Working From Home

At 10am last Friday, a coworker and I enjoy a stroll along the company's onsite walking path. I tell her, "I have a feeling today's going to be the last day we all come into work for a while."

She replies, "Me, too."

An hour later, our department head announces that everyone who *can* work from home is ordered to pack up what they need to be successful, and go home at noon.

A handful of us girls who rarely socialize in the office roll our desk chairs into an appropriately distanced circle, eat our lunches on our laps, and pretend this is a special event instead of something sad and final. Someone mentions that it feels like the end of a school year, and we're saying goodbye until the fall. The rest of us nod.

As I stuff files and personal items into plastic bags, an email from the CEO arrives in my Inbox. 

"...this is new to all of us... you provide essential service to our customers... not possible without you... together... proud of you..."

These words float around my mind as I load my work life into my car and imagine what it will be like to carry on at home. It feels weird. It feels as if the captain of the ship has wished us all well and ordered us to abandon ship and save ourselves.

The Husband texts me. "Where are you right now?"

I reply, "I'm loading up my lifeboat."

The Husband and I spend the weekend making a list of things we might need if we suddenly are ordered to stay home for 3 weeks. We visit several stores before our list is fulfilled. 

We stop at our tax prep office and sign our tax returns. "Please, keep the pen," the receptionist tells us.

Monday morning,  The Husband leaves for work armed with a tub of disinfecting wipes and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Radio people touch and breathe on so much of the equipment,  we don't worry if he will get sick as much as we wonder how soon. His employers have not yet made a plan to keep their people safe nor thought about how to stay on the air if their entire staff goes down at once. We are not surprised.  This is how small town radio works.

In the afternoon, I text The Husband at his radio station. "When will you be home?"

He replies, "I'm loading up the lifeboat."

I am relieved. 

Tomorrow,  for the first time in 8 years, the two of us will again be working together. 

We have missed this.