Working from “Hell”
After 15 days of confinement due to COVID-19, with 2 adults working and 3 children attending school remotely, “WFH” is standing more closely to “Working from Hell” than “Working from Home”. 😱
Let me give you a sneak peak of my past 15 days in COVID-19 induced confinement, “working from home”. 👀
Yesterday I kept a pen and paper always by my side and noted the times of what happened during the day. ✍️
In summary, got some focused periods here and there 👨💻 but the interruptions ❌ are killing me slowly. Handling them can take anywhere from 2 to 20 mins.
To be honest, this was a pretty typical day, similar to most other lockdown days. Not exaggerating at all, unfortunately. 😩
Repeat after me: This has nothing to do with working remotely!
▶️ 🚦 Sit down to work
— 👨💻 11 min of work
❌ 🤔 Wife: “So how are we planning lunch and shopping today?”
— 👨💻 38 min of work
❌ 💡 Wife: “I’ve had another idea for lunch and shopping”
— 👨💻 41 min of work
— 📆 A few scheduled meetings
⏸️ 🛒 Local market shopping
⏸️ 🛍️ Pick up take away food
⏸️ 🚗 Deliver shopping to in-laws
⏸️ 🍽️ Family lunch
— 👨💻 15 min of work
❌ 💻 Daughter: “Daddy, the online lessons’ screen is frozen, I can’t type!”
— 👨💻 45 min of work
❌ 🗣️ Daughter: “Daddy, Z. wants to talk to you” [a relative who’s a teacher and is helping my daughter on occasion]
— 👨💻 19 min of work
❌ 😭 Daughter: “DAD, my brother R. is accusing me of farting. WITHOUT EVIDENCE! And I didn’t do it!”
— 👨💻 2 min of work
❌ 😱 Son R: “MOM, DAD, my sister is chewing with her mouth open!!!”
— 👨💻 6 min of work
❌ 😢 Daughter: “DAD, my brothers don’t make room for me to stay in front of the laptop camera” [while zoom calling with their cousins]
—👨💻 6 min of work
❌ 💻 Son R.: “Daddy, T. made the zoom window disappear and we can’t find it anymore”
— 👨💻 22 min of work
❌ ⚽️ Son R.: “Daddy, you promised yesterday to play football in the living room with us!” | Me: “Ok, let me just finish something here…”
— 👨💻 8 min of work
❌ ⚽️ Son T.: “Daddy, are you coming or not?!”
🥅 Me: “FINE. I’m the goalie!”
⏸️ 🍽️ Family dinner
⏸️ 🐑 Herding children to get them ready for bed
— 👨💻 15 min of work
❌ 🗣️ Wife: “Are you putting the kids to bed?” | Me: “Finishing something here, can you do it please?”
— 👨💻 12 min of work
❌ 🗣️ Wife: “The kids are in bed” | Me: “Ok, coming soon”
— 👨💻 19 min of work
❌ 😱 Wife: “THE KIDS ARE IN BED!” | Me: “OK! FINE!!!” 🙄
⏸️ 🛌 Goodnight to kids
— 👨💻 5 min of work
❌ 💻 Wife: “Can you help me figure out something here with the computer!” | Me: “Ok, ok… Just a sec!”
— 👨💻 7 min of work
❌ 🗣️ Wife: “About that computer thing, never mind, I’ve sorted it”
Me: “Oh… hum… ok…”
— 👨💻 50 min of work
❌ 👁️ Wife: “Have you read that email from the kids teacher?”
— 👨💻 21 min of work
⏹️ 🫠 (enough for the day)
Originally published at https://hugo.ferreira.cc on March 27, 2020.
