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Social Media Manager: Jumana Khan

aprsunsw

After three weeks in a new internship, I was told that wfh would be implemented. I had just started to become familiar with the office and team, so it was disappointing to know it had come to an end so soon.

My transition to wfh wasn’t actually difficult because I had a clear idea of what my tasks were, but I really missed the office environment. There’s something about having a coffee in the morning with your teammates and treating yourself to a yummy lunch break. The virtual office meet-ups doesn’t do reality justice.

Working from home has been an eye-opening experience that has really allowed me to explore both my professional and personal life. People often forget how important it is to make sure that along their work journey they are learning about themselves and not just about their career-related skills.


Students especially don’t do this, we get caught up in jam-packing our resumes and saying yes to everything that comes our way without taking a moment’s thought to realise if it’s something we even want to do. Of course, we should be trying new things and learning from new experiences, but maybe we don’t have to do all of it at once.


My transition to wfh was relatively seamless, but I had difficulty with the transition to uni online. I wasn’t anticipating this, but it was hard to have the motivation to do uni along with work. So I ended up dropping my subjects, and this was a tough decision at the time because I wanted to finish my degree as soon as I could, but I’m so glad I did it!


I already had heaps of time, but it felt like a lot less pressure on my shoulders and this really let me focus on things I hadn’t been giving attention to. I finally had this freedom to be content with doing nothing! We’re taught from early on that doing nothing is negative, but how else are we meant to give ourselves a break?

My ‘nothing’ takes on many forms. I love taking walks, and spending an hour soaking in the sun at the parks. I’ve learnt to appreciate the natural beauty around me, even though I’ve been around it this entire time. I take my time when I make food, and allow myself to pay attention to the small things when before I might have just shoved everything in the pan. I really enjoy starting new hobbies like learning to knit, even though most of the time I don’t push through with them (and that’s still okay).


Another challenge I’ve experienced with wfh is that there’s a lot of screen time, because even when you want to take a break with Netflix or complete your readings, they’re all still online. So I’ve challenged myself to have downtime that doesn’t involve a screen, like listening to podcasts, learning meditation and writing for pleasure and not just for work and uni.


Wfh and staying home has forced a lot of us to un-learn some things about how we should work and re-imagining what productivity means. In my experience, letting yourself have the freedom to do what you want leads to a stronger relationship with yourself, and that’s valuable in every aspect of your life.



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APRS UNSW acknowledges and pays our respect to the Bedegal people who are the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which the UNSW Kensington campus is located, and to Elders past and present. APRS supports UNSW's continued work on The Uluru Statement from the Heart.

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