A COVID-19 guide to working at home

With COVID-19 quarantines happening all over the world, a lot of people are experiencing extended periods of working from home for the first time. If we treat it right, this could be a good thing.

I have had an atypical career. Right out of university I began working freelance. It would be years before I spent any more than a couple hours in an office. I remember visiting them and feeling I was in a foreign land I’d heard about, but never experienced. It awoke my inner anthropologist. 

Where is that watercooler where people speak about ‘gossip’ and ‘last night’s sports results’? 

Ah, the communal refrigerator. I’ve heard it said people store their food in it, even though it is filled with mould.

So as we head into a situation where more of the world is going to be working from home than ever before, I feel weirdly prepared. Because there are negative experiences endemic to working from home which require careful navigation, three of which I’d like to talk about here.

1. Feelings of guilt

2. Cabin fever

3. Hermit brain

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