Home Work and Staying Sane

When I became an RA (House Fellow) in the early 1980s I had my first foray into working where I lived. Back then, it was a dorm room. Now, it is a nice campus residence on Oakmont Court as a perk of being the Dean of Students. In all of those intervening years I have learned a thing or two about living where I work. I write this post for my many colleagues who are now working where they live.

1. There is no one way or one right way to do this.
This first period of adjustment provides opportunities to experiment with different approaches. The truth is that employers want employees to maintain productivity and serve their students/clients/customers/colleagues. How it happens is less of an issue than just making it happen.

2. Live a life with balance and boundaries.
There is no shortage of advice on-line from experts: get up at a regular time, dress up a little, segregate work and play, have a space at home that can be for work and the rest is for play. We tell this to our students too: Study at the library or CSI and use your residence hall room, with all its distractions, for down time. This is a great idea, until you get sleepy, or hungry, or distracted, or the dog wants to play poker. The other option...

3. Embrace the integrated life.
Accept it, right? You will sometimes be working weekends or at night, or peruse emails with your first cup of coffee and a smoke (oh wait, different era). The upside to this is flexibility. Take a longer lunch to exercise, cook dinner, or organize that out of control spice rack (shape, size, then alpha - just sayin'). You can be good at work and be good at home life. You can wear your wife's pink bathroom and no one will care, except maybe her. The downside is that you don't know where work you and home you begin and end.

4. Be strategic managing young kids.

When my sons were little and we were really broke my wife did freelance writing. This was in the era between typewriters and Macs (she suuuper old). She recently recounted sitting in the bathtub talking on the phone (long cord) to do interviews while cuing up Barney tapes for the boys to distract them. That went well. Today, employees are dealing with kids at home during work hours and sometimes doing so while they are doing remote learning. There is no easy answer here. Between just giving up and working in the bath tub there are some things you can try. There are Zoom meetings that you have to be part of. But there are lots of other hours in the day. Try doing what you HAVE to do when you have to and be flexible with the rest of your time later at night, or early in the morning - whenever the kids are sleeping, hungover, or watching cartoons. This is REALLY hard. But you have to have a plan to get the work done, however you do it (see number 1).

5. Don't judge yourself or let yourself be judged.
Feeling pressure to be productive for work? Feeling the need to produce and care for the family? Experiencing crushing self-doubt about your value? STOP. We all suck. (Got ya.) Listen, you have enough to do without being hard on yourself. Act like you are a millennial. I sometimes go in late in the morning because I have had night time commitments the previous day. I used to want to shout to people "I WAS AT STUDENT GOVERNMENT TILL 10PM LAST NIGHT." I had to get over it. I knew what value I was adding and let it go. You should too! I have had great bosses over the years who knew what I was doing. Want to get them on your side? Tell them your approach. They will appreciate knowing.

I'm sure there are many more pointers out there that I am missing. In these different and most remote of times, do your best, go easy on yourself, and live your values through your priorities. Now get back to work. Those reports won't write themselves. Or maybe just fold the laundry.

Living in the Future - the Covid 19

I like to describe the work in Student Life as dealing with gravity, levity, and absurdity. We are certainly in grave times and the images we see on the daily news are absurd, to be sure. Here are some random things (19 to be exact) on the lighter side to offer a bit of a break from our new reality.

1. Sometimes I go to the grocery store, not because I need anything, but because I might need something. Plus I miss sports. It's as close as we get.

2. I keep getting emails from companies I have never heard of offering services I don't understand telling me that a) They are still operating during these uncertain times b) that they are taking care of their workers and c) that there may be a delay in services.

3. In these times of high alert, it should now be a crime to use the phrase "an abundance of caution," courtesy of Donna Tuttle.

4. When I go back to the office someday my dog is going to be pissed. Or will she be?

5. The term "Mild Symptoms" seems kind of boastful. "Yes, I have it, but it is okay, I am hearty." This reminds me of people from New York City who tell you they have seen a murder to convey to you how tough it is there while being vulnerable at the same time.

6. There has to be a Sanjay Gupta suit at CNN that people wear. Has to.

7. If you have spent any time in Zoom meetings you will love this, courtesy of Professor Aaron Delwiche.

8. What if this disease was spread by excessive hand-washing? Yeah. Who's the idiot now?

9. There are not enough kudos to go around right now at Trinity. The University's people have stepped up bigly. This includes the administration, faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and vendors. It also includes various departments and too many individuals to start mentioning. Trinity has revealed its character.

10. I have learned that half of the decisions we make in crises are about doing the right thing and the other half is to try to minimize the criticism we will face for doing so.

11. If worse comes to worse I can now last months on a concoction of tomato sauce, beans, and paper towels. Yum! I may need protection.

12. "I'm practicing social distancing" is the new "Not tonight dear, I have a headache."

13. Dr. Fauci. Who knew? Look for Fauci masks Halloween 2020.

14. I have gone back to brewing pots of coffee instead of using the Keurig machine in order to save the planet from all of those plastic pods. #environmentalist #silverlining

15. Here is an account of most people's days from the New Yorker, courtesy of Coleen Grissom.

16. If Sanjay Gupta DID get the virus I would be okay with him saying he has Mild Symptoms.

17. I have thought about reading a book. I won't. But I am proud of myself for the thought.

18. I am soooo over that graphic of the disease molecule that looks like someone put seahorses in a blender.

19. One thing you can count on... is that if civilization is on the precipice of extinction the Olmos Park Police will still be issuing traffic tickets.