REFLECTIONS ON WORKING FROM HOME

By Ms Shorba Harkhu

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the world on its axis and forced us to relook at how we exist. It has redefined our daily lives, as well as our workspaces. We are now well into the 20^th week of lockdown. Did you ever imagine working from home for such a long period? Did you ever dream of working from home? Well your dream has finally turned into reality. Some of us have adjusted immediately; while others have not. We should also remember those who could not work at all, as they had lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

Working from home means that I can have my own little “office” (also known as my laptop) in the comfort of my home. It means flexible hours. I can start my work early in the morning or work well into the evening and not worry about beating the rush hour traffic.

I can work from wherever I feel comfortable; be it the cosy couch or a sunny spot in the room. I do not have to worry about what to wear the next day; a comfortable mismatched set of attire and a pair of bedroom slippers will suffice. I can go at any time to the kitchen and have a snack (or sometimes one too many) and sneak out of the house to steal a few moments of sunshine, or walk in the garden to collect my thoughts.

Working from home means fully encompassing the virtual platform. I can now confidently call myself a virtually embedded librarian. Like many, I am also fully entrenched into the world of Zoom. Apart from the daily online tasks, that one performs at work, I can now comfortably add teaching, attending meetings and webinars to that list. Online teaching certainly takes away the frustration of booking a LAN and worrying about seating capacity. We have also utilized the online platform to collaborate and co-present teaching sessions with colleagues from other campuses. It was the first time that we did not work in operational silos, and it proved to be a very rewarding learning experience.

Off course, there are moments of frustration. A slow internet connection or continually kicked out of a Zoom presentation can be very annoying.  There is the monotonous routine and lack of human contact. Luckily, we have a work WhatsApp group that serves as a support for work-related and other matters. I have learnt more about individual databases in these few months than I have ever had in my entire career at UKZN. While I have enjoyed the webinars, there are at times feelings of being overwhelmed by too much of information.

Covid-19 has indeed redefined librarianship and has led us to discover new ways of working. Did I ever think that I would manage working from home for such a long period? The answer is in the negative. Now I will have to prepare myself to return to my real office.