devoid of whatever it means to be ‘human'.
It’s often stated that deep valleys enable you to appreciate the view from lofty hilltops. As we climb to that hilltop together, I’m taking with me the memory of how lonely and disconnected remote working can be. Now, if I’m sending messages and emails, I hope the recipient feels they are laced with support and care.
Anyway, until we’re upon that hilltop, I’m off to play my part in a dinosaur show where I’m not really sure which dinosaur I am; or what I need to do. But as he’s shown me the best way to approach staying at home, I’m sure Edward will show me how to be the best dinosaur that I can be.
