She’s Got A Heavy Burden On Her Shoulders

There are certain jobs that you simply cannot do working from home. Managing the actual computer hardware and cables so that everyone else can work from home is one of those.

Fortunately, the woman who manages the servers and equipment for my workplace actually volunteered to keep working from the office. When lockdown ended and we moved to a part-work-from-home-by-agreement model, she opted for “ad-hoc”, which means that she continued to work in the office.

A few people commented that [Hardware Worker] should work from home at least one day a week, but she brushed them off saying that her neck hurt when she did so.

I didn’t think anything of this comment until the day came that [Hardware Worker] was sick and chose to work from home. She video-called into our meeting with the executive directors with a beautiful white fur scarf around her neck.

And when the chief information officer opened the meeting, the fur scarf lifted its head to meow at us.

I was in close to a dozen meetings for the week or so [Hardware Worker] was at home. Her cat — who is an absolutely enormous boy that I swear must be part Maine Coon — never once moved from her shoulders the entire time.