Working from home for many people can either feel like a blessing to them, or if they work around people all day it could be a drastic change that they may hate and miss most about work, seeing friends, coworkers, and customers. Working from home comes not only with very negative side effects but there’s always a bright side of things.
“I never thought I would miss work this much,” father of this reporter, Mr. Kenneth Russell said. “I took mornings going to work for granted. I miss seeing my customers and my coworkers.”
Manager of Kays Jewelry, Mr. Ken Russell, would wake up in the mornings and dread getting ready to go into work every day and stay there all day. Now Russell wishes that he could get back to his normal working environment where he is surrounded by other people, his friends and customers that he helps sell to. He never expected working from home to be so dreadful, but he says it much worse than working at the mall.
“It’s hard sitting in the same chair on calls and meetings all day,” Mr. Russell said. “Or trying to sell to customers online through email or other things face to face.”
Russell has struggled with his internet at his house, so he drives to his parents’ house every day to get good enough wifi to be in a meeting or zoom call. He gets bored sitting in a seat, especially because Russell is a very social person and loves to interact with his customers and coworkers every day. He wishes that COVID-19 would start to decrease so that his chances of going back to work were higher. With all the negative things about working at home now, there also comes some positives.
“I get to spend more time with my family,” Mr. Russell said. “I enjoy and am very grateful for the time that I get with them now because of this thing.”
Russell now works every day from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. which allows him more time to spend with family after working and even between calls. Russell says he has more free time and less stress on his shoulders now. He spends his free time now doing things like going to Mahoney on a picnic, taking walks, hanging outside, and spending time with his family. While COVID-19 is hard on Russell’s workload he is enjoying his time spent at home with his family now more than ever. Along with Russel, his spouse Marissa Kruse who also works at Kays Jewelry is struggling as well.
“I have a three-year-old,” Ms. Kruse said. “I don’t want to leave him at a daycare with everything going on seems unhealthy and unsafe.”
Having this problem Kruse had to quickly find a babysitter or someone to watch after her son and now everyday she has to leave her son for 6 hours every day when normally she would be dropping him off at daycare. Having trust in a babysitter is one thing, having trust in a babysitter every day until this is over, and trusting they are not going anywhere else to bring the virus to her family is difficult for Kruse. Kruse also says she enjoys her time spent at home because it is relaxing and a nice break but she misses her work friends and wishes things would go back to normal.
“I wish I could go back to my normal schedule.” Kruse said, “Work isn’t the same and I miss talking to my customers face to face.”
Working from home for different people is either very difficult or is easy and I enjoy time at home. It may vary from who you ask and what job they work at, but the father of a GHS student, Mr. Kenneth Russell has very mixed emotions and is unsure as to if his time home doing work is a blessing or a curse. He can say that it is both and can not wait to get back to the office.