Even Retirees Are Challenged By Work-From-Home

My dad may be retired, but he’s still involved in quite a few things — including local politics — that require meetings. Because of the health crisis, he has a lot of video meetings at home. My dad does not like headphones, and he likes the volume loud, so we can hear quite a bit of what is being said. On top of that, my dad’s voice is quite loud and carries quite far. It wasn’t too bad when it was still a bit cold and he had the door of his office closed, but now we’re in a heatwave and we can follow everything that is being said if we don’t put something on ourselves.

This particular evening, my dad has another video meeting and he has his door open. I have a little bit of a headache and my mum is sorting some paperwork, so neither of us are wearing headphones with sound on them. It gets on our nerves quite badly.

At one point, I enter my mum’s room and we start being a bit silly together. It doesn’t get that loud, but it’s a bit louder than our normal voices, and with my mum’s door now being open, it carries into my dad’s room. After a bit, we hear my dad come out of his room. 

Dad: “I can’t work like this!”

My mum said, “Sorry,” but both of us were trying our very best to hold in the laughter that we silently uttered when he’d closed the door. We got what we wanted, even if we didn’t expect it to happen.

My mum confessed she was being a bit loud on purpose, hoping he’d be disturbed and close his door, though this is definitely the first time that actually worked.