"Mommy, bus?"
"No, mommy is not getting on the bus to go to the office today, but she still has to work," I clumsily explain to my 2-year-old, who assumes my job is riding the bus since it's what I do every weekday morning.
I haven't been to the office in six days over fear of contracting COVID-19. I have also stopped taking public transportation, going to the gym, dining out and making plans with friends.
This week I joined the quickly growing number of Americans working from home in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus.
While I'm a healthy, youngish person without any known exposure to the virus, I am also 39 weeks pregnant with zero interest in layering a contagious disease onto my imminent labor and delivery. Luckily, my bosses agree.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't know whether the coronavirus poses any greater threat to pregnant women, like the flu does. So, I, along with other high-risk or possibly contagious individuals, err on the side of caution and remain hunkered down at dining-room tables across the nation.
"Every company is reacting at a different pace and the situation is evolving by the day and by the minute," said Elizabeth Hang, Twin Cities workplace expert with the staffing firm Robert Half.
While 44% of Twin Cities professionals Robert Half surveyed in January said their employer offered some ability to work off-site, Hang said, "This [outbreak] is pushing organizations that have long been resistant to working from home to now consider it."
Whether a company is implementing work-from-home flexibility in the midst of this health crisis varies wildly, Hang said. Those that have a more global reach tend to be quicker to offer the option of remote work.
"Some organizations are doing it for two weeks. Some are making it mandatory to work from home through the end of June," Hang said.
Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc., with 160,000 employees spanning 70 countries, has asked workers to avoid handshakes and touching and is mandating that all meetings with more than 25 people be done virtually.
Some of its workers are currently self-quarantined and many more are working remotely, said April Nelson, a Cargill spokeswoman.
All 750 employees at Prime Therapeutics' corporate office, located in Bloomington's Normandale Office Park, are working from home for the next two weeks after being notified Wednesday that someone who tested positive for COVID-19 had recently visited an adjacent building.
"Fortunately we have the technology in place to do that," said Karen Lyons, a spokeswoman for Prime Therapeutics. For now, 94% of the company's workforce is equipped with laptops. They are buying more so that, by the end of next week, they will be 99% laptop-equipped.
General Mills has asked workers at its Golden Valley headquarters to work from home, if they are able, until April 1.
There are, of course, jobs that simply cannot be done from home, including those in manufacturing and service-related industries, which raises a host of questions about sick policies, paid time off and public health.
A 2014 study led by a Stanford economics professor found that people who regularly work from home are 13% more productive. But for those who are new to this work-from-home life, there are barriers to overcome.
First and foremost, a company has to provide the appropriate technology, from laptops to videoconferencing platforms like Skype or Zoom to instant messaging services like Slack, Hang said.
She also suggests those who may not have a home office to immediately create some daily rhythms and discipline, including keeping to normal work hours and avoiding the distractions of home.
This may be more challenging in the age of coronavirus, she said, "since the whole reason they are home is a distraction itself." If schools close, parents working at home will have to navigate a new set of scheduling and distraction challenges.
I'm used to occasionally working from home and understand the importance of communicating with my colleagues and remaining accessible throughout the workday. Thursday morning, my editor was calling me and e-mailing me at the same time colleagues were sending story ideas on our Slack channel.
This gets the job done. I write stories; my boss edits and publishes them.
But this extended work-from-home situation feels different from a one-off snow event or a special project that requires I isolate myself for a few days of solitude writing.
The self-sequestering due to a global pandemic has no definitive end date for many people, and the line between personal life and work life continues to blur. I've become a working droid whose most exciting movement every day is taking my laptop to a different floor of my house.
By day five, my mood began to sour. I realized that I missed communicating face-to-face with the outside world, especially my colleagues. I happen to like them a lot, and our e-mail exchanges are a poor substitute.
I wanted to know what they thought of a variety of global current events, or how their wedding planning was going, or if their elderly parents were healthy and well, but there's no good way to facilitate those sort of candid, casual conversations virtually. All my time during the day is now budgeted for productivity. All of our e-mails, texts, phone calls and Slack messages are about the stories we are working on. Yawn!
Workers at other companies that rely more heavily on videoconferencing may feel satisfied by using that technology. I have also heard reports of co-workers at other companies staging virtual happy hours or hangouts as an antidote to isolation.
With the threat of COVID-19 being essentially everywhere, there's really no outlet for socializing in person. It has revealed my tolerance level and confirmed that I am largely fueled by the anticipation of upcoming events and time spent with friends.
Now, every day, it's me and my dog, anticipating my husband and daughter returning from work and day care ... more people! We live small and simply these days in what feels like some sort of survival mode with no end in sight. I find myself looking forward to going into labor, not because it's fun, but because it will force me out of the house.
For others, I say, call your friends and family. Arrange video calls. Shower and draw a bright line between work time and down time. We will all see each other again soon.
Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767
