Winter Rain: Working from Home

Seven days until Christmas. Amy works in the basement, Weston starts work from his home office in a bit, and Paul, home from MBA camp, sleeps. Mary works from home in Clintonville.

The rain falls outside on this 34 degree winter day. Sure beats snow. Although I could work from home if I wanted to, I still prefer to teach my classes in person, and since I am only contracted for three classes per year, the university can accommodate me with ease.

Paul does not want a work-from-home job when he completes his MBA, but Amy, Mary, and Weston have found their comfort zone with Covid's gift to the work world.

I have always been able to work from home when I choose to-- for instance, grading papers, preparing for class, updating course websites- but I only had to work from home when the university shut down face-to-face courses during Covid. I adapted pretty well but was happy when Covid actually became "just the sniffles" for most people and I could return to the classroom.

Home is my sanctuary from work. I am glad to report to the U when I am teaching. My routine on the walk to my office includes stopping for a piece of chocolate in the dean's office and chatting briefly with our long time dean's assistant before I head up to my office. I still have younger colleagues for hallway chats. I've been nine years away from teaching full time, but I still know most of the faculty members because I was working full time when they were hired, indeed, serving on the committees which hired many of them.

While I prefer to work alone, I still enjoy the comforts of working in a face-to-face community. I get the best of both worlds, the joy of interacting with students in a real classroom, the social network of colleagues and university personnel, and when I shut my office door, I am by myself, enjoying the bliss of solitude.

This most recent term took its toll, as I spent lots of time at Democratic headquarters and then we got bludgeoned in local, state, and the national elections. I knew I was not doing my best work as a teacher. However, on the last night of finals week, as students dropped off final projects in the classroom, two young women lingered to make small talk about their plans for break, and somehow the topic of cats came up and as we were discussing felines, one of them handed me a card.

The card was a thank-you note for offering a course which she said was easy but quite useful because I taught her the value of exploring her own world to develop writing topics. Shortly after the two young women left, a young man dropped off a paper and told me how much he appreciated the class.

Students have been rescuing me at my worst times for forty years now, but if I were teaching completely online, I doubt if I would have received the above feedback because Zoom meetings just do not facilitate such interactions.

Give me four walls any day!