Working Remotely – A Week Eleven Retrospective

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Greetings Everyone!  This was by far the hardest/darkest week that I have suffered through during the entire remote work/quarantine era.  This was the first week where the pressures as work and demands on my time and energy broke me down into a puddle of tears on the bathroom floor.  But it wasn’t all bad, there were a couple of warm highlight moments to mention as well.  Let’s get started!

What went well:

• The weather has been amazing! As such I have spent much of my non-working time in the backyard either having fun with my son or working on the vegetable garden.  One evening we spent time following a beetle around the backyard, another watching a bumble bee from a distance and one night was a water gun fight!  For the garden, we have several things growing: Carrots, Lettuce, Radishes, Green Beans, and this year we have added two Blueberry shrubs into the mix.
• I need to call our two of my Atlassian Community friends here: @Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_  and @Andy - PTC Redundant , all of us met through our interactions on the online community and formed a really good friendship! On a regular basis we will have a zoom meeting just so we can chat about everything and learn about how things are progressing differently in different regions of the word.  I want to thank both of them for their constant encouragement and support as it has really helped make the hard times a little less hard.  Thanks Guys!
• I’m sticking this in the borderline between the good and the bad. For anyone that has been following this series from the beginning, you will know that in week one, I moved my desk to another area of the house because I wanted to separate my personal/gaming area from my work area.  I have since combined them again.  The room I had moved to was great during the winter months but gets too much sun and is too hot during the summer months.  However, this time I re-arranged things and I bought some additional equipment to help make things work a bit better.  While they are combined again, it seems to be working better this time.  Also, since I spend less time at my desk in the summer months, I don’t feel the effects of this being combined as much as I did when it was cold out.

What could have been better:

• This past week has been quite challenging for my wife and I when it comes to our son. He hasn’t been going down for a nap when he is supposed to or staying down for a nap as long as we would expect which leaves us with less time to get work down that we need.  At night, he has either been waking up in the middle of the night or super early in the mornings.  This has left both of us feeling quite tired.
• This was the first full week where my partner and teammate at work was gone. Last week, he made the decision to leave our company and move on to another opportunity. The entire week was quite stressful and I ended up putting in many extra hours trying to support both of our roles.  By Thursday I was quite tired, both from my son not letting us sleep and from long work hours. What really broke me was Friday morning when unfortunately my manager took a vacation day and wasn’t there to help shield me from some of the hurtful comments and demands that were made by other employees at our company that lacked compassion and understanding regarding the extra work load I have been forced to endure.  This finally broke my spirit and I’m not ashamed to admit that I was curled up in the corner of the bathroom crying.  My amazing wife was extremely supportive and even though she has just as many stressful things she is dealing with herself, she helped get me back on my feet both mentally and physically and I was able to finish the last couple of hours of that Friday before closing my work machine and making the conscious decision that everything else can wait until Monday.

What I will change:

• When it comes to our son, my wife and I are very good about open, honest communication with each other. We are always thinking of ways that we can try to make things easier on ourselves.  This coming week we are going to try more physical activity in the evenings to try and tire the little guy out before bedtime in hopes that will help keep him sleeping through the night.
• When it comes to work, I already informed my manager about some of the terrible things that have happened and he was extremely sorry that this happened and has said that he will follow up on everything this coming week.

What will stay the same:

• I’ve been using my new/old desk setup for a few days now and I’m really happy with the v2.0 layout.
• I’m going to continue to host Atlassian Community Virtual events and getting together virtually with friends as these are sources of joy for me!
• I’m going to continue to get outside and play with my son as it’s good both physically and mentally for both of us!

There were some really good positive points this week and some extremely negative ones.  I believe the best thing I can do is use this as an outlet to share both, then try to forget about the negative and focus on the things that keep me happy.  During these rough times I think focusing on the positive is all we can do to try and keep or morale up and moving forward!

If you enjoyed reading this article you might also want to check out last week’s article here.

As always, thank you for reading and keep yourselves safe, healthy, and happy!

[Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_]

I may be on the other side of the World, but at the same time, I'm just one click away! Always here to give you a hand/shoulder/some foolish joke or just a Grumpy-styled Awkwardness.

Happy new week @Jimmy Seddon, and may the spirit of positive changes be with you. Thank you for the commitment and energy you put into writing these articles!