If you're working at home because of covid-19, did you leave personal belongings at the office?

My husband works in an office in a different state, and he brought everything home to Florida including everything that was in the apartment (he was renting a furnished apartment) and we gave 30 days notice to the apartment.

He actually went into the office twice after everyone was told they would be working from home. Work from home started on a Monday, he went in a few hours both Tuesday and Wednesday that first week to finish work that was much easier to do in the office because he had to print a large document. Since he went in he was able to check and recheck he had everything. He drive home that Thursday with his truck packed to the gills.

I have a friend who teaches elementary school and she said she was given a day to pack everything up from her classroom. The whole thing was very sudden. I wonder now if she just packed her personal stuff in her desk and the teacher’s lounge, or did she actually take everything down in the classroom? You know how elementary classrooms tend to have a lot of things on the walls for learning and decoration. Initially, I don’t think the order to close schools was to close until the end of the school year. She lives where school runs through June, and this was back in March.

Edit: I looked up her state, the first order was schools closed March 16 to April 5.

My husband has returned to his office twice to pick up additional equipment. I bet no one has even thought about the office refrigerator.

I started working from home on Thursday 3/19. Starting on around Friday the 13th, we knew that closure was imminent so I started on Monday, 3/16, taking plants home and planning what I wanted to have at home. Basically it was plants and a some other minor personal things. The day I left, Wednesday the 18th, I had a wheeled thing with plants, a birthday cake (because my birthday was mid-March and there was a cake at work), and some bags of stuff. My SUV was filled with the plants. I had milk in the refrigerator and I did a bit of cleaning in my office. I had a list of what I needed to take home, because I didn’t want to be home and then thinking that I needed to make the 40 minute trip back to the building because of something I stupidly forgot to take.

It was kind of a weird feeling, when I left. I was happy to be off of work (even though I’m working from home, it was a feeling of not having to get up every day and come to work which is nice), and also trepidation about what was to come. It also felt weird because everyone looked well, at work, yet we knew that there was a possibility that some were sick and just didn’t know it, being carriers. So there were a bunch of odd feelings on the day I left. Also not knowing whether we’d be away from work for two weeks or two months or longer, like a vacation with no planned time in sight.

Not me, but I sent two packages to my son at his office in Paris because they have trouble receiving them at home. One was a painting I had done that he liked and the other were American Superhero comic books for the grandsons. Turns out he’s been working from home on lockdown. I hope he can get them eventually.

I have been WFH since March 16. We knew the Wednesday before that it would start on a limited basis that day. I cleaned out all my food stuffs (except my salt and pepper) before I left.

On my desk are a few knick-knacks and pictures in frames. I hope they are okay when I get back, which is looking to be August or September.

We went home from University for spring break and then found out that we would not be returning. I left a number of things in the office, including student attendance sheets and assignments, plants, snacks (non-perishable), teaching supplies, reports and research-related things, etc. Essentially everything that I absolutely require for work is stored in the cloud, though.

I was eventually added to an essential worker list and then able to go into the office and collect my teaching things, for the most part. To the benefit of my student grades, I could not find all attendance sheets and they got credit for those classes.

@JLeslie made a great point about printing. I have thought about going into work just to print some stuff. I’ll never be reimbursed for the paper and ink that I’m using at home and the at-home quality is comparatively poor.

I have heard through the grapevine that rats have taken over a building near mine that I attend meetings in often. I occasionally have to work in-person to pull sensitive data and run analyses and the buildings are very cold and stuffy. Indoor plants are dead. It will be interesting to see how things are different when we (if we) fully return.

Just a plant and my earbuds and a few other personal items. I hope to go back in the next month to collect them and continue working from home.

I have a piggyback question to this Q, but I didn’t want to write it here and take the thread off topic. I would be interested in the jellies here responding to my new, related, Q. Here it is: https://i.fluther.com/221034/are-you-allowed-to-go-back-to-your-office-to-do/