Work in the Time of Coronavirus: The Notebook

A little more than a month ago, my world changed big-time, and I'll bet yours did too. It was spring break week at Penn State when all kinds of things began to happen. The students were told not to come back. And all Penn State staff who CAN work at home were instructed to do so for three weeks, starting March 16. Since then, the "three weeks" has extended into more.

I have gone in to the office three times since then: once to grab my initial stuff, second to get my tree and a few more things, and then once to print out a bunch of documents (no, I do not have a printer at home). That first day, I also grabbed a very nice notebook, hardly used, from my desktop. I thought it might come in handy.

When I am in my office working, I have a highly scientific process of tracking and documenting my work: I scribble notes on tiny post-it notes which I scatter all over my desk in random fashion. Since I don't actually have a DESK to work on at home (though I can sometimes use our kitchen table, between meals), the notebook has turned into a god-send.

In fact, these days, I do most of my work from the bed in the master bedroom, with blankets over me, and frequently a tabbycat curled up between my feet beneath the blankies. Dexter helped host this past week's accessibility team meeting with me. I think the best moment was when I pulled the blanket back to show them the tabbycat: Look! A cat! YAY!

I don't know about you, but working at home has NOT lessened my workload one bit. In fact, it seems like my work is expanding. I have forwarded my Penn State work phone to my home phone, and so any hour that my phone rings, I may be taking a work call any time I answer the phone. The work day somehow feels like it never ends; they have also started to run together, a thing I find disconcerting.

What you can see in this photo is what I was working on on this day. I had finalized the templates for the accessibility notifications that will start going out today for summer semester, which begins in mid-May. And there is the notebook, full of my scribbles.

On the left are notes from Wednesday - I ran a Zoom meeting and made note of who all was in attendance, so I could make sure everyone got a chance to speak. My little agenda is there. I also made note of some follow-ups for me.

On the right are notes from Thursday: a list of documents I needed to update (and yes, I did so by end of day), with some comments about next steps, as well as notes and numbers from another Zoom meeting I attended. Yes, it's all Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

At the end of each work day, I close up shop, put all of my things away, and grab my notebook once again. I go through the past few days of notes and check off the things I've done. I highlight with arrows any to-do items not yet handled. The notebook helps me keep myself organized in what I would have to say is - and will continue to be - a very distracting and challenging time.

On this day, some other work-related things happened. In a news release, President Eric Barron said that Penn State University has projected losses of $100 million this year and is expecting another $160 million in losses in the education and general budget funds in the upcoming fiscal year.

An additional, very sad, bit of news follows: Penn State also announced that it is furloughing 2,000 employees, providing them with half pay and continuing their benefits through the end of June. They have not ruled out additional layoffs, but this is the first round.

The furloughed group includes the residence hall food service workers (represented by a union) who have no work to do on site without students present for summer semester. No, there will be no residence instruction courses on campus for summer; everything will all still be online and remote. No students, no food service, no work.

These are people, unlike me, who can NOT work at home. So color me grateful. I am still working. I am still being paid. And as I mentioned, I am using my notebook to help keep things organized and moving forward. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones.

My soundtrack song can only be this one: R.E.M., with Finest Worksong.