Harris Faulkner spoke with The Female Quotient’s Shelley Zallis at the FQ’s sponsored Cannes Lions Equality Lounge earlier this week. One of the topics she touched on during the 45 minute conversation was working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Faulkner beamed into the session from a space in her house that has been transformed into a TV news studio. She has helmed two Fox News shows, The Faulkner Focus and Outnumbered, and 11 pandemic-related specials from the set since March of last year. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, she had no idea what everything was going to look like, but she’s believes she’s been quite productive working from home, and hopes women will be granted more opportunities to work remotely (and given more flexibility in general) even after the pandemic fully subsides.
“What I hope that I’m doing next in my career is showing people that work from home does not mean that we’re not working,” said Faulkner. “Work from home is more than an acronym. It’s more than a hashtag. Work From Home means that we are working; and look, I love going into the studio, I’ll be back in there for three days this week. The other women on Outnumbered have not moved to New York. So we’re kind of piecemealing when we can be in the studio together. But my feeling is if there’s a day going forward that I want to dedicate to self-care or care of, particularly my family members, I should be able to communicate that to my boss and say, you know what? Friday I am going to work from home. I need to take care of this…”