Editor's Note: My Dog, and a Window

Late last year, we invited you to share your preferences for telecommuting in a post-pandemic world. It had been nine months since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that forced many of us off campus.

Your survey answers were illuminating and serve as the basis of our April-May 2021 cover story.

Of slightly more than 2,200 staff and faculty responses, 74 percent of colleagues want to work remotely three to five days per week, while 3 percent favor no remote work. No commute, enhanced productivity, and flexibility, in that order, are top benefits of telecommuting, while a boundary between work and life is the leading challenge.

Before the pandemic, Mary Reinecke, manager of electronic commerce at Duke, had a work office with no windows. After quarantine, she purchased a sit-stand desk and placed it in front of windows in her home.

“I absolutely LOVE being able to look outside,” she wrote in her survey response.

Mary’s sentiments mirrored scores of positive remarks around the productivity and wellness benefits of remote work: comfortable clothes, money savings, elder and pet care, and lower stress, among other advantages.

For me, my desk on campus sits in a room with no windows, and that room is in a suite with no windows – a place colleagues in the building gather for shelter during tornado warnings. At home, I enjoy window views. Another perk is the latitude to walk my Labrador, Vincenzo. He’s a calmer, happier dog, and I feel better with more sunshine, too.

Some of you noted in the survey that you miss work friends, in-person collaboration and seeing pretty campus spaces. Duke leaders are examining these concerns as they consider hybrid work arrangements for roles that are able to fit within a telecommuting structure.

In Duke Human Resources, our office (Communication Services) is part of a 90-day pilot to assess what positions can transition primarily to a work-from-home arrangement.

“When we first started working remotely, everyone kept asking when we would go back,” said Paul Grantham, assistant vice president for Communication Services. “But over the course of the year, that changed to people asking if they could continue working remotely.”

As you’ll read in this issue, creating the future of telecommuting is a work in progress at Duke. With the COVID-19 vaccination available to all staff and faculty, we enter more hopeful times, and we look forward to sharing your post-pandemic work and life stories. Please share your stories with us at working@duke.edu.