Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 33, No. 709.
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        Date: 2020-03-29 11:36:06+00:00
        From: Francois Lachance 
        Subject: WFH

Willard

Friends and readers on Humanist might be interested in this excerpt of
correspondence between me (a civil servant) and a friend from grad school (a
university professor finding themself teaching online with no training or
guidance).  I like to liken the current circumstances to e-kindergarten where we
are all learning and calling upon the techniques that support a child's (or
anyone's) executive functions.

[quote]
We are indeed working from home (WFH). We are entering week three. The civil
service as moved to distributed but connected mode - just as in an in-person
office, we field calls, respond to email, initiate chats and participate in
conference meetings.

As you can appreciate from your own experience, it has been pretty intense. We
have all to do what we do using a new to us suit of tools. We are producing
while we are learning.

The combined intensity of the interaction (more of it, more of it recorded) and
the general worry over the duration has made for a more stressful situation.
It's not a holiday.

Here's my takeaway for this first week of WFH:

I actually feel more connected to more of my colleagues not so much due to the
technology as to the ethos of care that is permeating our interactions.

I feel stimulated by the new learning. It is all like learning to read
(orientation) and write (action) in a different mode. Reminds me of my teaching
days (with great pleasure).

Distanced but not isolated.

All the best

Francois Lachance
Scholar-at-large
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance
https://berneval.hcommons.org

to think is often to sort, to store and to shuffle: humble, embodied tasks







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