Culture
Love in the Time of Coronavirus: Advice from 2Utes Living and Working Together
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then what does constant presence do? Efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 global pandemic have required many working couples to stay home, and lovebirds everywhere are learning what happens when isolation becomes a fact of life.
2U, Inc. employees are no exception. And for some 2Ute couples, the mandatory work-from-home order means two 2Utes cohabitating and co-working in the same (sometimes small) space—that makes for a lot of togetherness. Here, 2U couples share their insights and advice about how to cope with love in the time of coronavirus.
Vinni Anandham and Prashant Bhargava
Shelter-in-Place Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
Love story: Vinni, a senior admissions counselor for NYU’s speech program, started working at 2U’s Lanham headquarters in September 2016. She met Prashant in February 2018 via the Bumble dating app. “When we started dating, I would go pick her up from the office, and I would say, ‘Whoa, this building is cool,’” Prashant said. “I’m in IT, and so when a help desk job opened up, she was very persistent in encouraging me to apply, and the rest is history.” Nine months after they met, Prashant joined 2U and is now part of the IT infrastructure team.
WFH situation: The couple worked from home together, though infrequently, before the spread of the COVID-19 virus prompted 2U to direct employees to telecommute. While Vinni encouraged him to work from home more, Prashant preferred being in the office, where he has a bigger workspace.
Winning: Prashant works on the telecoms team that supports Talkdesk, a cloud-based call center that Vinni uses all the time. “She has an instant troubleshooting person right next to her in case anything happens,” Prashant said.
Challenges: Taking calls. “My manager has heard Prashant speaking in the background, and that’s been funny,” Vinni said. “I don’t know if he’s heard me talk to my multiple students … but I think we’ve been able to adjust.”
Bonus: They have found an appreciation for 2U’s embrace of remote work, taking advantage of daily company meetings and team lunches with agendas that include dance parties and games. “Other companies and other people are now adjusting to this situation, and some don’t know how to connect,” Vinni said. “We’re so connected with the company.”
Helpful hint: Respect each other’s work and space. “Luckily, our help desk has been giving us all the tools we need,” Prashant said. He recommends headsets for couples working from home. Vinni added: “One thing that’s important is to not interfere in each other’s meetings. We’ve been lucky that we don’t do that. We always have our headsets up.”
Ashley and Jesse Swartwood
Shelter-in-Place Location: Annapolis, Maryland
Love story: Both program directors, Ashley and Jesse met in August 2018 while working together on the team supporting Syracuse University in the program management department. A couple of months ago, they got married in the Bahamas.
WFH situation: These days, Jesse supports Case Western Reserve University while Ashley is transitioning from the Syracuse team to support Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. The couple works from home together every other Friday. They have separate office setups, with Jesse working in the kitchen and Ashley in the spare bedroom. “Having the clear boundaries of separate rooms or creating some form of wall during the workday” is important, Jesse said.
Winning: Proximity to one another is big at the moment. “It’s nice having someone who you’re super comfortable with to share the experience,” Jesse said. Ashley added, “Because we do have the same job, it’s really easy to bounce ideas off each other.”
Challenges: Normally, the drive home provides an opportunity to decompress. “There was a point where we would say ‘OK, we're driving home now,’ and that would kind of end the workday,” Ashley said. Now the lines “are so gray,” Jesse said. “There isn’t an actionable step that separates … the end of our workday [from] us being home together.”
Bonus: There have been surprises already. For Ashley, it’s that “we’re not more annoyed with each other at this point.” Jesse is surprised he’s not worried about going to the gym or getting a haircut. “Being able to share this with Ashley, those things are less frustrating.”
Helpful hint: Treat your partner like a colleague during the workday, but know when to turn it off. “It’s important that when we are bouncing ideas off each other or talking about work things, we keep it a work relationship,” Ashley said. “At night, don’t bring work into those conversations.”
Brittany and Nicholas Bisceglia
Shelter-in-Place Location: Brooklyn, New York
Love story: The couple met freshman year at Drexel University when Nick acted in Brittany’s film project. They began dating and then later married in 2011. Brittany, a senior manager on the marketing technology team, started working at 2U in 2013. Nick, project manager on the learning team, enrolled in the Syracuse communications program through 2U, and when a job opened up on the content team three years ago, he joined the company. Their son, Sam, just turned 3.
WFH situation: Brittany and Nick each work from home about twice a week. But once 2U requested that all employees stay home, some revisions were necessary. “We ended up changing our office around to change things up,” Brittany said. “You realize, ‘I need better lighting than I did before.’ We got some plants to make our office a little nicer.”
Winning: Sam’s been in day care since he was 6 months old. But when his day care closed, it brought more family time back in a big way. “It’s been nice being able to sit together as a family at night, cook a nice dinner, play a game,” Nick said.
Challenges: Managing all the meetings has been tough, and so has the lack of regular outdoor activity. Nick said they are adapting to the struggle between managing “something that I need to jump on right now” and “something that can wait until after Sam’s asleep.”
Bonus: Sam has made appearances at meetings, and Nick said he has been encouraged by how receptive people have been about colleagues who have children with them while they work from home.
Helpful hint: Keep your cool—this isn’t business as usual. “It’s a new situation for everybody in the household,” Nick said. Brittany noted that it’s important to show appreciation and not take anything for granted. “Thank each other for little things,” she said. “Like ‘Thank you for making me a sandwich,’ you know?”
Shannon and Alonzo Kennedy
Shelter-in-Place Location: Odenton, Maryland
Love story: Shannon and Alonzo met in 2016 on a dating app. Alonzo had been looking to move into IT, so Shannon—who has been working at 2U for eight years—encouraged him to apply for a position at the company. He joined 2U in 2018 and is now an IT help desk associate.
WFH situation: Shannon works from home up to twice a week; Alonzo does so sparingly. He says when they’re both at home, it’s really no different from when they’re at the office. They work in separate rooms because Shannon’s job as an executive admissions counselor requires her to be on the phone, while he can work with music in the background. “We see each other when lunchtime kicks in,” Alonzo said.
Winning: The opportunity to share quality time has increased. “I don’t have to go up as many floors to see her,” Alonzo said, laughing. “So if I just want to pop into the room to see what she’s doing and talk, it’s easier.” Shannon said the nonexistent commute helps: “We get to spend more time with each other in the evenings. We usually cook dinner together, and then we’ll eat and watch TV.”
Challenges: Not being able to go to the gym has required them to find alternatives. “It is a little harder to exercise and to keep yourself active,” Shannon said. But Alonzo explained that they try to make up for it with longer walks together with their Shih Tzu-Bichon Frise mix, Gizmo.
Bonus: On different nights, Alonzo will watch Shannon’s favorite shows on YouTube, and Shannon will watch Alonzo’s anime and gaming shows. “We’re learning how much we can put up with,” Shannon joked. In addition to playing games, the pair is getting crafty: “We are working on a scrapbook together that we started way before this happened,” Alonzo said. “This is just the time to do more of it.”
Helpful hint: Try to do something out of your routine to keep things interesting. “We want to watch videos on sign language,” Alonzo said. “Something out of the norm that you wouldn’t usually do because of time restraints.” Shannon added: “Every day is something different or something new.”
Stephanie O’Hara and Jimmy Bowron
Shelter-in-Place Location: Arvada, Colorado, just outside of Denver
Love story: Stephanie and Jimmy had mutual childhood friends and crossed paths many times over the years before they finally met. They started dating in 2009 and got married in 2015. Stephanie started working at 2U in 2017 and is director of student engagement for UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Case Western Reserve University and Arcadia University. Jimmy, a senior graphic designer for USC programs, joined the company in February 2019.
WFH situation: The couple has plenty of remote work experience from previous jobs, and at 2U, they each work from home once or twice a week—in separate home offices. “It’s something that we’re definitely well-versed in,” Jimmy said. What’s different now? “We eat a lot more food,” Stephanie said. “We go through a lot more dishes.” She said they also seem to be relying on each other more to deal with the needs of their chocolate Lab, Sam, and black-and-white tuxedo cat, Señor.
Winning: It’s nice having a co-worker around. “It gets pretty boring when all I have are my dog and cat to talk to all day,” Jimmy said. Stephanie agreed. “We can vent for a second with each other, or talk about an idea,” she said.
Challenges: Because they do such different jobs, Jimmy and Stephanie have to figure out a schedule that works so they aren’t interrupting each other. “I’m in meetings all day long, so it’s really hard for me to break away,” Stephanie said.
Bonus: They have a greater appreciation of each other’s work and work style “She has a lot more meetings than I do,” Jimmy said. “She’s a rock star at what she does. I sometimes will hear her, and she’s such a good inspirational leader.” Stephanie said when Jimmy takes a break and picks up his guitar, it reminds her to go take a walk and reset.
Helpful hint: Like many other couples, they recommend dedicated workspaces. And if that isn’t possible, establish boundaries—and don’t forget to communicate. “I’ll tell him, ‘Hey, my headphones are in, FYI,’” she said. It’s a signal to Jimmy that she’s focusing and can’t hear him. “Treat it as working hours,” Jimmy said. When you’re at work, “you’re not going to sit there and bug the person next to you all day long.”
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