Remember the time were everybody were locked up at home due to the Movement Restriction Order (MRO) because of the Covid-19 pandemic? That was this week and the next. Actually my company had already jumped the gun and closed the school 2 days earlier. Still they require all non teaching staff to show up for work like usual. Only after the government gazetted the MRO that we don’t have to come to work anymore.
As for IT staff, we’re required to do IT support work from home. Which is fine by me so far. We can always remote control to another staff’s computer if needed. The rest we can give instruction via chat or email. Just like a typical IT support centre. The first 2 days, there were tonnes of help requests coming in. Understandably, a few unresolved issues and technical glitches to overcome, especially those relating to VPN connection. The 3rd day (today), there were a lot less requests coming in so we can relax a bit. That said, we’d still have to be alert to tickets or emails coming in from staff that means sitting in front of our laptop whenever possible or hanging on to a phone.
Overall it’s not that bad, this working from home thing. I can still do some of my household chores while keeping one eye on the requests. I can’t take naps yet though cause who knows suddenly an urgent email or ticket comes up and I only respond to them an hour later. It would be awkward to explain to my bosses.
The kids are all home as well, except for Asif. For his sake, we decided to send him to the babysitter anyway because 1, we already paid in advance and 2, I don’t think I can focus on my work from him while attending to him cause you know babies need our full attention when they’re awake. My wife still has to go to work because she’s listed in the essential services. I don’t know how essential car loan financing are but she still has to work. I can still go out to buy food and groceries at the local mart. By today, a few food items were sold out because they haven’t been restocked by the distributors. I hope they will do so soon or else we’ll have to run to Tesco in Bandar Sri Putra.
I miss working out - jogging or cycling round the block. While I can’t risk jogging to Alam Sari without being roundly condemned in the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, I did take my bike for a quick spin, two mornings in a row now, around 6:30 before most people wake up. If you don’t meet a single soul while being outside, no harm done right? So far, I haven’t encountered any police patrols or roadblocks on the road. Not sure how it’s going to be when they started to deploy soldiers come Sunday. Until then I need my 1 hour of exercise or else I’m gonna gain weight sitting idle at home.
Let us pray that this terrible pandemic slows down soon cause I can’t bear the thought of prolonged lockdown here at home. Especially when you still have to standby for work half the time.
