Privileged, working from home

By Victor Kuarsingh

Following the advancement of COVID19 to full pandemic, many countries around the world took a step back and initiated lock-downs along with other strong measures to limit the virus spread.  As expected, the consternation was quickly followed by trepidation by the sudden change in circumstance and this change also had a large impacts on the job market.

Government quickly stepped in enacting measures to limit the immediate financial impact to people and many businesses pushed their workforce to operate from the “comfort” of their own home.  I noted comfort in quotations since for many, working from home is not very comfortable, nor convenient, and often not even possible.  Many people I have heard from, predominantly in western and affluent society, seem to have enjoyed this opportunity.  They have spacious living spaces, ample access to Internet and were able to achieve a new work-life balance while enduring the confines of lock-downs.

However, for many others, the ability to work from home in comfort, or work from home at all, was a luxury that was not available to them.  I have seen many articles noting that this work-from-home model will be “the new normal”, but I fear those sentiments are artifacts of people who enjoy the privilege of having that opportunity.  We often forget that many jobs cannot be executed from the protection of one’s home.  As a point of reference, those working from home need people how must venture out, to do their jobs, such that they can enjoy that level of protection and ease.

Who are these people?  A non-exhaustive list includes those in our food production chain such as farmers, delivery personnel, processing, wholesalers, retail and grocery workers; as well as others including auto mobile workers, transit workers, emergency service personnel, medical workers, home builders, contractors, just to name a few of the vast army of people who support those that can sit on their couch to get in a day’s work.

Why is this important?  Well, in addition to the privilege of working from home, many of these same leaders and workers seem to also be quite vocal on how we need to maintain such isolation (for their own protection), with little consideration to what that means to others.  I am certainly not advocating pushing everyone back to the streets, but an acknowledgment of the high level of impact and disruption our current circumstance has for people at risk or those who must venture out.  We must also not forget how dependent people who can work from home are on those who don’t or can’t work from home.

The term “privilege” is now used extensively based on a number of events that have shocked us in the past weeks , but that same word applies to many of us who seem to believe that what we have today is sustainable or can even be applied widely as a general reference model.  Having the opportunity to sit back and contemplate such things is in fact an opportunity only granted to those of us who are so privileged.  Think about our neighbors, think about those who must work hard to support our level of comfort and safety.  Also think about all those around the world who could not even fathom of operating like we do.