A friend of mine is trying to sell her house in the time of COVID-19. Her realtor (or someone’s) came up with the quip, “Can you see yourself quarantined in this house?” Funny—and maybe a little too on-point.
Our homes are our sanctuaries. In another post, I wrote about how fun it is to see how our coworkers live, and to enjoy their pets wandering past the camera. However, not everyone wants their home invaded by the prying eyes of remote colleagues. For those who have repeatedly made the excuse that camera isn’t working, here are some strategies to maintain your privacy (that don’t involve a post-it note over the computer’s lens).
If you can, place yourself in a room where the laptop screen faces the door, then close the door. With the camera activated, back up until all that’s showing is your face, with the wall and door behind. Or try stringing up a sheet or fabric of some sort to give yourself a blank backdrop. Most video conference platforms allow you to upload a photo as part of your profile, so you could show that instead of live-stream.
I’m lucky to have a warm and secure place from which to work. Not everyone has the option to work from home, or a home to work from. Extroverts may get squirrely while separated from people. However, being sequestered might be an introvert’s nirvana (at least for a while). It’s easy to assume that “we’re all in it together” means everyone’s having the same experience. Our circumstances aren’t necessarily similar materially, or emotionally.
What have you been doing to help yourself and others adjust to homebound reality? Please comment in the box below.
Sending you appropriately physically distanced encouragement—and a reminder to call an elderly neighbor or relative.
I do feel sorry for the extroverts. I'm used to working from home, as least in the winter, and only going out once a week to run errands. This hasn't been all that different for me, at least as far as my daily routine goes.
I agree that the lighting is definitely tricky, Barb! I think that, counter-intuitively, you need to have good light behind your screen so that it is facing you and not what you're working on...
Great piece. I still haven't figured out how to light up area in a video meeting. Mostly it appears that I'm living in a cave. Works for me. Thanks for the tips.