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One Door Down : Profiles from a New York City Apartment Building During the COVID-19 Pandemic Main Menu About Our Profiles George and Kathy Profile Sonia and Paul Profile Mary Profile Leeat and Uwvie Profile Jo Profile Tyler Profile Methodology and Background

Jo Details Her Mindset In A Hybrid Work World Transcript

Jo: Early 2021 when I was back, the office was still officially closed, but it was opening up, so, by spring you can come in but it was like 25 percent capacity. So you had to sign up to go in. And I’m lucky to be at company that, is going to embrace this whole idea that we’ve actually been working well remotely. And, my company is also global so.. I think that that was the other sort of key piece for me going into COVID, that working with a global team you’re already almost remote. More than half my team sits in Berlin, in Germany, so I’m used to getting up early, and being on calls with people halfway across the world and not being in the same room with them. So, that was an easy transition, and I think, do we really need an office? The answer is, yes, we do but maybe we only need it when we need to come together as a big group of us to-to brainstorm or connect culturally on an event or whatever it is. And so, kind of navigating what that looks like for me personally… It’s not like it’s black and white, like, like I said you can go to the office every day if that’s what you prefer, you can. But what does that look like for me? Do I enjoy working from home, do I want to, be around people all the time, yanno what does that commute look like for me right now? A couple of my colleagues were going in and couldn’t get off the train without being harassed… and followed… and I’m just like, “why are you putting yourself through this?” like it seemed completely scary to me. And, my first time into the city not long after hearing of their stories, you couldn’t walk down, let’s say Fifth Ave, without being approached, or, heckled at, or, I had a friend who was, they were walking down Fifth and they were spat in the face. It just, felt, empty still. The thing with New York is, obviously it is always a scary place, but the scale that it’s at with all the 8 million people, you feel pretty protected at any given moment. It’s like, yanno, if someone was to come at me there’s forty people on this carriage to come rescue me, versus, just last week, I was going into work and the carriage had three people on it, and… this guy staggers on, and he’s threating to kill us all. Myself, another woman, and the guy, and this, (laughing) crazy person, and I was like “wow, we’re literally, if he pulls out a knife, were literally gone!” You can’t, sort of, fade into a crowd anymore. It’s very difficult to do, and, because the crowd’s not there these people are very front and center, and you know you can’t turn on the news now without hearing of people being shot or, stabbed or, whatever it is in the subway system or on the street. So it feels unsafe, this is the entire time I’ve lived in New York where I felt like, I need to have all my senses at a hundred percent all the time because, I just don’t know what going to come at me. My favorite thing in, (laughing) before COVID, BC times, was having those headphones in and listening to a podcast or listening to music and just zoning out. Can’t do that anymore, because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. I miss that.

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Jo
Jo asked her family and friends if her idea was a stupid one; no one said it was, and so her decision was made. In 2013, she moved from Sydney, Australia, to New York City, to temporarily live on the couch of an ex of both of her best friends. After a few weeks, she got a job that, while specifically created for her, required her to wait a couple of months to begin. She liked the idea of spending some of that time elsewhere, and so Jo secured an AirBnB in Maine. Never having seen snow, she was excited to see it in a more natural way than that offered by the city. The day she checked in; Maine was hit by a polar vortex.
Jo has remained at the same job for nearly a decade, and in that time has come to consider herself a New Yorker. In early 2020, though, she knew she had to get out. COVID did not concern her on a personal level, in fact, she thinks she got the virus in February while on a business trip. While she experienced uncomfortable symptoms unlike anything she ever had before, including a sensation as if ear swabs were being rolled under her skin, a rare one she read about months later, she was moreso concerned with the possibility of social upheaval. How would the city respond to the pandemic? She felt New York was the last place she wanted to be, and so, she left. Additionally, all of her family lived in Australia. The idea of spending a pandemic locked inside her apartment, all alone, was daunting.

In the above clip, Jo discusses deciding to leave New York in the early days of the pandemic, and her trip to, and experience in, the airport.


Transcript
The decision to leave New York had two major implications for Jo: maintaining her apartment within the building, and her cat, Ygritte. She couldn’t bring Ygritte with her, and so Kathy volunteered to take her in while she was away. While incredibly helpful for Jo, she also thinks that Ygritte left a positive impact on her interim caretaker. In this clip, Jo discusses her thoughts on Kathy’s volunteering to take care of Ygritte, and the way that pets, by virtue of simply being there, helped their owners during the pandemic.

Transcript
While in Austin, Jo was able to work remotely. Her decision to leave New York is one that she thinks not only freed her from the anxiety of living in an epicenter, but also allowed a certain degree of freedom that city life simply could not. Having access to a car, being able to see friends, and most pressingly, securing a vaccine appointment, were important benefits. Her friends in New York had told her how difficult it was to get an appointment. While on phone calls with co-workers, she often heard the sirens of ambulances in the background. The memory of the sirens haunts her. Life began to feel like a movie; she cites a moment where, driving down the I-35 highway, she realized the sheer emptiness of the roads mimicked the famous scene in The Walking Dead where Rick Grimes rode horseback into Atlanta.
Jo and her partner broke up, and she returned to a New York that, in early 2021, no longer worried her in the same way. Now close to the office, working remote was no longer the default option. She had to choose between going into the office, or remaining home.
In this clip, Jo explains her decision to work hybrid, and her experience on the subway since returning from Austin.

Transcript
The change in attitude towards taking the subway, and a lessened sense of safety while on it, have both been evoked by the events caused by, or that happened during, the COVID-19 pandemic. The city, during B. C. times, propelled an extroverted Jo to take in varying aspects of its culture at rapid pace. Not a homebody, she made an effort to spend her time off-work taking in new experiences, and indulging in ones she now knows to be more deserving than a one-off. In this clip, Jo analyzes her time in the city Before Covid, and how it convinced her to maintain her lease.

Transcript
Jo hopes for a future in which hybrid work is more widely accepted, and yearns for a return to the times where she felt safe amidst the crowd. The same people who told her to act on her whim now ask if she’ll ever return home to stay; she cannot give them a definitive answer. Now, she considers New York her home. She misses her family dearly, and is eager to visit them after four years apart.

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