pandemic shuts people out of offices, schools,
coffee shops and co-working spaces.
Integrating work life into the home has rarely
been easy, but measures to contain the virus
have brought those worlds into sudden and
sharp collision. Untold numbers of Americans
are shifting their day jobs from offices to
living rooms, spare bedrooms, kitchens and
basements. This massive, unplanned social
experiment can strain productivity and domestic
tranquility as toddlers scurry around untended
and business meetings and classes shift to noisy
group video chats that resemble a checkerboard
of talking heads.
It is also forcing many parents into unexpected
new roles. Carmen Williams, a therapist in
Macomb, Michigan, finds herself not only
seeing clients sporadically, but shelling out for
a babysitter, paying tuition for her seven- and
14-year-old kids — and still teaching them
school assignments.
“I’m not an educator!” Williams said. “I’m used to
helping with homework, but I am unable to teach
thought-out lectures and work. It’s overwhelming!”
This plunge into the unknown, accelerated
by the growing number of states ordering
residents to stay home, could impact how the
U.S. weathers an almost certain recession. That
will also depend on how well individuals and
their families can manage the complications of
studying and conducting business from home
— at least for the subset of employees with desk
jobs and the ability to do their work remotely.
Tech companies are pledging to avert more
serious disruptions by increasing data capacity
to handle the onslaught of newly quarantined