Contagion: Working from Home

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     I have experienced two financial crises this century. Certainly, I am not alone in that. Many folks lived through the Great Recession and, now, this Covid-19 Pandemic. In both cases, I spent a lot of time in move home office.      
     The Big Recession: A big factor for me is that during the Great Recession, I was unemployed. I was let go from what ended up being my last corporate position. It was my first time being laid off, terminated, or fired. It was a shock. I had reached a career pinnacle in terms of both salary and title. Suddenly, in September 2008, it was over. The sudden chaotic unravelling on Wall Street was mind numbing. 
     I found myself looking for a job and exploring what to do next as I was not really ready to fully retire at that time. I was one of seemingly millions of men just like me, in their mid-fifties and white, looking for a job. There were millions of us looking for jobs and like only two maybe three jobs available. It was as if the business world was done with us and basically, they were. I was home bound for the most part and my full-time job was to look for a full-time job. Everything I read or was told back then was to stay upbeat, be energetic, and to network a lot. It was most frustrating and, as the probability of actually landing anything was so low, it became dismal. There was, of course, some social interaction but for the most part it was with people just like me. 
     Even though a lot of people were unemployed during the Great Recession, a majority of people were still working. 
      I was able to get some consulting work after several months and that greatly helped as it got me out of the house and back working with people. Until then, I had never appreciated just how important working and being gainfully employed was. 
      The Current Covid-19 Lockdown: This go-around is the same in that I am spending a lot of time at home and most of that being in our library that serves as my home office But, this go-around is different in that I am very busy and I am gainfully employed. I am so very thankful for that. 
     As readers of this blog know, I am a professor of operations management in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park University. Our Spring break began on March 7. We were to have resumed classes on March 16. We never made it back to campus. Due to this contagion, we have moved all of our classes online. 
     I am currently teaching five courses. Only one of those was scheduled to be online. The other four were traditional face-to-face classes. Our university was not alone. The entire country moved all education, K-12, colleges, and universities, online. 
      I have taught about thirty percent of my classes online. I thought moving those four classes over to an online format would be a lot easier than it was. I also thought running the classes was going to be easier than it was. But then, I know I am sometimes operating under the Planning Fallacy where one believes that tasks take less time than they actually do. This has a whopper of a case in that regard. 
      Bottom-line? I have been crazy business and I love it. 
      It is so much better than the Great Recession simply because I am busy. I am gainfully employed and doing meaningful work that I love. For this, I am so very so very grateful.  
      It seems a majority of this country is homebound. The front-line health providers and those in the food and consumer necessities supply chains are among those that get to venture out to their workplaces. I am ever so appreciative of them for the risks they are taking on our collective behalf. Many others, like me, are working from home. Younger folk, with school age children, are juggling schoolwork, making meals, keeping the children occupied when they aren’t doing schoolwork, and trying to get their own work done. I believe they are even busier than I am. 
     What will come? There are those that are homebound with no work and no income. They are doing home projects as they can and no doubt worrying about their economic futures. 
     Actually, we are all worried about how long this will last and the impact it will have on the economy. There is no shortage of economists, people in the news media, and government and business analysts predicting what the future will look like and the timing for their various prognostications. No one really knows. 
     The outlook for higher education is as fuzzy as it is for every segment of the economy. So while I am grateful for being employed and busy, I am concerned about the my university. I am concerned for our country, for all of us. 
     Over 40,000, at this writing, have lost their lives to this virus. I know a few that have passed and several more that were infected and survived. I feel bad for those that have passed and my heart goes out to their survivors. 
     These are truly unprecedented times.