Working On-Site During The Quarantine

"If I will not go to work today and wait until it's safe to be outside, when will that day come?" This is the question that I asked myself when I decided to work on-site last April 20. Since I was still on training, getting a work-at-home kit from the company was very unlikely, I may not be even on the list of employees who were eligible to receive one. Fast forward to today, after finishing a week of compressed training, after a week of on-the-job training, and two weeks of doing the actual job, I've learned and realized a lot of things. When I went to work for the first time after being on quarantine in my apartment for a month, a lot of things changed outside. For me to be able to go to the office, I have to walk for about 30 minutes from my apartment to a nearby mall so that the company's shuttle service can pick me up on the way. On my way, it's very obvious how nature has started healing. The trees on the sidewalk just seem to be very healthy and happy without the black smoke coming from private vehicles and delivery trucks that frequent that part of the city before the quarantine. Also, I've been constantly seeing different birds species flying and hopping from branches to branches of those trees. Aside from waiting for the sometimes unresponsive driver for almost one hour, I have to endure standing on the roadside with occasional people passing by who are coming in and out of the mall's nearby supermarket. Though I'm so used to waiting in line when buying things before the quarantine period, waiting in public places these days gives me more anxiety and stress than it should be. Before entering the shuttle service, a personnel gets my body temperature through a hand-held digital thermometer and log it in a manual tracker together with my name, employee number and department, provides alcohol to disinfect my hands, and only that personnel can open and close its door. While inside the shuttle, I am to avoid or at least lessen touching things. Before entering the building, I have to disinfect my shoes on an alcohol rug pad in the doorstep of the building and another personnel gets my body temperature. Both the shuttle service and building personnel do not allow employees without mask and with body temperature higher than 37.6 degrees Celsius to enter the facilities. Another personnel located in the lobby of the building keeps track of my body temperature together with my name, employee number, department, and some Yes-No questions for the symptoms of COVID-19. In the elevator, only four people are allowed, three passengers and the operator, who is the only person allowed to touch the buttons for the floor numbers. These elevator buttons are also covered with a transparent plastic that is being disinfected every three hours. To avoid the long lines for the elevator and being confined in a small box with people who may be asymptomatic of COVID-19, I usually use the stairs. Before I can finally get to my department's work area, another personnel gets my body temperature. Inside, all workstations are at least one meter away from each other. All of us in the department are only allowed to talk to each other if we are to maintain at least one meter distance. Also, at least two admin staff are randomly inspecting each department to enforce the one meter social distancing policy. During breaks, only two employees are allowed to share a table with dividers as if we are on a blind date. When buying cooked food from the concessionaires, only disposable plates and utensils are being used. As for me, I bring my own utensils and just wash them after eating and tuck them away in my locker. For the first two weeks of being back to work, the company gives its employees 20% salary incentive, 200 pesos transportation allowance, meal stubs, and on-site accommodation for those who want to stay in the office and/or just go home on their rest days. Two hours before I go home, I send a text message to the same shuttle service driver so that I can reserve a seat for myself. After being dropped off in the same spot where I waited for it in going to the office, I walk the same path to go home for another 30 minutes.

On my way, I usually pick some pantry essentials so that I don't have to go to the grocery store anymore during the weekends, hence, having lesser contact with other people. For the things that I can't buy in the nearby pop up wet market, I ask one of my friends at work to buy them for me whenever he goes to a supermarket near his residence. Personally, these experiences make me realized that working in the office amidst this health crisis requires a lot of patience while going through all the health check measures, thorough personal hygiene, and smart ways of unloading stresses and anxiety.

Spending My Day In This Quarantine

“For someone who is very used to living alone and staying indoors, being alone in my own apartment during this community quarantine has been a lot of things but sad."

Ever since the community quarantine started last March 15, I've been writing things that I do in a day on an hourly basis. I want to share how I'm able to cope up to this crisis and how I manage to avoid the stress that goes with living alone, being far from family and friends, and having to stop working with bills that needed to be paid.

Most of the time, I sleep during the day and spend the night cooking, eating, reading books, writing, and watching Netflix and YouTube. I just find it more comfortable to be awake during the night as I know that others are just sleeping that's why it's very peaceful and silent and not be stressed by the eerie silence of the day because I'm asleep. Below are the things that I've been doing that moment I wake up until I sleep. I grouped them according to the time of the day that I've been doing them.

Writing at 0400AM. I woke up at around 0200AM but decided to just stay in bed and browse Instagram until around 0330AM. Lately, I've been hooked to interior designs of some homes featured on Instagram's search page. Seeing a lot of organized and beautiful interiors has been giving me a sense of internal peace amidst this extended quarantine.

I'm currently having a cup of hot chocolate since I ran out of coffee yesterday. I'm just going to catch-up with the YouTube channels that I'm subscribed to, especially off-grid and design channels. And around six o'clock later, I'll take a bath and dive into some books that I plan to finish before this quarantine ends.

Writing at 0500AM. I woke up to a message in my badminton group chat regarding donations given to a private hospital being confiscated by policemen and tagging those donations with the name of certain senator and re-donating it to the same hospital. Like what the fuck! Seriously?

I woke up around 0400AM today but decided to just stay in bed for another hour. I slept around 0700PM last night and woke up around 1100PM and slept again after 30 minutes. I'm currently nursing a slight headache that I hope to go away once I'm done with the cup of hot chocolate and biscuits that I just prepared.

I only had two meals yesterday and the last meal was around 0200PM. I just didn't want to eat, I still have some stocks in my cupboard though. I'll hang my laundry around 0630AM later after taking a bath. After that, just some more simple activities to kill time before I go to the grocery store around 1200PM to stock up on some supplies.

Writing at 0600AM. It's my first time ever hanging out in the communal rooftop of my apartment building at this hour and having my laptop with me to type away and read away anything that I want. So here I am, having my morning coffee while witnessing the sun to rise way above the aluminum roofs of my neighbors.

It's Black Saturday and still another day of this quarantine so nothing special is going on in the neighboring streets. I have nothing special planned for today aside from attempting to go outside, withdraw some cash, and buy some essentials for my pantry. The word here is "attempting" because I really don't want to go out.

Writing at 0700AM. I haven't been gone to bed since I woke up around 0500PM yesterday. I just came back from the rooftop of my apartment after spending an hour there watching the sunrise for the first time in this quarantine. I spent my night working on the wall design and room assignment of my dream permaculture home. I finished it already, a two-story home with a basement and rooftop. I decided to remove the third floor since the rooms in the second and third can be combined in just one floor without compromising their respective areas.

This is where I'm going to cut the first part of my notes, since from 0800AM to 0100PM I have no entries at all. It's because it's either I'm doing the plans that I have for the day or I'm sleeping.