Work It, Mom
During the lockdown, about 30,000 Ayala employees continued to work from home. It was safer, but not always easier. IMI training specialist Gaylirose Adame shares the challenges of her New Workplace
Words by MARGA CONSTANTINO
Gaylirose Adame, 35, types away at a makeshift office behind her parents’ house in Cabuyao, Laguna, praying that her spotty mobile hotspot will keep her connected to her workmates all day. The sky is overcast and the smell of rain fills the air, but Gaylie is not worried—the tarpaulin is already secured overhead to shield her and her laptop from the impending shower. As Senior Training Specialist at AC Industrials’ Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI), Gaylie does whatever it takes to stay connected to her colleagues around the globe.
Working through sun…
…and rain.
When there’s a will, there’s a way
Gaylie broke down in tears when the Enhanced Community Quarantine was announced in March. She felt unprepared and anxious about the work-from-home arrangement. “Among my team members, I was the only one who was not prepared to work remotely. But I needed to find a way because I look after global customers and projects, as well as local ones.”
“She went straight to her parents’ house some 52 km away with just her laptop and the clothes on her back”
Without stopping by her apartment in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, she went straight to her parents’ house some 52 km away with just her laptop and the clothes on her back. She set up her son’s study table in the back patio, where she received slightly better mobile signal. She used her mobile hotspot for months, desperately trying to stay connected to the Internet while working non-stop from 8 AM to 6 PM.
“Sobra akong stressed during the first few months of this lockdown. I didn’t know how I could survive this kind of set-up, ” she says of her improvised work area. “But I needed to deliver results despite what was happening. I needed to make it work.”
Meeting commitments. As Gaylie assured her clients from different parts of the world, work continued at the IMI factories with over 1,000 essential workers provided with PPEs and sheltered at a basketball court converted into a dormitory. IMI also tightened security, limiting visitors so that the stay-in staff would not be unnecessarily exposed to the virus.
Finding balance as a work-from-patio mom
Gaylie’s parents’ house was in a remote area and was not properly wired for a work-from-home setup. This was not an issue before the pandemic, as she would leave her work at her Sta. Rosa apartment and visit them on the weekends to be with her two-year-old son, Liam. Her husband would also travel from Batangas, where he works, to be with the family. It became a different story during the lockdown, when stores were closed and could not support Internet connection applications.
Gaylie had a very difficult time adjusting to her new set-up, and balancing work with her duties to her son and family. She explained her frustrations, and thankfully they understood her situation better and gladly helped her adjust. With their support, she improvised a better workstation, and someone looked after her child during the day. Though it breaks Gaylie’s heart to have to turn her son away during work hours, she feels calmer and more in control than she did at the start of the lockdown.
Love in the time of Coronavirus
Her biggest challenge now is being physically separated from her husband, who hasn’t been able to leave Batangas since March.
“Mahirap na yung setup namin. Mas nahirapan ako ngayon kasi I [have not seen] my husband for almost four months already. Yung once a week or weekend bonding ay lalo naging limited or virtual nalang,” she said. “On the positive side, I have more time with my son. Kasi before, weekend and holidays lang kami magkakasama.”
For Gaylie, the silver lining in today’s pandemic is being with her son every day. What she looks forward to most is “Liam’s Time,” the hours between 6 PM and 8 AM that she devotes solely to him. Every day, as soon as she shuts off her laptop, she goes into full mommy mode until the next morning when work begins again.
“We watch Disney Junior. By the way, that’s the only channel that I watch right now… [I] watch him mimic the dance steps and songs on Disney Junior. I have even memorized the songs, movements, and actions. Whatever he wants, that’s our time.”
““I needed to deliver results despite what was happening. I needed to make it work.””
An Internet (and work-life balance) upgrade
In June, when GCQ was announced and stores were partly opened, Gaylie finally had WiFi installed at her parents’ house. She breathed a huge sigh of relief, since steady and reliable Internet connection removed a lot of the stress from her work. It also helped her stay in touch with her husband, who is still stuck in Batangas to this day.
Gaylie doesn’t know when they can all be together, or when work arrangements will return to normal—or even what that new normal will look like. But she will continue to do what she has always done: show up every day, and find a way to make things work. #
Published on July 31, 2020
