Remote work at PYM launched two weeks ago. The shift has presented both opportunities and challenges with children at home, shared workspaces with spouses and roommates, and in some cases, excessive isolation when there are no housemates to chat with.
Like Quakers everywhere, PYM staff’s approach to working from home is leading to creative outcomes and interesting ways to address work and make personal connections in communities everywhere.
PYM coworkers are sharing their day through Slack and connecting through channels that offer productivity and moments of fun. We check our voicemail remotely and answer a whole lot of emails.
George Schaefer, our Pastoral Care Coordinator–-who is working on Emergency granting, pastoral care responses to Covid-19, and convening community supports–recently shared a few pictures of his after-work home life featuring banana bread and his backyard garden. He posted this reflection on his day;
“Finding comfort in staying connected to work, friends, and family. Cooking and puttering about in the garden while the birds in their tweets offer the solace of nature’s renewal.”
He also wrote this haiku…
Quarantine Haiku
Baking bread, stacking stones
Friendly faces zoom in & out
Sparrows at the feeder.
Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Religious Life Coordinator–who is working with Youth Programs staff on innovative virtual youth programs for monthly meetings and PYM–wrote, “I’m enjoying being in my office at home, surrounded by books and stories and materials that I can pull off shelves when I need them for inspiration or share with someone. Children creep in when I’m on Zoom calls to whisper/ask me questions like, “Where is the baking powder?” (followed by the smell of pancakes). My spouse is the Head of a Friends school,, and he is working from home, and our three children (ages 18. 16. 12) will start distance learning next week so that it will feel more like a school around here. I’m grateful to be together, and for the ability to continue to do my work and connect with Friends.”
We notice that, somehow, the work is getting done. Impromptu whiteboards are thrown up using paper and doors; Laptops become our lifelines to project “deliverables,” and Zoom calls substitute for a sense of collaborative community.
Mary Walsh, assistant to the General Secretary, shared a picture of her at-home office where she worked to set up five additional Zoom accounts and wrestled new technology into our digital workspaces that helped us navigate unfamiliar routines.
Christie Duncan-Tessmer, our General Secretary, made a cake for her daughter’s 21 birthday from a recipe on Pinterest and in the midst of her rounds of weekday, evening, and weekend zoom calls with leadership councils, meeting Clerks, and staff. Her porch is populated by roaming chickens and returning adult children while her laptop convenes the Quaker community.
In the end, our staff members notice that their hours are increasing due to having to redesign our Spring Sessions planning and programming while warming up to new technologies. We seem to be taking part in far more meetings while our community shifts to virtual everything … including Meeting for Worship.
Our web manager has had more information to manage, our graphic designer has stopped mailings from going out, and reconfigured communication strategies, and TJ – our event manager – is planning for new digital communities to compensate for some of the losses we all feel.
There have been some clear wins. Monthly Meetings have been reaching distant members (in Florida, London, and other places) through virtual worship, and we’ve learned that wherever the heart opens to God, Spiritual sustenance is found.
That seems one good thing to lift up for the celebration amid Covid-19.
