Working from home: Battling a different kind of traffic

How CDND's senior editor coped, kept his sanity amid the pandemic

Brian Ochoa, CDN Digital senior editor, and his wife cope with the challenges of working at home amid the pandemic. | Brian Ochoa

(As CDN Digital turns two this month, we give you, readers, a glimpse of the people behind the news, the graphics, the programs of one of Cebu’s leading online news portals. )

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — On a normal work day, it used to take me around 30 minutes to travel from home to the office.

Not bad, right?

But that’s just four kilometers from our home in Mandaue to the office at the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City.

It really takes just 10 minutes the most to get to the office if not for the traffic congestion in some of the interior roads leading to the highway.  

Traffic used to be a concern for me pre-pandemic. 

But ever since we’ve been told to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are faced with another kind of traffic at home, one that we cannot even see—data traffic.

Internet connection problem is one of the challenges that me, my wife and my children have faced since working/schooling from home.

Yes, we have saved on gas and allowances but that is offset with the need for a backup internet plan and electricity charges—now that all four of us are at home at the same time, 24/7.

Food has also become an issue as we tend to eat more while working/studying from home. 

But we cope with these issues because at the end of the day, we are glad that we are together, safe at home, facing this pandemic.

Just like many on social media, our family was not spared from the effects of the pandemic when it comes to hobbies: My wife is now a ‘plantita,’ my kids are into online gaming, while I am addicted to biking.

These are the things that keep us sane nowadays. 

Brian Ochoa takes a short break from the long ride from his home in Mandaue City to the Manipis Road in Talisay City. | Brian Ochoa

While we are aware that many are having trouble coping with this new normal, we make it a point to find a positive side to this pandemic. 

We continue to hope and pray every night that someday, we will go back to the old normal.

For the meantime, my wife is at her new garden, my kids are in their gaming chairs, and I, before work, am enjoying my bike ride to Busay (a mountain barangay in Cebu City).

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Brian M. Ochoa is a senior editor of CDN Digital. During the pre-pandemic days, he also co-hosted CDN Digital’s programs like CDN Digital’s Sportstalk and CDN On Wheels.