Update From the Home and Work Environment
by Stephen P. Cummings, MSW, ACSW, LISW
I am writing this in November 2020. With few exceptions, I have not left my home since March. The last event I attended was an all-faculty retreat. I supplied the bagels and coffee for that event. That was the last "regular" thing I did before the world changed.
My son is enrolled in an online elementary school program for fifth grade. His school lent him a Chromebook laptop, to attend online classes. He attends gym class via Zoom and follows all the exercises. I admire him for this. Until last week, his school district offered the opportunity to move back into a “hybrid” program, where he could attend classes in his school building intermittently and see his friends. Then we saw a dramatic spike upward in the number of positive COVID-19 cases. The local hospitals are at capacity with no end in sight. The school district rescinded the plan for a hybrid option. Now, all K-12 students are online for the remainder of the academic year.
I continue to work from home. I do not anticipate returning to campus, or traveling to a conference, for at least the remainder of the academic year. That seems optimistic.
“Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life,” our outgoing president said. This is terrible advice, the kind of blustery rhetoric that centers responsibility on individuals rather than larger systems. Going about life as usual has led to the crisis we are in now. Denial of the pandemic is simply willful ignorance. Yet the fallacy that we can “defeat” the pandemic by ignoring it persists.
In my last Social Work Tech Notes column, I wrote about the use of technology as a remedy for social work students during the pandemic. We are now engaged in a large-scale online learning experiment. The results so far are mixed.
What about the practice of social work? For those of us across the various areas of employment, the same expectations for technology use are present. Unless your in-person work is deemed essential and you are still going into your work environments, you are probably working from home, using a variety of applications to carry out your daily routine. Synchronous or asynchronous, from Zoom meetings to Microsoft Teams to one-on-one sessions with clients, we are working with technology to cover the basics of our professional lives.
The good news? Social workers in the field are skilled in the art of adaptation. Yet, if you are a parent or caregiver for people at home with you, the current situation is even more complex. The geography of our living environment has been redefined. What does it mean when work, home, parenting, caregiving, and self-care have to happen in the same place? What happens to our sense of self? If we have access to this practical technology, it’s undeniably helpful, but the new challenges are very apparent. And the future is unknown.
The Built Environment: Are We Built for This?
The built environment refers to the human-made spaces in which we engage. When I discuss this with my students, the concepts of community equity, livability, and environmental justice are forefront in class discussion. This fall, I spent time discussing the qualities of a desirable neighborhood. What do we want in our communities? Students listed indicators—a just environment, walkability, equitable access to all needed resources, renewable energies, support for neighbors.
I felt a loss when we talked about a walkable community. The campus where I work is an exemplar of this quality; I used to walk every day during my noon hour to collect thoughts and enjoy some time away from the office.
Now, I remain at home with my family, connecting via internet broadband for all work-related duties. My son stakes out our kitchen table each day for school. At the start of this year online, he announced his intention that his experience “needed to be professional.” I do not know if we will ever meet that standard, but I admire his dedication. One thing seems clear—our home space was most certainly not built for this. Like so many houses in this area of the Midwest, we live in a ranch-style house. The design is focused on a life outside of work, a place to retreat at the end of the workday. Of course, I have worked here in this space, grading papers in the early morning. These work activities are on the periphery of my usual schedule, efforts that are eventually tucked into the backpack and taken to the office.
Now, my work is fully incorporated in a space never built for it. And it is not just the physical space that’s changed. The mental space is also a series of compromises. A parent of an 11-year-old son, everything is happening under the roof, every day. I have a new respect for his teachers. My son struggles with math problems, and his teacher’s aides are his mother and me. He experiences frustration when he cannot navigate his online learning management system. Recording a clarinet solo on his computer for his band class does happen easily. After standing in for his band instructor, everyone is exhausted, and I still have my own students to attend to.
These experiences provide me more empathy for my students. I see them in our virtual social work classroom space, attending from their own respective living environments. As an undergraduate, I lived in a small apartment for years. I can imagine the negotiations with space and time my students are making.
So here we are, in this current reality. Most of us are quarantined to our homes, in an incongruous blending of these two built environments, the physical home designed for personal space, and our new daily work environment. Now, when I discuss role theory in class, I have new lived experiences I can share as case examples. From my work space, I can turn left and switch to my parenting role with my son, attending class in his virtual space; turn right, and I’m a spouse, conversing about who has meetings coming up in the afternoon, and who can prepare dinner tonight.
Working from home is a privilege. I continue to be employed, and I have the means to do it. This could change, so I continue to hope this is all, eventually, temporary. To move out of this pandemic, the science is clear—wear a mask and avoid large groups. I am not gathering with my family for the holidays. These approaches are going to be tough but necessary. From a perspective of social justice, the following are just a few things I see as important in this current reality.
Provisions for health care. The Washington Post reports a shift in health benefit plans to include telehealth support. This is a nice start, but coverage for web-based counseling services seems like a limited step. More comprehensive mental health coverage is always supported, but more so now. Because of the nature of the pandemic, particularly for those who have lost loved ones, or their own livelihood, access to quality mental health care is vital and necessary.
Subsidy for the home/work environment. As I worked on this article today, I received a notification from my Internet Service Provider. I have just exceeded my data cap for the month and will face overage fees. This is due largely to the current demands on broadband internet access in our home. Everyone is working and studying. Broadband is an expensive service, but one our employers assume we all have. Again, I acknowledge working from home is a privilege I enjoy. I also know working from home would be impossible for me without internet broadband. My ISP long ago did away with unlimited broadband use, so data is capped, meaning after the household surpasses that cap, I’m assessed even more fees.
The bottom line—all this work and school at home comes at a cost. Broadband is, at best, an unstable utility in a vastly noncompetitive market. (I have one colleague who works in an area with two ISP providers. She purchases service from both to guarantee access at any given time, should one service fail.) Employers should provide support for broadband use while their staff work from home—this isn’t a choice of convenience, and shouldering the cost of expanded technology use is an undue burden. Of course, even more ideally, expanded broadband would be provided as a public good, reaching rural areas. At the very least, price-gauging and caps should not be a part of this model.
Restore Net Neutrality. The current federal administration struck down net neutrality, which gives ISPs the ability to slow down or prioritize speed and costs for data. This places agencies and schools in a precarious position at a difficult time. This reliance on broadband is like a forced partnership to carry out a major sector of our work. ISPs can simply make it more expensive for people to work from home, if they wish. Net Neutrality restoration could address this risk, benefitting the public.
Conclusion
These are just a few ideas, and by no means are these ideas comprehensive. Each thought here touches on the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work engagement. My hope is that this shared global experience will lead to systemic changes in how we use everyday technology. I continue to believe that changes like the ones I mention here are reasonable and not merely optimistic.
Stephen P. Cummings, MSW, ACSW, LISW, is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, where he is the administrator for distance education.