The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on our lives. Most of us work from home for the first time, isolated from colleagues, friends and family. Our daily living routines, our working methods are changing suddenly and rapidly. This new way of working has everyday challenges, while we try to protect ourselves and our fellow human beings from the virus, we also need to keep our mental health and well-being in balance. This new situation can create stress and anxiety for everyone, particularly for those who did have a choice but to work fully remotely. Balázs's workstation in the basement of his home. He and his family are of the few fortunate ones with their own family house with a garden close to nature. He works as an IT Manager and it is easy to manage working hours for himself but hard to separate work and family life during daytime. “It isn’t easy to keep social distance from our friends and family,” says Balázs, who started to work from home in March, 2020.
While Orsi is at home on maternity leave, she also sets aside some time to learn new skills and to manage their neighborhood’s community. Adam only works a few days a week and when he is at home he often helps with Bóra, their newborn. They were able to move to a family owned cabin by Lake Balaton for the summer, which was perfect for the first wave to isolate from people, family and virus, but winter time is harder. There is less work and less salary these days, but the irreplaceable moments with the baby, make it all worth it, they say.
Nineteen years old Artúr just finished high school under lockdown in Budapest, isolated from classmates and friends. He took his final exams after two months of lock-up at home and started university in the same situation September, 2020 while all students in high school and at universities were obligated to stay home during their studies. For Artúr, the hardest part was to say goodbye to his former classmates during the quarantine and to try to adjust to a completely new university life where they only know each other and their instructor through the monitor. “I should have been in a university bar with my new classmates and friends tonight, discussing questions and dancing but, we are not even allowed to be outside the apartman after eight pm.”
Zsolt tries to mute his family during an important work call. He and his family just moved back from abroad and bought a new house when the second wave of the coronavirus hit Hungary. He would work from home as much as possible to keep his family safe against the virus but it is not always doable. Their relatively big garden and the chill neighbourhood where they have moved help make it easier for the family to stay home during these strange days.
All theaters and the National State Opera, where Jozi works as the image editor, were forced to shut down in March, 2020 because of the pandemic. Her one-room apartment became her office where she sorts and manages all the visuals, archives and stays in contact with her colleagues. She works from her tiny 30sqm apartment every odd week, then visits the office in the following even weeks. She likes this current pace, but she misses social gatherings and is getting tired of only being able to meet friends online most of the time.
Vica and Bálint, their dogs Igor and Perec in their Budapest home. Bálint works for a world organisation that placed their offices in lockdown back in February, 2020 and all the teams had to move to home offices world wide. “Though the office is closed, it feels like we work twice as much from home than in the office,” Bálint says. To break from the confines of their apartment, the couple frequently walk the dogs in the nearby forest and help their parents in their homes.
Editor and writer, Adrienn says she’s had her “toughest year ever because of personal life issues.” Adrienn just bought her new tiny flat and wanted to start renovating by herself when covid-19 entered the picture in March, 2020. The overwork, the renovation and mental exhaustion lead to an unnoticed depression and anxiety. “The cancelled festival season didn’t help me either, which usually charges me up to a whole year.” Her parents live far away but she often communicates with them via phone or online. Her plants, the tiny balcony, walks with her dog and humour are all very important for her, but her boyfriend, friends and colleagues help her a lot, as well, to get through these days as easily as possible.
University classmates Bogi and Nia in Nia’s room in Budapest. Both of them stayed in college until March 2020, when the government started to empty all the student dorms country wide because of the emergency. Students were forced to move home or find new solutions for living. Nia went home to her parents during the first wave then she started to work alongside her studies and rented a small room in Budapest. She hates the situation especially because of her new relationship, they need to be quite creative to meet, date and build their relationship during lockdown. “We usually go hiking or visit nearby cities on weekends, but we cannot go to a restaurant, cinema or cafe to sit and enjoy a good meal. Playing puzzles or different games at home is one of the few options when we are together.” Bogi just moved together with her classmate in early 2021 and is looking for a job to finance her living, but it's hard to find anything these days.
István works from his Budapest apartment. This is ideal and comfortable for a journalist and his vinyl records help him get through the busy working hours. He visits the newsroom once a week. After the 8th month of quarantine, the apartment feels a bit small for him and his wife. "Before the pandemic we were planning to move to a more spacious place but now it needs to be replanned and we have started to think about a garden – just like everybody – and prices went sky high for a decent house with a garden even far outside of Budapest.”
After his breakup, Krisztián recently moved into his new apartment and has been working from there from the beginning of September, 2020. He finds these days to be very stressful – there is no social life after working hours, bars and places to gather with friends are completely closed and sitting in front of the computer the whole day then staying at home after is irritating him quite a lot. On top of all this, his job has been terminated since the end of the year but, luckily, he quickly found a new project. Krisztian works as a scriptwriter for Hungarian tv shows.
Nóri quit from her job in the middle of 2019 and went for few months break with the idea to find a new job at the beginning of 2020 just before Covid-19 hit the country. While most of the companies sent their staff to home office or for unpaid leave for an unpredictable period of time Nori started to look for a new job with little success. As the schools also closed and sent the students home for digital education during the second wave she feels lucky to be at home with her children and help them study while she tries to keep busy herself too. Nóri started to learn more about her hobbies and work on a new business model making her own handcrafted wooden furnitures.
Last day at work, from home. Eszter decided to quit her job after several years as a social manager. She transitioned to home office during the first wave of the coronavirus in March, 2020 but now she feels herself a bit burnt out – and the quarantine hasn’t helped – and needs some time to recharge herself. She wanted to travel in 2021 but there are travel restrictions all over the world so now she tries to find new possibilities for the future. She visits her parents often in the countryside and keeps in contact with her friends online as much as she can. They opened web pubs to meet up online after 8pm, when lockdown starts in Budapest.
Zsani and Norbi around the kitchen table learn and work together with the twins in their apartment. Molli's classmate was tested positively with coronavirus so the whole class were quarantined.
The beginning of the quarantine and self isolation went easily for Attila. From the first moment, he made rules to separate work and private life. He woke up a bit later but dressed up as usual, started and ended work exactly at the same time as in the office. He always made sure to shut down his workstation and put it out of sight at the end of the day. As time went on and almost a year passed, the rules started to loosen. Sometimes he just falls in front of the computer from bed in the morning and has let go of the strict dressing rules. He never would have thought that he would start to miss office life, live chats with co-workers, drinking coffee and having lunch together. Attila moved home from the office in the middle of March, 2020.
Actress and clown doctor Dr. Bim-Bam is getting ready for an online show on New Year’s Eve, 2020. Clown doctors use humour in their work, not only relieving tension but also distracting children and their parents from pain and anxiety. Veron stopped working onsite at the theater in March, 2020, but she continued to work from home as much as she could. While she always loves to help critically ill children during their treatment in the hospital or the elderly in the nursing home, christmas day or on any given day - finding it to be deeply fulfilling - on the other hand, “it is really hard to keep my soul in balance especially during these hard days in quarantine.” Veron is a proud member of Red Nose Clown Doctors Foundation.
Réka and Jocó try to separate each other’s noise with headphones during the daytime in their newly renovated flat. Réka spends her last days with her students and organises timetables online before giving birth to their first child. As her delivery date is quickly approaching, the couple spends all their time preparing the apartment for the new life situation. Réka and Jocó moved into self isolation and home office back in March, 2020. Jocó works full time as an architect but he started to worry about their third family member: how will it affect his office days? Should he move back to the office or stay home to keep himself and his family safe?
Péter verifying his notes behind his desk in his living room in Budapest. He and his family have worked from home since the beginning of the pandemic. His daughter, who is finishing high-school this year, from home as well, often uses his “official desk” in the bedroom – that’s why Peter moved to the family’s common place. As a university teacher and landscape architect, he works much more these days since he doesn’t have to travel from one place to another, only to navigate from one call to another chat window. His wife takes care of the four member family, which can be a bit stressful as everybody is at home all the time and it is hard to overlook the fact that their kids should live their normal life instead of sitting and studying at home.
Szilvi is preparing for lunch while she is at home with her son. Nimrod was sent home from school for 10 days online education because one of his teacher got coronavirus. For safety reasons the school put the whole class under quarantine. Szilvi now tries to work from home and learn with Nimrod. As Nimrod is officially under quarantine they can't even go for a walk outside during daytime.
Helga and her six months old baby Zsiga in their living room. Zsiga was born during the first lockdown in Hungary right after Helga and her sister started a new family business. Now, a few months later, she is back to work and managing the new business part time while she’s also managing her duties as wife, mother of two, and is also the content manager of another business – which altogether is "actually impossible," she says. Their house being close to nature, the big walks in the forest with her husband and their dog help her to get valuable down-time from her busy schedule.