On March 10, 2021, I requested a meeting with my then boss to advise her that now that the virus was confirmed in Jamaica, I needed to work from home full time until the situation was under control. Oh how naïve I was.
With her blessing, I immediately informed my core teams in Trinidad and Jamaica that I would be operating from my home office until the pandemic is over.
As I expected, everyone was supportive and there were many offers of support with my in-office duties to ensure I remained safe. I will always be grateful to those who went above and beyond to support me!
Like most people who were paying attention to any news about the virus, I was scared to death. I recall listening to a BBC presenter describing the agony a young doctor endured before he died. This doctor was in his 30's and had no underlying conditions before he got sick with the virus.
In early 2020, I had begun engaging a contractor to complete my official home office space, and now I was scared to go ahead.
So what did I do, I began working outdoors on the patio in the morning, and returned to my living room in the afternoon when the heat was too much.
As the months passed and news of the impact of the virus got scarier, I knew that I needed the office space. It was clear that the time I would spend working from home would be longer than I originally thought. The questions however was, how would I pull that off. Having people working at my home during a pandemic did not seem feasible to me, but after discussing it with "my village", the people who were taking care of anything I needed outside my home, I consented to have the space completed.
The work began in May 2020, and by the end of June, the space was ready, and my dining table became my desk. It was higher than the television stand I was using as my home office desk whenever I worked from home prior to the pandemic, and I was able to use the accent wall as my backdrop, instead of the window curtains in my living room.
The trouble with the new arrangement was that one of my close neighbours started building so I could no longer work on the outside patio because of dust, and my wrists began hurting due to the lack of an ergonomic workspace. This was not working and a solution had to be found!
Stay tuned for the continuation of my journey...
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