Working from home

Due to the pandemic, I have been working from home since mid-March. However, since June, I have been going to the office twice a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In the early days, I enjoyed working from home and seem to be more productive though I am more conscious when I am procrastinating; sitting on our couch and surfing the internet with my phone. I find myself more distracted these days with surfing the net during office time; jumping from headline to headline; devouring the latest news.

So I decided to go to the office at least part of the week to get back into the rhythm of normal work; even if I could do most of the tasks at home. The emptiness of the office is soothing with the empty cubicles and the quietness of the near-empty office. My mind works in a more driven mode when the usual anxiety of office work comes back to me even when no one is around. I am the only one in my section when I am in the office.

One reason I go to the office is to continue Tuesday noonday walks with my French friend who is also going to the office. We walk around the parking lot for about 30 minutes talking about the politics of the day and about the pandemic. This is the new normal where people work from home, go to the office wearing masks, practice social distance when around people and try to act normal while searching around one's surroundings for possible infection by the virus if one comes close to passersby without a mask, or a desk not swabbed clean with disinfectant. 

I often fear the worst, listening to headlines and wonder if we will all make it; if the economy will rebound as people go back to work but the parking lot is less than a quarter full and people are still afraid especially as the number of infections started to rise again. Making everything worse is the confusion in the media, in politics in the government and the authorities from top to bottom who seem not to care but just allow people to go about their business for those brave enough to venture out from their homes and face the virus as if their eagerness is making them invincible.