Troublesome Tech: A Coronavirus Update

Hideley-ho bloggerino buddies …

Yep I’ve been watching some Simpsons lately, can you tell?! The things that we do to amuse ourselves during lockdown!

I say “lockdown”, but here in Queensland we are still permitted to leave our homes for work (though many are now working from home or have lost their jobs), essential shopping (eg groceries and medication), medical appointments or exercise – and that’s about it.

As a result the husbear and I are both working from home which is putting a huge demand on our internet. All of my previously in-person meetings, client catch-ups, workshops and training sessions are now done via Zoom, while himself is connecting to his workmates via Microsoft Teams.

My business coach has been nagging encouraging me for ages to develop an online workshop or even an SEO course but … now it’s suddenly become a bigger priority!

If there’s one positive to come out of this whole COVID-19 thing, it’s that we’ve all pretty much been dragged kicking and screaming into turbo-charging our tech skills.

It hasn’t been without some difficulties and challenges, in our household at any rate. We are still on ADSL2 – although the NBN became available in our area late last year I’ve been hesitant to switch, as I’ve heard so many horror stories and I *need* a reliable internet connection for my business. Plus, it’s the last thing we want to deal with at the moment!

The internet has been a bit dodgy – late afternoons seem to be the worst, perhaps that is the time of peak demand? I tried in vain to join a “socialise at sunset” event with Women’s Network Australia, ended up joining with my phone but it wasn’t ideal.

It’s been particularly unreliable in my office (as luck would have it, situated at the opposite end of the house to the modem. We have a wifi extender but still experience issues from time to time).

We ended up setting up an old computer in a separate room located closer to the modem for online meetings, and so we weren’t disturbing the other while they were trying to work.

Then our modem decided it’d had enough – which required hours on the phone with tech support to trouble shoot.

My phone wasn’t coping with the extra demand of hot spotting while we waited for the new modem to arrive, and the battery now seems to go flat in the blink of an eye. When I texted Miss 23 to complain, her reply was: “Time to upgrade to that new phone then Mum” (I wish!)! Thankfully my mobile provider has added an extra 20MB of data to my plan this month for free, due to coronavirus 🙂 .

Even in our leisure time there have been moments … Netflix wasn’t cooperating on our (relatively new) TV, but a quick search online and the husbear found it was a fairly common problem with an easy solution – turn the TV off and on again. (If in doubt, reboot!). In the evenings we’ve watched quite a few movies as a way of “switching off” from the constant COVID-19 news and updates on TV, just this week we’ve watched The Dark Tower (4 stars), Jonah Hex (1 star), Flatliners (4 stars), and Extinction (3 stars).

I have never been interested in e-books (figure I spend too much time staring at screens as it is), but with our libraries closed it seemed I might have to take the plunge – but so far I still haven’t finished my last pile, plus I picked up about a dozen more from the op shop just before lockdown, so we will see.

Despite all the challenges we are coping admirably well. Perhaps the biggest issue has been the lack of any leniency, let alone understanding and acceptance of the tech difficulties employees face, from one of the husbear’s managers. It’s been hard enough for him, adjusting to the whole working from home thing, and with tech issues piled on top – well let’s just say a little bit of grace wouldn’t hurt.

How are you travelling with tech in these turbulent times?!