Neighbor Leigh: Home Office Heroine

Leigh is reflecting this month on the grand saga of modern — particularly post-COVID — life. She has truly become part of that breed of hero rarely celebrated: the Work-FromHome Warrior. A valiant soul, armed with nothing but a trusted computer and Wi-Fi connection that oft functions with an air of ambivalence, she embarks daily on epic quests from the comfort of a pajama-clad kingdom.

The typical tale begins as Leigh’s alter ego, Lady Pajama, rises from slumber to face a primal challenge: acquiring the sacred elixir known as black tea. With a mighty yawn and a search for the slippers that speak for the growing national trend of plantar fasciitis — as many workers in her guild labor without shoes in the later days — Lady Pajama shuffles to the kitchen, where she is confounded by the dreaded empty canister.

Mild panic ensues as she realizes she must brave the perilous journey to the outside, to the Mart of Walton, a mere three-minute trek but rife with the possibility of having to talk to people. Summoning her courage, along with some tedious socks and outside shoes, Lady Pajama dutifully sojourns, battling traffic and fellow warriors who are similarly unhappy to be wearing shoes. After what feels like an eternity, she returns triumphant, holding aloft a fresh box of English Breakfast like a dragon's head on a pike.

With oversized mug resting against her chin in the tender embrace of always-cold hands and sending sweetened steam to a cold nose, Lady Pajama prepares to face her next challenge: the Zoom call. Armed only with her wit and the mute button, she selects a green-screen background, the necessary reflexive expression of her identity of the day like a mood tartan. This day she chooses Trinity College library, to reflect an arcane and thoughtful mood and perhaps avoid drawing attention. Her subtle smile of greeting betrays her wish that her window shall simply be relegated to the bottom left corner, where none might pay her mind. As she bends an ear to the barons of bottom lines and ramblings on mystical words like synergy and KPIs, Lady Pajama wonders if perhaps she has stumbled into a parallel dimension where time has no meaning and productivity is but a distant memory.

On this day, she merrily notes the face of a favored fellow she-warrior among the pixelized portraits. Happy to see one with whom she has oft aligned in the kingdom, she commences immediately to out-of-sightof-the-digital-eye phone scribing. The arduous challenge now before her is to endeavor to refrain from expressing great mirth whilst others converse about non-funny things like synergistically-thinking-outside-the-box-actionable-new-paradigms.

As the day wears on, Lady Pajama finds herself locked in mortal combat with her arch-nemesis: the bed desk.

What was once a cozy refuge for late-night Netflix binges has now become a siren call, tempting her with a lack of back pain and promises of midday naps. With every click of the keyboard, Lady Pajama feels the pull of temptation, threatening to drag her into the abyss of unproductivity. But fear not, for our heroine is made of sterner stuff. With steely determination, she banishes the bed desk to the realm to which dogs, the DVR, and other distractions are cast away, and returns to her rightful place at the desk.

And so, dear reader, the saga of the Work-From-Home Warrior continues, filled with triumphs and tribulations alike. Though the battles may be fought in pajamas rather than armor, and the spoils come in the form of virtual high-fives rather than gold and glory, one thing remains true: the spirit of the home office hero burns bright.

Yea, in the gloaming of Boomers and Gen-Xers, for whom digital life retains its aura of magical Jetson’s-esque convenience, the glow of the home office hero casts a radiant beacon to latter generations for whom the technology frontier will forever be relegated to “in the days of yore.”

Yet, here, amidst the hallowed halls of hearth and home, Lady Pajama gratefully weaves the tapestry of domestic life with the threads of professional duty. Pleased to be able to kindle her hearth ere day is done with deeds both great and small—garments are washed and twilight feasts begun—all whilst standing steadfast in the service of myriad callings of the realm of commerce. Huzzah!