Work-wise, this has meant using my home office and other parts of the house for work daily. It has meant making some expensive purchases of equipment. It has meant working with colleagues and clients and students remotely for *all* interactions instead of just some. Much of my work involves working in digital space, so that part was not new. But it has been the amount of work done remotely that is new. And then the functional fear element has been necessary but not comfortable. I don't mind masking up, keeping clean hand hygiene, not touching my face, keeping socially distanced, but training to see invisible and possibly fatal risks is high-stress.

The lack of information in the early months of the outbreak was stressful because the scope of the risk was not as clear. And it was not clear early on whether humanity would have ways to handle this effectively. Then, fortunately, some countries were able to manage with policies and enforcement, and that made it more obvious that we could handle this stateside. Of course, we as a country never fully shut down and did not take the novel coronavirus seriously, which resulted in mass loss of human life that was unnecessary. The toll goes beyond the loss of life but to trillions in losses and uncountable opportunity costs because we could not handle this. I hope we get this in institutional memory, so we don't repeat such a debacle in the future. It does seem like every generation of the population and of the leaders have to learn how to handle whatever challenges come. It's shocking that the need for posturing and bravado can be so compelling that people put their lives at risk.

To handle stress, I try to get out to garden and manage the lawn. I try to get exercise (bicycling), and I try to eat right (but allow myself some snacks every now and again). I also occasionally touch bases with friends and colleagues, which helps relieve some of the pressure.

The work day starts early and ends late, and it flows into the weekend. Virtually everything is digital and digitized. I've had to up my skills with some of my lesser-used software tools, but that has been to the good. Using the matrix model, we at K-State's ITS support each other's work...and with the disappearance of jobs, we each have taken on a higher load to cover for needs. Very little if anything has been taken away in terms of services to students and to the campus, so we just acquire more knowledge and skills and try to meet peoples needs to the best of our abilities.

I have a small home office that I have been using for years (I do take work home, and I do have other projects outside of work). I've moved things around to make the office more efficient. I've donated equipment I do not need. I do realize that I do not have sufficient ports to keep everything plugged in at once. Some pundits have said that the pandemic is an accelerator for technological changes. Others have said that people working from home (wfh) will clean house, and I did that as well. Also, as I've typically had, I have a large container of Clorox disinfecting wipes nearby. My on-campus office is a cubicle, and I have my docking station and a monitor and a backup data processing machine there...but it's only there for when I need to swing by for certain work (rarely)...and I always have to bring in a backpack of supplies when I go. The office is dark...and no one is in sight when I drop by. Occasionally when a phone rings, it's eerie.

So I work as an instructional designer, so I support faculty and staff in their teaching and learning. I do various trainings on campus. I work with graduate students getting their dissertations, reports, and theses in order for submittal. I do admin work on our LMS system and our online survey system. And I help folks create digital objects for various purposes. I find myself both a little more impatient with people but also more patient when I catch myself being hurried and hurrying. I have put more time to learn some of the software I use more deeply, so I can better troubleshoot.

Video conferencing has been a godsend in this time. I had not realized how to attach files to the chat. I have learned how to record to the cloud for machine closed-captioning. I can better finesse leading a larger group and muting people who accidentally unmute and share their household sounds inadvertently.

I try my best to support their work in a timely way. Occasionally, I will help them redraw images for their dissertations, reports, and theses.

There are lines I do not cross. I do not help students analyze their own data. I do not step into the purview of graduate committees. I do not create full instruments on the survey platform for people (except for a few high-level administrators). People have to own their own work. 

 
For a while there, I was asked multiple times a day for various services that I cannot provide. And in regular times, these (beyond the call) requests still come in multiple times a week.

We try to be understanding that everyone is under stress, and we try to support others where we can. We also try to keep emails to a minimum given that this is a busy time. We commiserate. We'll have the occasional call just to touch bases. And we share jokes and laughter. Occasionally, we'll gossip about the changes to staffing and the updates to policy on campus. None of us go political. Politics is just too draining.

So this is not a new technology. The Adobe Creative Cloud, of which I've only used some of the tools and only some of the functionalities, has been very important in various applications. And my data analytics software programs have come in handy.

I don't think of coping as a super power. I think it's more the humble stuff that is relevant: knowing how to maintain basic health, using common sense in decision making before taking actions, communicating in respectful and transparent ways, having healthy social relationships, directing energy in constructive ways, making sure to have some reserves in resources, and so on. I'm learning to ramp back on some ambitions in order to focus energy elsewhere at this time. I have a list of projects I'll get back to once we're past the worst of this and can get back on less of an emergency footing. And for work, my basic "superpowers" are following through on promises...and documenting well, so I can pick up where I left off.

The new normal will likely include various biosafety practices in people, in healthcare, in workplaces, and so on. This mass-scale trauma will hopefully remind us to do whatever we can to be healthy and to maintain surveillance of human and animal populations, so as to anticipate future pandemics and head them off with lock-downs, travel stoppages, and science-based interventions.

I will remember the loss of a former colleague of mine to COVID-19.

I will remember the stress of having my own mortality top-of-mind. I will remember the thinking that has to go into every errand outside the home. I will remember the mindfulness needed for the masking, the hand wipes, the social distancing, the avoidance of social gatherings in interior congregate settings, and so on.

I will remember the life of the neighborhood, which I don't usually see because I'm usually working from an office. I've become more familiar with some neighbors.

I'll remember the importance of ceteris paribus, keeping all other things as equal as possible from pre-pandemic. With a life-threatening air transmissible virus, keeping contacts and potential exposures as low as possible is important. All baseline systems have to keep functioning (while keeping people as safe as possible). Some months into the pandemic, the electricity went out because a rodent chewed a wire at the electricity station. Then, water was shut off to make a fix on a water line. Each of those events highlighted the importance of having functioning systems. I've learned that you don't want to stop dead and just go to ground, but you want to function smartly and safely.

I'll remember that life is never ever ever about 0 risk, but it helps to keep the risks as low as possible.

I'll remember the research projects I've been part of related to this novel coronavirus.

I'll remember taking stock of supplies in the home and where the gaps are (but also what there is a lot of...like backpacks...and bicycle helmets). I'll remember the stress of grocery shopping before mask mandates were put into place (a fast run-in and run-out, using a shopping list, avoiding those who clearly want to pick a fight), and strangers would rush up and crowd me as part of their own issues (whether identity or whatever).

I'll remember that it is important to have sufficient stock of various resources at home, including N95 masks. I'll remember that even in an age of credit and debit cards, it helps to have a little cash on hand (not just change in a change jar).

I think humanity actually knows how to do this. The issue is follow-through... Are we funding surveillance in the biological space for zoonotic pathogens? Are we funding the infrastructure for research and development and manufacture? Are we educating the public sufficiently and ensuring at least a baseline science understanding (so alternate narratives and conspiracy theories do not popularize so quickly)? Are we building a more unified sense of society, so people (such as a country's citizens) do not turn against each other in a time of mass stress? Do we have enlightened government so that the population's needs can be met in a fair way? Can we create new jobs (in bio-safe workplaces), so that people can survive financially?

Being able to shop online and to have goods delivered to one's door was helpful...and I'm guessing this capability will be built out further (maybe with drones?).

I learned recently about "preppers" who stockpile goods and plan for some dark potential eventualities. Having a light prepper mentality makes sense, so we are not caught up short on essentials. (I'm not talking about superficial issues like having to buy generic or off-brand items. I'm talking about basic needs for survival.)

I have seen a lot of wise adaptivity. The taking the SIDLIT2020 conference virtual is a case-in-point. In work places, there are varying levels of caution. Around the world, different countries have tried different approaches--with some more effective than others. I think a global sense of this is important...as is learning from what others do well and what they don't do well.

Shalin Hai-Jew may be reached at shalin@ksu.edu.