My Spot

Yesterday marked 8 weeks and half a day that I’ve been working from home.

Shelter in place orders came fast and furious in late March for Pennsylvanians. Each day another area would be shut down. We had only a day’s notice that Delaware and Chester counties were shutting down. So, on Friday, March 20th I was in the office with a skeleton crew of co-workers (for half a day) to close-up and move home.

I have never been a fan of work from home.  After 8 weeks of compulsory work from home, I’ve come to terms with it, but it will never be my go-to choice. So, on that last Friday, I obsessed (surprise surprise) over what to bring home. I prefer to work AT work for many reasons, but one big one is that all my ‘stuff’ is there. My space is there. I have nothing against cloud space. I use it for things that it makes sense to me to use it for. But when it comes right down to it, I’m a paper and pencil person.

I’m pleased to report that I packed wisely. Although I have returned to the office three times since closure it was for the purpose of picking up mail and to perform printer, copier and scanner tasks that our little home devices could not handle. Not once did I have to go to the office because I forgot something. And everything I brought home fit in one box.

I also prefer to work AT work because I like to have a space between work and home. There was a time when I brought work home regularly. I eventually discovered that it was too easy to lose the space between work and home. I had to break the habit. It was hard but I did it. And it was good.

And then COVID 19 came.

I knew I had to find a way to keep the space between work and home. I did several things from always wearing shoes during work time to taking walks to mark the changeover from home to work and back home. The most important issue was choosing my workspace. I chose a spot in our living room. For the past 8 weeks, I would only sit in that spot for work hours. Although I packed up my space at the end of every workday, I refused to sit there in the evenings or on the weekends. I needed the separation. On the very few times that my boss asked me to take care of something after hours, I would return to the work space to do it. (Thankfully, my boss understands the need for the separation. But COVID 19 has wreaked havoc in our industry and sometimes stuff just can’t wait until morning.)

Yesterday, I moved my work from home space.

I had chosen the first spot because it was out of the way. And also because the (perhaps) logical place, the dining room table, was occupied by a jig saw puzzle. We finished that puzzle. It was a ridiculously challenging one we had started in December. Next up was a 2000-piece puzzle. We had never attempted one that big before and it required bringing another table in to hold all the pieces. The extra table is a folding table that we only bring out for Canadian Thanksgiving and I forget it’s there otherwise. Now that it was on my radar again I realized that if I could figure out where to set it up, I could use it for my ‘desk’. Well except for the fact that it was now covered in puzzle pieces.

This week we had enough of the puzzle together that all the unplaced pieces fit on the dining room table with the puzzle. We moved the folding table into a corner of the living room and yesterday I set up my workspace there. At the end of the day everything goes back in my box and the table folds down. It works!!

Best of all, I now have my weekend chair back. The first workspace took over my weekend chair. It may have made sense at the time but I underestimated how much I would miss my spot. I’m sitting there as I type this, and it is amazing how something so trivial as having your spot back can boost your mood!! I have a whole new appreciation for Sheldon “you’re in my spot” Cooper.

Keep Smiling Keep Moving
- Paula