Working Apart Has Brought Us Closer Together
The pandemic has caused the world to be much more connected. It is no longer acceptable that women and men are expected to compartmentalize their work, their home, and their personal lives. It is no longer accepted that diverse people have to carry the weight of social unrest and continue to do their jobs without impact, acknowledgment, and allyship. Over the past year and a half, many aspects of our lives have become more integrated and merged for the better.
Pre-pandemic, the struggles of motherhood, raising children, having a family, vacationing, personal interests, and the pains of social unrest were all kept close to our individual vests. But after almost a year and a half of working from home, and not being able to separate the professional from the personal from the social, I really felt like the barriers and walls between our lives began to come down. I learned more about my colleagues and shared more of my life with them. I met their spouses drifting in the background, their children who barged into conference calls, and discovered their personal interests in wellness check in discussions. We learned about each other’s lives (including the effects of police brutality for some and the importance of patriotism for others).
The last year and a half was spent peeling back each other’s layers, and becoming more intimate and understanding of each other’s lives. It is my hope that, over the next five years as the impact of the pandemic fades, we will retain our connectedness, continue to value and esteem our peers and colleagues as more than just workers, and go on caring about the happenings in each other’s lives.