This; DH used to spend 40 hours a week at the office, even though only about 12 hours are absolutely necessarily there. He works with a vulnerable population, so the less time he spends around them the better.
Since COVID-19, everyone who can do any work from home has been ordered to do so, and to come in only for absolutely necessary lab hours.
Surprise! non-primary illnesses among the populations he works with are down something like 70%.
In simpler terms, he is a tech who works in studies involving cancer drugs. He has to deal directly with patients on a very limited basis, and this is unavoidable, but amounts to only about 2 hours a week. He also has to be in the lab, preparing samples for centrifuge, microscopy, what have you, about 15 hours a week, then after someone else collects the data on the sample, he has to log it all in, plus he has to document the collection and preparation of samples. He creates computer files from handwritten documents, and centralizes files that are already on the computer, as well as making sure they are formatted correctly. The documentation is the bulk of his work, and that can all be done from home.
When he is in the office, even just for data entry, it is inevitable that he crosses airspace with cancer patients in studies. There are lots of filters and vents, but there is still contamination, and if he has a cold, but doesn’t realize it yet (one that will be mild for him), he can end of giving a serious infection to someone immuno-compromized-- and set back their treatment by weeks.
Once the powers that be realized this, they decided that holding tight to the reins of the workers doing data analysis was not as important as infection rates. Now, all the jobs have been restructured so he goes in one full day for lab work, one half day for any dealings with patients he has, plus catching up on lab work if he needs to, and the rest of the week, does data entry from home. They even have someone now whose job it is to take boxes of documentation around to people for entry, so that there’s just one person in and out of the sensitive areas, instead of a lot of people going in for documents.
This is the new SOP.
It would have been nice to have had this when our son was 4, and not 14, but still, I’ll take it.
We have restructured all the chores and the way we run the household, He now does all the laundry, and always starts dinner on the weekdays (I sometimes finish it, and do weekends). I have permanent dishwashing and litterbox duty, but we have a dishwasher now, and we didn’t when we agreed to split dish duty, and we have only 1 cat, who really is the boychik’s, so changing the litter involves supervising him changing it. Really, the only thing I feel “stuck” with is permanent Sunday afternoon “clean the bathroom” duty, and seeing as he is doing all the vacuuming, I’ll take it.
Basically, the big difference in the chores is that there are a lot fewer things that we alternate, and more that are permanently his or mine. Mid-week grocery shopping is mine, because I do it after work. Weekend shopping, we do together, still.
I really prefer the new set-up. It used to be that I was always the one who had to make adjustments and try to be home when maintenance or someone was expected, and if the boychik was home sick, it was a monkey wrench. Now, those are not problems (albeit, at this point, unless the boychik is gravely ill, he can probably stay by himself if he’s home sick).
The boychik was looking forward to coming home to an empty house when he was in high school, and getting 90 minutes of freedom, and doesn’t have that now, so he’s the only one unhappy.
