1 10 15 https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/d05e3be2d1e1bff49f517cb29642f451.pdf 5100d9764b1936f106714fed2d25d09d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://www.themuse.com/advice/coronavirus-work-from-home-tips Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 7 Essential Tips for Working From Home During the Coronavirus Pandemic Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource Advice for folks who found themselves working from home during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Regina Borsellino Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.themuse.com/advice/coronavirus-work-from-home-tips Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Muse Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource No Date Given https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/29b8e71f5acec4b72581481760821360.pdf e8788f2f561e8994fa69805f4432d73e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychological-exploration-zoom-fatigue Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource A discussion of the effects of the increased use of virtual conferencing software during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jena Lee, MD Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychological-exploration-zoom-fatigue Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Psychiatric Times Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 17, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety Medicine oal history psychology Zoom https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/ce0e06c78f496960692699d7ae67d75d.pdf 175e47186b1b75c6540878008a3fd3c5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazons-covid-19-blog-updates-on-how-were-responding-to-the-crisis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Amazon’s COVID-19 blog: updates on how we’re responding to the crisis Subject The topic of the resource Work from Home Description An account of the resource A blog post from a major retailer regarding their efforts to meet the increased demand of online shopping by people who are working from home during the 20202 COVID-19 pandemic. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Amazon Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazons-covid-19-blog-updates-on-how-were-responding-to-the-crisis Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Amazon Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 17, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety oal history shopping Social Distancing work from home Zoom https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/595da23629ec5f4939c8f01b629141eb.pdf 152318f9b850190a0d69febd253dcbcf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/09/cnn-mom-pants-interview.html Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource An Interview With the Scientist and Mom Who Had a Little Secret During Her CNN Appearance Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource An interview with Grethen Goldman about her appearance on television, including a bit of humor regarding her attire as a nod to the transformation of personal spaces into professional ones. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Heather Schwedel Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived www.slate.com Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Slate Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 17, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety humor oal history Rutgers Zoom https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/3b46e608f5b6f58054f4a32c5a7b312c.pdf 3e785575681368704834d579cb4c9c8f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201023-coronavirus-how-will-the-pandemic-change-the-way-we-work Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Coronavirus: How the world of work may change forever Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource An Op-Ed discussing the uncertainty of the future of workplaces. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource BBC Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201023-coronavirus-how-will-the-pandemic-change-the-way-we-work Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available BBC Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 23, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety oal history Rutgers work work from home Zoom https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/efd6f085ac4c59b1c8dfc2acc5384305.pdf 1d97a9a65484c7ae1a60ff49f6d6a0ce Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website https://www.apqc.org/blog/covid-19-has-supply-chain-rethinking-work-home-policies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Has Supply Chain Rethinking Work from Home Policies Subject The topic of the resource Work from Home Description An account of the resource A blog post discussing the changes faced by suppliers due to the increase of people working from home during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marisa Brown Nathaniel Vlachos Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.apqc.org/blog/covid-19-has-supply-chain-rethinking-work-home-policies Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available American Productivity & Quality Center Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 30, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety oal history shopping work from home Zoom https://archivingcovid19.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/original/01b10fb0d19896598e335a37404fd6c4.tif a3c9fa8ece7b8bfdea8c17b6a8cdb094 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Illustration by Emmanuel Lafont Subject The topic of the resource Working From Home Description An account of the resource An illustration by Emmanual Lafont, featuring commentary on the change during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic wherein many people found themselves working from home when previously they had worked in traditional offices. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emmanuel Lafont Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Featured as the banner image on https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201023-coronavirus-how-will-the-pandemic-change-the-way-we-work Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available BBC Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource No date given Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource unknown Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety oal history Rutgers work from home Zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Donald Koger Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Andrea Shipman Location The location of the interview Raleigh, North Carolina Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound DK: Today is November 25, 2020. This begins an oral history interview Andrea Shipman. My name is Donald Koger and I am located in Piscataway, New Jersey. Mrs. Shipman, if you wouldn’t mind, please introduce yourself. AS: My name is Andrea Shipman and I am in Raleigh, North Carolina. DK: The purpose of this interview is to discuss your experience, mostly in the early days, of the COVID-19 pandemic. With your permission, I would like to record our conversation and use it in a class project. It will be made public as part of the project and it will also be publicly available from the Rutgers University libraries. AS: Yes, I am okay with that. DK: What do you remember about the first days when the pandemic hit the U.S.? AS: I was traveling, actually. I was in Los Angeles kind of when it started to be like we’re going to have to wrap some stuff up and shut some stuff down. I had a flight from L.A. back to Raleigh, which is not a short flight. I remember thinking: “This really isn’t that big of a deal, why is everyone freaking out? I don’t really get it.” I did sanitize my whole seat and my whole area. I always would think of that, in general, anyway just because I think planes are kind of gross. I came home, I worked one day in the office. Then, that was it. I think, starting March fourteenth or fifteenth, I work for a really large company, and they shut down their entire campus, and I have not back since. It is currently November 25. It was crazy, it still is. DK: What was that last day of work like? AS: I think everybody thought, “This seems like a little much, but maybe we’ll be back in by the summer, or after Easter.” I think it was just a little bit surreal. I have a locker at work that just holds stuff like a keyboard, or if you wanted to have snacks, because we have an open floorplan. I remember thinking, “I’m not going to need anything from here, right?” I think I brough home exactly what I needed and I was really stunned by the fact that I still haven’t been back. I think it was jut a little surreal. A lot of people where I work would come into the office and work three days a week, then work from home two days a week. I’m a fairly social person so I really like being in an office, I like seeing people. So it look a long time to realize that I’m not going to work with other people in the same space for a long time. I still don’t see how we can possibly do that. DK: What do you think the breakroom fridge looks like, now? AS: [laughter]. They are really, I will say, they are really good about cleaning all that stuff out. Every Friday, they’re like “it’s getting thrown away.” Everything, you could have the nicest Tupperware, or the greatest glass case, they don’t care, they throw that stuff in the garbage. So that probably looks okay, but I’m willing to bet some people’s lockers are kind of funky. That’s my guess. DK: Did you have a space to work in your house before having to make this transition? AS: I did not. I set up a desk in our bedroom because we had space for it. I would work in a very cute but uncomfortable chair once or twice a week. Fridays I would work from home and my Fridays were pretty easy so I could do a couple of meetings in the morning and then get up and do laundry, start dinner, you know, kind of do house stuff. Then it very obviously became clear that I would be working in this space for an indeterminate amount of time for full days, and we had to do some shifting and rearranging so I currently sit in my new office. Which, thank god I have. DK: What was that room before it became an office? AS: It was my daughter’s room before she took over a bigger room down the hall, so it was kid of a kid’s guest room. So it was kind of random, unused space, which was dumb on our part. I had always kind of wanted to make it into an office, but I didn’t really have time, and I’m terrible at painting, all that nonsense. Then, look at all the time! We suddenly had all this time to not leave the house and do things. So, we still have a little guest bed because my husband thinks we need two guest rooms. I’m like, “Who’s coming? We’re in a pandemic. We don’t really need two guestrooms.” But I don’t really feel like taking apart the Ikea bed. [Internet Connection Interrupted] DK: Sorry about that. My internet dropped out for a bit. So, you were talking about converting the guest kid bedroom into an office. You did not want to dismantle the Ikea bed was the last thing that I head. AS: Correct. I did not want to dismantle the Ikea bed so it still exists, just off-camera to my right. [laughter]. It’s covered with a bunch of stuff. I realized I need to put something behind me, too. Because now it just looks like I’m sitting in a really empty room, but I’m not! All my stuff is on one wall. DK: Was that intentional, to put everything on one wall, so it wouldn’t be in the background when you have meetings? AS: No, actually, it’s just because of the way my desk is. I spread out, I’m a little messy. So I needed shelves and stuff above my desk, so I have post-it notes and stuff right here. I have a few shelves so when I’m standing or sitting, it’s easy for me to get to. But no, I just don’t know what I’m going to put back there. I also just considered, maybe I might get a treadmill because I run. I had surgery recently, so I can’t really run on the road just yet, and I was like maybe I’ll go buy a treadmill. And then I realized, that would be the background. So maybe I won’t. [laughter]. DK: A lot of folks buy treadmills just to end up folding laundry on them. AS: I have a lot of those spaces, too. So, yeah there’s a reason why I haven’t. You can’t go a, well I mean you can go to a gym right now, I just don’t want to go to a gym right now. I’m just trying to justify ridiculous money that I want to spend, is really what I’m saying. DK: Did you have any issues finding equipment for setting the office up? AS: I work for [a large computer company], which makes things a little bit easier. I already had a secondary monitor and I have my laptop, which I’m really lucky to have. I was also the resident printer of things in our home because [my husband] Craig has always worked from home. So there was a lot of emails with “Print this, print this.” So, now we actually had to purchase a printer. I would say, what’s hard, the printer we got, printer ink was very difficult to find. The specific ink that we need for our printer, was on backorder for a really long time and we didn’t have it, which I thought was very strange. But now he has a printer, so now I get to send him things and say “Please print this. Please copy this.” It’s very soothing to my soul. DK: Did you already have the desk in that room? AS: I bought one from Wayfair. I like to do a sit/stand, like I said, I had surgery on my hip so I can’t sit all day all the time. I need to have moments where I can kind of stand and do work. So, I have a two-level desk but from before, I still have that desk in the bedroom that I probably need to sell because it just doesn’t work in a sit/stand way, even if I had gotten one of the little shelf things that like pop-up. Just the way it’s set up, it would not have worked. No, but I will say the Facebook marketplace has gotten quite a few of our things in trying to rearrange things and get things out of the way. DK: Did you have any issues with any supply shortages? Did you have a hard time finding anything such as paper as well or just the ink? AS: Just the ink. I think it was specific to our printer. We don’t really print a ton, we don’t have a ton of stuff on paper. I think what changed really early in the beginning was when our kids’ school, which is now virtual, we had to do a lot of printing and copying. A lot of taking pictures of stuff and printing it out, which was just strange, but there we things we had to do because there was no other choice. From a supply perspective, I don’t think it was too bad. I know, obviously, for work, our supply chain is still struggling a little bit. But personal, thankfully, with the exception of that printer ink, it wasn’t too bad. But that’s just for work stuff. We won’t talk about paper towels, and toilet paper, and wipes. [laughter]. DK: Up here in New Jersey, we had toilet paper shortages at the stores. Did your stores have the same kinds of issues? AS: YES. I remember, shortly after I think I had gotten back from L.A., I had done a Target run. It was really full, there was a lot of people there, and I remember thinking: “This is a lot of people for a Wednesday or Thursday night.” EVERYONE, and I mean every single person had the extra large thing of Charmin paper towels. I was like, “You know, it doesn’t go bad. So, I should grab some.” When I grabbed those, there was probably only four or five left on the shelves. Even now, they don’t allow you to buy more than one, you can only buy one at a time. Even if they’re fully stocked. So yes, we had that. I went to Costco the other day, there were no paper towels to be seen, at all. I don’t know if it’s starting again, but I have seen, in my mom groups pop up: “Hey, if anybody finds or sees the big thing of paper towels or toilet paper, let me know.” I had gone to Home Depot the other day and I was like: “Home Depot has toilet paper! People forget! Run to your closest Home Depot, or Lowes.” DK: Did you see any shortages on grocery items? AS: [inaudible]. Sorry, my headphones try to connect to other things while I’m mid-sentence. Which is always really fun. I feel like the paper products were the most; bleach, cleaning supplies were obviously and ironically at a loss, which made me think: “Did you guys not clean before? We were not washing our hands before?” I just want to know, that part. You saw a shortage of canned goods, canned fruit. For whatever reason, I think I bought a couple canned things too, which we never eat canned fruit. I also noticed too, which we did as well, because of the concern for local businesses, we signed up for a produce box from local farmers. Which is a great option, in fact, we just got one today. I think, of the heartier vegetables like the things that don’t go bad so quickly. Like squashes and gourds and all that stuff. I do remember seeing flour was very difficult to come by during the bread making phase of quarantine. Yeast was very difficult to come by, also during the breadmaking phase of quarantine. [laughter]. A lot of random baking items. I don’t know if everyone was just, at the same time, “I guess I’m going to bake more stuff.” I feel like those were the biggest ones that you would see missing. I’m sure there are others. Flour, yeast, canned goods, and the paper products. And cleaning products, I’d say were the ones that we missed the most. DK: Did you join in on the breadmaking? AS: Fun story. Before we had a kid, Craig used to make a lot of bread, like a lot. By hand. It was delicious. I can’t eat a lot of bread anymore because I’m old and my stomach doesn’t like it, but I did make, and I can still make, a very mean banana bread. Banana bread was my jam. I made a lot of chocolate chip cookies. And then I made my pants. Smaller. [laughter]. Too small, from the making of the banana bread and the cookies. So no, we didn’t make any of the new bread; I guess sourdough was the thing and people would make a starter and stuff. We still, thankfully [knocks on table twice], very luckily, had jobs and we still needed to work all day. So we weren’t in the middle of the day like, “let’s just make some bread.” But, have Craig Shipman make you bread, because he is a very good bread maker. DK: Looking back, what would you say was the biggest shock, or the biggest surprise? AS: I think the biggest shock and the biggest surprise, myself included, was our arrogance in thinking: “This is just going to go away.” Which, now, eight months? Are we eight months into this? Does that sound about right? DK: Almost nine now. AS: Right, almost nine. IT’S BEEN TWENTY YEARS! [laughter]. That’s what it feels like. I think, that for me, it was the arrogance. We all did, it, we all thought: “It will just go away. This isn’t a big deal.” Then, the subsequent refusal to believe in just science. Which, I don’t think has ever been a thing? Then, I think the hardest thing, really was not even for me so much – or no it probably is for me more than it is for my kid, is the school’s closing. I think that’s when I was like, “Oh we’re serious. We’re closing schools.” Now we’re really starting to realize how important having schools open is. How important childcare, you know, the stuff that we’ve always kind of done and just assumed would always be there and that change. I think that really has been the most eye opening, for a lot of people, not just me. I don’t even know if I answered your question because I feel like I went off on a tangent. [laughter]. DK: You’re doing great! What’s been the biggest change between working in your office and now working from home? AS: I’m probably more efficient, I think. Working from home, just because it’s much easier for me to get stuff done, because I don’t get as distracted by talking to people or someone walking by. I also think that I do miss out on opportunities either elevator conversations, or walking by conversations, that kind of stuff. You can’t recreate that. You can’t just pop into somebody’s Zoom call, like “Hey! Just popping in!” Which would be strange and probably illegal. I think that was one of the harder parts, I think, of changing. My job is world wide, so I talk to people in Europe, and Japan, and Asia-Pacific, all the time. So we are always on calls, and thank the sweet lord that nobody expects us to be on camera. So it’s very rare for us all to have cameras on, I think that for a lot of people, you can hear like “man, I have to do Zoom meetings.” And now, what used to be regular phone calls for a lot of people, everybody now wants to do it on Zoom or on Teams with cameras on and whatnot. So I’ve had a lot of friends say, “God, this was always a phone call, why can’t it just be a phone call? Can’t we just? We’re not used to looking in each other’s faces. Do we have look in each other’s faces now, really?” So, I think, that for myself, that was probably the thing that changed the least. I did have an outdoor, socially distanced lunch with my old colleagues. I also went to a new business unit with my company in May, so I’m also working with a whole team that I’ve never met in person, ever. That is really strange. I think I’ve met one of my colleagues outside of work, just if they live close by, and we are able to grab an outdoor lunch or something, that’s been really nice. But otherwise, I only know people by their photos. I don’t know what anybody actually looks like in person. Nor do they know what I look like in person. So that’s, I think been the strangest. I don’t know what you look like in person and that’s weird. You always look at somebody’s photo, and everyone’s going to use their best photo. I look great because it’s a professional family photo that we did. I don’t normally look like that. That’s also like four dozen cookies and like three loaves of banana bread, pre all that, so it’s different. I don’t look that way now. DK: If you could reach back, what advice would give yourself back in March? AS: Buy stock in Zoom, and Microsoft. Immediately. Right now. Repurpose all your storage area for paper products. Do your physical therapy because you are stuck in the house and you can’t really do anything. When you can’t move, which I haven’t. I had surgery in June. You will need that later, that is very important. I think the biggest thing, though, is: One of my favorite influencers, a science influencer on Instagram says: “Be good to each other. Wash your hands. Cover your face.” Because that’s the only thing that’s going to get us through. Be good to each other, wash your hands, cover your face. And I think it’s amazing how much kids can get used to. I think that’s kind of one of the big things. Kids just kind of roll with it much better than we do. That stock part is really important too. [laughter]. DK: Is there anything else that you want to add, or we might have missed that you’d like to have included? AS: I would just say that my experience overall is probably one of the easiest ones. I think there are so many people that have either lost jobs or really saw a decline in whatever business they were doing and needed to pivot and needed to figure out how to make stuff work. I do think that coming out of this, and now history may prove me wrong, but I do think that coming out of this we will see a kind of renaissance of new businesses, new small businesses, and new ideas. Things to, I don’t want to say alleviate, maybe the word I’m looking for is, how to kind of work within these parameters, making it a little bit easier to either work from home. I really hope we see a change in how childcare is done. I feel like this time we will result in a lot of different policy changes, just because of the nature of the things that you don’t realize, the systems that in place that are either not working or are barely held together. DK: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me. AS: Any time. You picked a good day. ----------------------------End of Transcript-------------------- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral history interview with Andrea Shipman, a North Carolina resident. Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource An oral history interview with Andrea Shipman, a North Carolina resident. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Oral History Interview Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 25, 2020 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety Barchi college distance learning oal history Rutgers Supply Distribution Failures Zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Donald Koger Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Kathryn Tracy Rizzi Location The location of the interview Branchburg, New Jersey Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound DK: Today is March--no, November 13, 2020. This begins an oral history interview with Kathryn Rizzi. My name is Donald Koger and I am located in Piscataway, New Jersey. KR: My name is Kathryn Tracy Rizzi, and I’m currently in Branchburg, New Jersey. DK: This is an oral history interview that I’m conducting for a class at Rutgers University in order to help document people’s experiences during the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’d like to use this interview in the class and then it will then be passed along to the university library. It will be made public. For the class project, we have an omeka site where it will be accessible. I just want to make sure that I have your permission to conduct this interview and that you consent to it being made public and made available for future use by the university. KR: Yes, I give my consent. DK: Just to begin, you currently live in Branchburg, New Jersey? KR: Correct. DK: Have you lived there the whole time since the pandemic was declared? KR: Yes. DK: What do you remember, off hand, about the days surrounding the World Health Organization announcement that COVID-19 had become a pandemic? KR: While I don’t remember the exact date that the WHO declared this a pandemic, my memories are shaped around Rutgers’ response and the subsequent shutdown of [the State of] New Jersey and the schools. What I remember is being completely shocked. In retrospect, I should not have been shocked and I’ll explain why later, but I was completely shocked. [During the] weekend of March 6, my husband and I went skiing. We were at Elk Mountain in the Poconos. We got there and there was nobody skiing. We said, “Is there no one here because of the pandemic? Are we, as a result, really silly to be here during a pandemic? Or is it because of climate change and Pennsylvania has gotten no snow this winter?” That was on a Friday. We skied that weekend. The following Tuesday, March 10, Rutgers issued the email [in which they said] they were going to suspend brick-and-mortar teaching and shift to virtual and outlined the whole plan for following spring break. By Thursday, March 12, we were working from home, and by the next week, schools had shut down. My husband was working from home. I was completely shocked and taken off guard. I should not have been. My sister lives in Berlin, Germany. She had been sending us articles since January about the impending pandemic and what we should expect. Then, from doing interviews of Rutgers administrators since that time, Rutgers also had a response going in January, maybe even before (in December), but do not quote me on that. The Rutgers response was going on, but people like me were not aware of it. So, I was taken totally by surprise, maybe because of media underreporting, maybe because of lack of attention from the Executive Office, the Chief Executive, President Trump. There’s probably a whole bunch of different reasons, but I was shocked and probably should not have been. DK: Where did you first hear about COVID-19? KR: In the news. It would have been, probably not in December, it would have been in January. I go running every morning, and I listen to news podcasts. I sometimes listen to NPR’s Morning Edition. I remember hearing about NPR reporting on it in China. I can’t tell you exactly when that was, but it was probably January; it could have been December. DK: Do you remember how long passed between hearing about COVID-19 on the news and your sister sending you articles? KR: It was [mentioned] a tiny bit in mainstream news, so like CBS, CNN a tiny bit. My sister was sending articles that were stressing the urgency, how Americans need to take this seriously. I can’t pinpoint the timeline of that. I do know that the concern that I placed on the pandemic from my news sources versus what my sister was telling me were different. That's what I was thinking. DK: Once you started receiving news, did your buying habits change at all? KR: Actually, no, besides having to buy more food because there are four people in our family and one dog, and we were home basically 24/7, so we had to buy more food. Our food-buying habits didn’t change. We did start buying stuff more online, consumer goods. Our food-buying habits did not change. We did not hoard food. We suffered from a toilet paper/paper towel shortage like everyone else did. We discovered that probably most of it was being stockpiled at my sister-in-law’s house. [laughter] Our food-buying habits didn’t change besides having to buy more food, and then our buying habits with buying online, mainly through Amazon, have really changed. Just to give an example, do you want a non-food example? DK: Sure. KR: For myself and for my children, I try not to buy books. We borrow from the library, and with the libraries closing, because they were completely closed for a while, we were buying books on Amazon. DK: Did you and your husband both transition to working from home about the same time? KR: Yes, I was the first to work from home, followed soon after by my husband working from home and my children schooling from home. DK: Do you have an office space you can normally use in your home, or did you have to set something up for this? KR: At that point, in March, we did have to set up work spaces. We don’t have a dedicated office. We didn’t before the pandemic, and we still don’t have an actual dedicated office. When my husband has meetings and when I do interviews, we use my daughter’s bedroom, which has a huge desk. We can shut the door and that’s our "office," where when the door is shut, our children know, “You may not enter. There’s business going on in here.” Then, we had to set up other spots around the house for private work spaces, you know, near plugs. So, right now, I’m in my basement. [Behind me] is a couple pictures and printer, and if I turn, you’ll see a whole bunch of toys over here. Then, I have little corner in my bedroom where there’s a rocking chair and there is a plug right there and that’s one of my work spaces also. Because our children are schooling from home, a lot of times we are sitting around the dining room table, with our kids next to us, so we can keep one ear on what they are doing, make sure they are on task, and make sure we are there to help. So, sometimes it’s just a big shared family work space. DK: Did you have a hard time obtaining any office supplies? Did you already have a printer at home, for example? KR: That’s a really good question. I have not had any trouble obtaining office supplies because our office established a procedure for ordering supplies that get shipped to me. The rest of the technological infrastructure of my "home office," I have had to erect, let’s say. The printer/scanner behind me, that was my mother’s. She gave it to me. That’s been absolutely invaluable. I’m on my PC, which is my own personal PC, and my husband and I pay for our Wi-Fi. Things like IT support, getting access to our network files through V-P-N [Virtual Private Network], Rutgers was unable to help me make that connection. There is one person, for the record, Donald Koger, who helped me map my network drive in a way that was sustainable because IT couldn’t help me do that, despite good intentions. The person hacked into my computer and couldn’t do it, basically. Those are the infrastructure issues that I’ve had to set up for myself. DK: Did you have any trouble finding office furniture? KR: Yes, actually. A lot. We still do. I need to order a desk; I’m working on a ping-pong table. I’m in my basement and this ping-pong table is doubling as my desk. I’m sitting on an antique chair that my mom gave me and there’s a pink swivel chair that’s next to me that has a scooped seat. If you sit on it, it causes sciatic back pain within fifteen minutes. [laughter] These home office essentials, we still don’t have everything we need. DK: Have you had any conflicts as far as multiple people needing the same space at the same time? KR: Yes and no. With my husband and I, no. We coordinate in the morning what time we each have meetings or obligations. So, for me, an obligation would be doing an oral history interview, which is a chunk of probably three hours that I need to be alone and in a space and then there’s the child care issues that he would have to take care of in that case. Vice versa, when he has meetings. Then, I make sure that he has the space and the time and support to have his meetings. Space conflicts with the kids are: one of my children is nine, so if Mommy is in the room, Mommy is automatically available to fulfill his wants and his needs, which becomes a conflict. My older child is twelve, and while she will ask for things and I’ll have to say, “Not now, I’m doing something,” she is certainly more understanding and less demanding. DK: Have you had any experience trying to work from home pre-pandemic? KR: Yes, I have. From 2010 until 2018, I was a part-time staff person for the Rutgers Oral History Archives, working from home. That was my original mode of operation in my capacity working for the Rutgers Oral History Archives. In that sense, this kind of adapting to this pandemic virtual workplace has been pretty natural because I enjoy working from home. It’s something I had done for a long time. I am task-oriented and organized, so I don’t have any problem getting anything done. I was working from home while raising very small children, so coming up with some sort of balance of work and family was also something that I had been doing for many years and I was used to it. DK: Do you feel like you’ve found a good rhythm to balance the work and home life now that they are taking up a lot of the same physical space? KR: Yes, we’ve definitely come up with a system and a balance in our family. For my husband being able to work, me being able to work, and our kids being able to be successful in school, we have come up with a balance, but that’s not to say it’s not challenging, because there are constantly new challenges presented. For example, there’s been two models of schooling for my children since March. There was March to June of 2020 and then there’s this school year, starting in September. Then, in January, my son’s elementary school is going to switch again to a different format, and there’s a chance that my son would have to switch teachers. That’s just incredibly disruptive in the middle of the year for a kid to have to do that. It would actually be the second year in a row that would happen. Challenges like that come up. That’s not a work challenge, but it does effect work because I’m working from home and my son is schooling from home. We are going to have to figure out a whole new, third system and then adapt everything around it. DK: Did you have any issues getting your internet set up? Four people draw a lot of bandwidth. KR: Luckily, no. We have really good internet speed. We have like two hundred megabytes per second. That’s really good internet speed, so I haven’t had any problems. That is, it’s expensive and we are paying for that. We are supporting two professional jobs and two educations on that; it’s expensive. We go that extra expense because we need it and I think it certainly makes me appreciate that we are lucky that we do have that. So many people do not have that, and the digital divide is just becoming even more pronounced. I see that in my job. You hear about it from other kids that are in our world. I see it in my job, doing interviews with people who either don’t have internet, don’t know how to use something like a video conference, or have really slow internet speed, and that impacts things. I’m definitely aware of that digital divide. It’s just something that we already had set up, luckily. We were just fortunate to have that already. DK: Is there anything that you miss about working in the office? KR: I’m an introvert, so I’m okay being at home in my little bubble with my family because that’s who I draw my energy from. That’s who I want to be around, so I’m okay in that type of situation for a sustained amount of time, whereas a lot of people aren’t. I am an extroverted introvert, if that makes any sense; I do like other people. I miss being in the office and being around other people face to face. I miss face-to-face interviews with people; it’s different doing virtual interviews. It’s going well, it’s working, but it’s different. So, yes, I’m missing that collegiality on a day-to-day basis, missing that teamwork on a day-to-day basis, that collaboration, that brainstorming that happens in an office. That’s something that I miss. Seeing other people in the building who I don’t work with but just talk to, that’s something I miss. Being on campus is something I miss. I love being in New Brunswick, working in New Brunswick, it’s super fun. However, I don’t have to commute, so I’m more productive and I don’t have to waste all that time every day going to and from work. It’s a huge waste of time. In terms of just comfort, I’d rather work at home, I’m more comfortable. I don’t have to dress up. I don’t have to do my hair every day. I don’t have to wear shoes when I’m at home. My home is comfortable. My office at work was always 120 degrees. [laughter] I just want to say, for the record, I do miss my two monitors in my office, which I was so spoiled by. DK: How have your eating habits changed? KR: Not really much. I think we have always really focused on buying really good quality food that’s healthy and eating really well, in a healthy way. That’s always just been something that we’ve done. We probably spend a pretty penny on food. In terms of our eating habits changing, not really, except that meal time has become more special. Because we don’t go anywhere, having a meal and sitting down with my husband and kids has probably become more special, more of an occasion. I’ll say, for example, to my husband, “I’m going to make bacon, egg and cheese melts for breakfast. 9:00 AM, meet me at the counter.” We put our laptops down and just eat and talk a little bit and just have this great breakfast. We do that almost with every meal. Sometimes during lunch, we will work while we eat, but we really do try to eat together. Then, we have family dinner every night. So, I’d say not much has changed. A positive, on a lighter note, my kids now eat lasagna. They did not eat lasagna before March. [laughter] So, that’s awesome. DK: Did you make bread? KR: I am one of the few who has not made bread. [laughter] DK: Any plans to try the sourdough bandwagon? KR: No, absolutely not. I see everybody’s pictures, well, in March and April/May, I was seeing everybody’s pictures of their really stale hard-looking bread that they were posting online and I said, “I am never making bread.” My sister and her now-fiancé were making bread and sending out pictures and I just said, “Nope, we are not making bread.” DK: Is there anything else that you feel we may have missed or anything you want to add? KR: I want to add that this has been a really challenging time for everybody. It’s been a challenging time for working parents, it’s been a challenging time for students, for graduate students; it’s just a challenging time for everybody. I’m so thankful that I still have a job. I’m thankful that my husband has a job. And I‘m thankful that my kids are able to go to school like they’ve been doing and have had the infrastructure in terms of Chromebooks and internet to be able to do that. I feel lucky because a lot of other people are undergoing circumstances that are more challenging, [situations] that are really severe, that are showing economic disparities in the country. In my immediate family, we have all had our health as well. That’s been a huge factor and something I’m really thankful for. DK: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me. KR: You are very welcome. It’s been my pleasure. Thank you. ----------------------------End of Transcript-------------------- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Kathryn Tracy Rizzi, a New Jersey Resident Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource An oral history interview where Ms. Tracy Rizzi recounts her experiences during the early days of the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 13, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety Barchi college distance learning oal history Rutgers Supply Distribution Failures work from home Zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working From Home Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19, Home Life, Professional Life Description An account of the resource Oral history accounts of the experiences of transitioning from a traditional work environment to working from home. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall Semester, 2020 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Donald Koger Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Melissa Newcomer Location The location of the interview Amazed, Pennsylvania Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound DK Okay. Today is November 18, 2020 and this begins and oral history interview with Melissa Newcomer. I am Donald Koger I'm currently located in Piscataway New Jersey. If you don't mind just saying your name and where you are. MNL : I'm Melissa newcomer Emmaus, Pennsylvania. DK: The purpose of this oral history interview is to record and get a sense of people's experiences, thinking about the transition to work from home during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. So, with your permission, I'd like to save our interview here. I'm going to use it in a public archive for a class project, but then it also will be it'll go to the Rutgers Library where it will be publicly available. I just want to make sure you're okay with this being recorded and the contents of our discussion today made public in in my archive project as well as the university library where it may be used in the future. MN: Yes DK: Okay, great. Could you please tell me where and what you do for work? MN: I teach high school Latin. I teach in an affluent district, a very large affluent district. I teach tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. DK: Out in Pennsylvania? MN: Yes. DK: And you’ve been out there the whole time since March? MN: Yes. DK: Who do you live with? MN: When COVID first hit, I was living with my parents. DK: Thinking back to March 10th, when the official COVID-19 Pandemic announcement was made by the World Health Organization, what are your memories from that time? MN: At that time, I was teaching at two schools. That Friday before, which would have been the fifth or sixth, perhaps? There was an exposure at one of the schools at which I worked. So I had already been home for a day when schools shut down. I think, because of that, in some ways I was more prepared for that than other people. Thursday, March 12was the last day that we were in school. I didn’t get any work done because everyone was in a tizzy and students have trouble doing work when there’s other things happening. At that point, we thought we would be out of school for around a week but then we were out of school for three months. The gravity of it hadn’t really set in yet. I was feeling- like hysteria? Other people were not feeling that way, but I was. Every one of my classes, I was thinking “I can’t believe that we’re still in school. We all need to go home, don’t come near me. This is not a safe situation.” I remember thinking, “All the schools in Seattle staged walk-outs. I think we should walk out. If we’re here tomorrow, we should walk out.” Which is not the best thing to say, as a new teacher who did not yet have a contract. We had meetings to prepare for it. The meetings were petty much “We don’t have any idea what’s going on but you should take all your teaching materials home with you every day.” That was probably Tuesday, and then Thursday was our last day at school. Then, probably two weeks after that, when the excitement of not having to get up at five AM every day wore off, then stress and panic set in. My sister walked into my parents’ house and all three of us were like “What are you doing? Get out of here! Get out of this house!” So yeah, there was panic. My dad was buying his “last meals.” DK: I assume you started doing online classes at this point? MN: Yes. DK: What was that like, teaching online? MN: feel like that first Friday we were closed, so Friday the thirteenth, spooky. I don’t think we did any work that day. I think we probably had meetings with our department and our admin to talk about what we were going to do. I guess, looking back, how quickly we came up with a plan is pretty astounding. Like I said, I worked in a pretty affluent district. We had the resources to do that, all of our students, for the most part, had laptops already. I think with just the exception of our seniors, because we were doing a roll out and they didn’t have their own yet. We had enough laptops in our district, it was just a matter of getting them out to the students who still needed them. That probably happened within a week. I forgot what your question was exactly, so I’m just going to keep rambling and something will answer it. DK: You’re doing great, this is exactly what we’re looking for. MN: That first day, I feel like we just had some meetings. A lot of it was focused on the mental health of our students. A lot of our students, their parents travel around the world for work, which is why I think we had exposure before other places did our in our area, because of the traveling that was happening outside of the county. There was a lot of concern about our students being home alone all day, if their parents were still going to work, caring for younger siblings, or just not having a good home life and being stuck there. More so than my other teacher-friends that I have talked to about this. Our district was very focused on mental health and I think that was a good shift. I think that one of the good things that came out of this, even now that we are kind of out of the woods as far as things adjusting, the shock has worn off, that’s something that our district is still very focused on. They were before this, because we have a high suicide rate in our county and in our district. So the first couple days, that transition was mostly focused on everyone’s mental health and having meetings to figure out things like what our new schedule was going to be and how we were going to get information to students. Nothing was mandatory, that was one thing they decided at that point. So our students didn’t have to do any of their work, which didn’t go well, obviously [laughs]. DK: It sounds like efforts were being made to support people in the transition. MN: Yes, very much. Granted, that mostly fell on teachers. It as my responsibility, as a teacher, to not only figure out how to teach these kids virtually but to also figure out how to support their mental health. DK: Prior to this transition, having to teach online, did you have a dedicated office space in your home? MN: No. At that point, I just stayed at school late. So I just did all my work at school. Unless my recliner in front of the TV counts, because I did do work there. DK: Did you have access to go to the building to do your classes? MN: No. When we started up again this year, our first four weeks were all virtual. At that point, we were teaching from school, but that did not start until fall of 2020. In March, all the teachers were home. Like I said, in our meetings, we were told to bring everything home with you, “You will not be allowed in the building.” There was probably, about two weeks into distance learning, we were allowed to go into the building. They had scheduled very specific times and you had to personally request to go into the building, it’s not like you were immediately offered a time. As the school year was winding down, they scheduled times for us to go and pack up our classrooms. One of my principals, which I think was just so cool of him, emailed everyone and said “Admin is in the building,” I don’t know which point they drew that line, if it was just the principals or if their administrative assistants were allowed in the building, I don’t know where that line was. Obviously custodial staff was, but one of my principals emailed everyone in the building and said “I’m in the building Tuesdays and Thursdays at this time, fi you need anything from your classrooms, tell me where it is and I will go get it and I will meet you outside by this door and socially distantly hand it to you.” Which is cool, because he did not have to do that. That was a big deal that he did that, I thought. DK: Where were you doing your lessons from? MN: Both of my parents worked through the pandemic. I pretty much had the house to myself. I have an Ikea table that’s beautiful and it folds up, so I could adjust the size of it. I had that set up in my bedroom which was horrible because my bedroom is super small. That table was twelve inches from my bed, which created a lot of struggles. Sometimes I would go sit at the desk and I would just look at my bed. I had that table in there and some shelves to put my books on. DK: Did you have that table already or was it something you bought specifically for this? MN: I had it already. It’s my craft table. DK: Did that put a hamper on any of your crafting projects? MN: On occasion, because it was so full of textbooks and I didn’t have the space for it. I didn’t really have time for crafts at that point anyway. It was more time that affected my crafting, not the availability of a table. DK: Did you find that work took up more of your time than normal? MN: At first, absolutely. We had a couple phases, as I recall. Phase one of distance learning was all optional and all enrichment, well enrichment and that other word, that will come to me in a minute. It was all reviewing material for students who didn’t remember it; or needed extra support; or challenging students who had mastered the material. I wasn’t allowed to teach anything new. It was probably two or three weeks into distance learning that we were allowed to start teaching new material. What was your question? DK: Were you working more hours than normal? MN: The first three weeks, absolutely not. I put up, my favorite assignment was, I told my students “What if COVID-19 became so strong and potent that it could make you time travel to ancient Rome? What would happen? What would it look like?” I had students make videos, some wrote essays, some wrote plays, oh my gosh; it was amazing. A lot of those first two or three weeks was just fun random activities like that. Watch this video answer some questions. Because, sixty percent of my students were not doing it. But then when we started doing new material, I taught for five weeks before COVID-19 happened, so I’m new to this. I have no flipping idea what I’m doing. Then, all of the sudden, I’m teaching new material online and I don’t even feel comfortable doing it in person yet, and now I have to do it online. I have to learn all these new tools that I hadn’t been using previously, I don’t even know how to take attendance yet. So the first three days of phase two of distance learning, when we started doing new material, I was working from 7:30/8:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I did that three straight days. I took a break for two hours in the middle of the day to eat dinner and go for a walk with my mom for two hours. I did a lot of that, I think a lot of people did. I was losing my mind. Twelve hours, no what’s that, fourteen hour days? With no human interaction. I’m online doing work but my students don’t show up for our calls because they’re not mandatory and I’m just sitting in this corner at this desk in my tiny room so I can’t even get comfortable in my desk because I’m squeezed in it. At that point, I was pretty much like, “This is not sustainable. It’s not healthy. My students aren’t getting the best of me because I’m miserable.” So at that point, probably after the first two weeks of phase two, I was like: “I need to not do this.” I took a step back, I found three or four online tools that worked really well for me. I used those tools, which was probably really boring for my students, but I couldn’t – I didn’t know how to do more and I emotionally and time wise could not do more. Like I said, we were really focused on mental health. Once I stopped spending fourteen hours a day on my computer, I made sure that I spend more time checking in on my students if I hadn’t received work from them, making sure that they were okay, calling parents, which was another weird thing to do. I don’t have a work phone at home, so I had to star sixty seven, is that what you hit? So they don’t know your number? So they couldn’t call me, and I know, obviously a lot of teachers were doing this. I know one of my friends who teaches, she forgot to hit star sixty seven, and now has a parent texting her and calling her at odd hours, which is so not appropriate or okay. Did I answer your question? DK: Yes. MN: Okay. DK: It’s a good transition into my next question. A lot of folks are using personal equipment for work at home in this time. You’re using your own phone, did you have any trouble getting any equipment? MN: I had my school-sanctioned laptop. Like I said, they told us multiple times: “Bring all of your materials home with you.” Since I had been traveling between schools at that point, I did already do that, because I had to bring it from school to school. Luckily, I didn’t run into any tech issues with my laptop at that point. I know our school did drive-through tech support every other week to help people with that. I didn’t have to print anything because everything was online but I did have a printer at home. There were a couple things that I had forgotten at school. Maybe two things, like my planner, which I was sad I didn’t have, a bunch of notes I had, like content notes about latin stuff, that I had forgotten at work. But I didn’t have trouble getting the resources I needed. Again, I worked for a very affluent district, so I had access to those resources. The district had access to those resources. Other school districts were not as lucky. DK: What was the drive-through tech support? MN: I never had to do it. It was more for students than teachers, although I’m sure teachers did use it. My understanding was you drove up in your car, handed your laptop out the window, and then you would come back the next day and pick your laptop up. I’m assuming, because I’ve had tech issues this year, that they would give you a replacement laptop in the meantime. So I guess you would trade laptops out the car window. We did a similar thing when students had to return textbooks. I helped with that, physically went to school and helped with it, which was terrifying at that point still. Because I was close to people and handing them things, but all the students had to put- I mean all, they were supposed to, put their textbooks in plastic bags. Then we took the plastic bags out of the trunk of their cars. They drove up like a drive through and wrote their name on a list, checked off what books they handed in, and then we quarantined those books for four days before they were sorted and given back to the teachers they belonged to. DK: You mentioned earlier that your dad was buying what you called “his last meals.” Were there any immediate changes in the kitchen in your household? MN: Honestly, those changes were all good because you had to think ahead. My uncle was very informed and conscientious and prepared, so we were like: “If Uncle Chuck is doing it, we better be doing it because he knows what’s going on. He’s smart and I trust him, so we’re going to stock up on food and toilet paper.” We did online grocery ordering and picked up curbside mostly. You have to plan ahead to do that because at that point, you had to wait almost three or four weeks to pick up the order, so you had to think ahead and you had to be conscientious about what you were ordering. You can’t order too much produce and meat supplies were low, somethings were out of stock. There was certainly more creativity but I don’t follow recipes anyway. Since I had more time, I was home more, I was cooking a lot more than I usually. I don’t believe recipes as I do about essay prompts in that if you need them, you probably are not capable of writing a good essay or cooking a good soup. I think there was a flexibility there because if I didn’t have arugula, had to come up with a different, maybe less delicious green to put in my soup. I don’t think our eating habits changed a lot. DK: Were there any items you had a hard time getting or things that ran out? MN: We never ran out of toilet paper but there was a fear of it. There were definitely times that we ordered it and didn’t get it. Arugula would be one of those things, why did they sell out of arugula? I was really upset becuase I wanted to make this super delicious, arugula pizza? I don’t even know. I didn’t get arugula. Cottage cheese and plain yogurt, plain yogurt happened a couple of times and that’s a staple in my diet. I was pretty sad I didn’t get plain yogurt, and cucumbers. Other than that, it was pretty much like just weird random things that weren’t in stock. We had cleaning supplies. I can’t think of anything else that was a repeat offender. DK: Did you make bread? MN: Did I make bread? No, I didn’t make bread. I made a lot of casseroles and soups. DK: We covered a good amount here, and I appreciate you sharing. Is there anything else that you want to add or anything you think we might have missed? MN: I don’t think so. Sometimes I worked outside. I had office hours every day so I had to be on a Teams call every day at a certain time, but literally twice a student showed up. So I sat outside on a Teams call and pretended I wasn’t on one. DK: Did you use any of the virtual backgrounds? Maybe to hide the fact that you were outside? MN: Oh no, I absolutely told my students. I had bright blue sunglasses with eyelashes. They knew I was outside. [laughter]. Sometimes they were outside. There were a couple times where I would get on a call, maybe three times, I had students and they would hop on the Teams call just to say hi, which warms one’s heart, and I would end up being on the Teams call for an hour talking with them. We would often sit outside and to that. DK: Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me. MN: Of course. DK: I appreciate it. MN: Any time. ----------------------------End of Transcript-------------------- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Melissa Newcomer, a Pennsylvania Resident and Teacher Subject The topic of the resource Working from Home Description An account of the resource An oral history interview with Melissa Newcomer, a Pennsylvania resident and teacher who recounts her experiences during the early days of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, where she had to transition from teaching in a traditional environment to a virtual one. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Koger Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Oral History Interview Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 18, 2020 Adapting to live under lockdown anxiety Barchi college distance learning oal history Rutgers students Supply Distribution Failures Teachers work from home Zoom