Coronavirus Tales

For me, I prefer it, but it is a mix of pluses and minuses. We had one employee quit to work at a place that still had people going into the office because he couldn't handle it (although he may have had other motives).

I like not having the stressful rush and commute - I just walk to my desk at 8AM instead of ironing a shirt with a piece of toast in my mouth with shaving cream on at 7AM. I like the fact that co-workers have to call me and can't come to my offfice or set up an impromptu meeting, so chances of me being bothered for inconsequential stuff has plummeted.

On the other hand, whenever there is something that requires coordination with other team members, it's a little unwieldy. I do miss my walk to and from work and my gym in the building doing wonders for my stress. And my partner and I being in the same apartment essentially 24/7 can sometimes be a bit of a strain.

SpacePProtean wrote:

I vividly recall having a department director who felt WFH people never did anything. When I went into the office, the first thing I saw was all the cool bros having a nerf gun battle.

Yeah, I had to do this whole thing years ago for a couple months when there was a transit strike in the city (which in turn made traffic so bad it was impossible to drive to work either). For me, it already showed WFH hit the same level of productivity - the difference being that during lulls where I couldn't do anything, I would do a chore or watch a Netflix show, whereas if I was at the office I would just be pretending to look busy instead.

We're all talking about and joking about our second doses on Microsoft Teams and it's making the anti-vax/Libertarian/Trumper co-worker increasingly agitated.

Good.

kuddles wrote:

We're all talking about and joking about our second doses on Microsoft Teams and it's making the anti-vax/Libertarian/Trumper co-worker increasingly agitated. :)

Oh, Service Pack 2?

Mixolyde wrote:

Oh, Service Pack 2?

Don’t name it after Windows terminology, we want the thing to work!

kuddles wrote:

We're all talking about and joking about our second doses on Microsoft Teams and it's making the anti-vax/Libertarian/Trumper co-worker increasingly agitated. :)

Life gets rough for them when they’re in a situation which prevents them surrounding themselves with comforting lies. I almost feel bad for your anti-vaxxer. Almost…

I'm able to go into the office if I want to, but the nature of academia is even more so now that nobody is there anyway, so not much point. I think my future for quite some time is going to be just coming in when I need to teach.

I honestly hate working from home and couldn't do it. I kind of despise virtual interactions and thrive in-person settings. I recognize I may be in the minority here, but I'm looking for a new job and one of my main criteria is a job that requires me to be in the office - and where other people are in the office too. I recognize fully that it's a personal choice, and that it makes sense for some sectors to move to a more fullsome WFH setting. I just know that personally, I will gravitate to work environments that don't, and I know I'm not alone in that.

Part of me wonders if this will be the great labor issue of the next decade - individuals who prefer to work from home, individuals that don't, and how to manage intersectional teams of such people. I can see a lot of people getting frustrated with each other's work preferences over the next years since there is no longer a "standard", and how to manage mixed teams of people doing various degrees of WFH.

Dysplastic wrote:

I honestly hate working from home and couldn't do it. I kind of despise virtual interactions and thrive in-person settings. I recognize I may be in the minority here, but I'm looking for a new job and one of my main criteria is a job that requires me to be in the office - and where other people are in the office too. I recognize fully that it's a personal choice, and that it makes sense for some sectors to move to a more fullsome WFH setting. I just know that personally, I will gravitate to work environments that don't, and I know I'm not alone in that.

Part of me wonders if this will be the great labor issue of the next decade - individuals who prefer to work from home, individuals that don't, and how to manage intersectional teams of such people. I can see a lot of people getting frustrated with each other's work preferences over the next years since there is no longer a "standard", and how to manage mixed teams of people doing various degrees of WFH.

100%.

This is already starting within our team. We have a lot of folks who want to stay fully remote and never come back...and we've got a major contract with a big consulting firm where those consultants are going NUTS not being on the road.

I get all of that, but the pandemic is still going on. Everyone is going to have to be patient.

Dysplastic wrote:

I honestly hate working from home and couldn't do it. I kind of despise virtual interactions and thrive in-person settings.

Totally fair. Does your field of work lend itself to in-person settings?

Working from home is the best thing since sliced bread, which is also very overrated.

My pandemic sourdough does not come sliced!

Oh yeah. The Delta variant is alive and spreading like wildfire. As much as I hate the mask, I’m back to being masked whenever I’m dealing with folks outside of my quarantine cohort. I’m pretty pissed off about it too!

We've got the Delta variant over here now. On Sunday our state government announced mandatory masks, which was mildly annoying, but ok. Just now they've announced another full lockdown. Seems even very fleeting contact is causing spread. I'm so tired of this. It shouldn't be happening this far into the pandemic. I'm really, really tired of trying to make this make sense to my 3y/o. A large part of me worries that she thinks we're just being assholes arbitrarily saying that she can't do any of the things she loves doing.

Still, I applaud our state government for making strong, early interventions to keep us safe, stop it spreading and get us through this as smoothly as possible. On the other hand, I can't overstate how awful our federal government has handled this pandemic and especially the vaccincation rollout. Every single member of their government and everyone who's voted for them is complicit and though it doesn't count for much, I will never forgive them for what they've done and what they'll continue to do.

halfwaywrong wrote:

We've got the Delta variant over here now. On Sunday our state government announced mandatory masks, which was mildly annoying, but ok. Just now they've announced another full lockdown. Seems even very fleeting contact is causing spread. I'm so tired of this. It shouldn't be happening this far into the pandemic. I'm really, really tired of trying to make this make sense to my 3y/o. A large part of me worries that she thinks we're just being assholes arbitrarily saying that she can't do any of the things she loves doing.

Still, I applaud our state government for making strong, early interventions to keep us safe, stop it spreading and get us through this as smoothly as possible. On the other hand, I can't overstate how awful our federal government has handled this pandemic and especially the vaccincation rollout. Every single member of their government and everyone who's voted for them is complicit and though it doesn't count for much, I will never forgive them for what they've done and what they'll continue to do.

Yowza, only 5% of Australia is fully vaccinated. I feel awful for you all as you could've avoided some of the lockdown reqs with more vaccines.

That said, hopefully your government can learn from this whole ....... process.

garion333 wrote:

That said, hopefully your government can learn from this whole ....... process.

That is more optimism that I can muster. They didn't seem to learn anything from the bushfires or any other part of the pandemic so far. Looking like the best we can do is wait until we can vote them out.

There's so much finger pointing here about who should be blamed for the vaccine rollout. It's infuriating.

Looks like I'm back to regular mask wearing.

I got pretty lax after becoming fully vaccinated and most people at stores stopped wearing them - this was in an area were people were wearing masks regularly everywhere at the height of the pandemic. Moved to a new state last week (Georgia) which is one of the states with low vaccination rates - came from Illinois which had a high vaccination rate. Was surprised how many people were still wearing masks here when I went in to stores. I went around mask less still.

Then I caught a bad cold (not Covid) which I'm still hacking up mucus from. It's been over a year since I've had a cold and this one really put me under. Four days of being a zombie from lack of sleep and total misery from symptoms. Read an article today saying Common Colds are on the rise again now that we are relaxing everything.

So lesson learned. I'm back on regular mask wearing when going in to crowds.

Even in states with high vaccination rates. Two of my kids picked up a bad cold last weekend - they’re only just now getting over it.

Also picked up a cold . . . I think? Got a Shingles vaccine Tuesday, started feeling crappy Wednesday, but still feel crappy. Being we had some family come up and visit last weekend I'm thinking one of my nephews brought me the plague when they visited, because vaccine side effects shouldn't last too long, and, while seasonal allergies are raging right now, I've never gotten them before, so I guess it's my first cold in ages.

Hey, I'd forgotten how much colds suck.

Colds are making a huge comeback, for sure. My youngest is on a back-to-back cold that turned into croup. Doc said parainfluenza is huge right now. Yay. It seems no one learned any lessons from the past year.

Got my second shot yesterday. Feeling like crap today, but between that or catching COVID, I think I made the right choice.

bobbywatson wrote:

Got my second shot yesterday. Feeling like crap today, but between that or catching COVID, I think I made the right choice.

Heard a podcast the other day where the guest estimated that 85% of the population is either going to get Covid or get the vaccine. You made the right choice.

DSGamer wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Got my second shot yesterday. Feeling like crap today, but between that or catching COVID, I think I made the right choice.

Heard a podcast the other day where the guest estimated that 85% of the population is either going to get Covid or get the vaccine. You made the right choice.

Some of us are overachievers and have done both...

DSGamer wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Got my second shot yesterday. Feeling like crap today, but between that or catching COVID, I think I made the right choice.

Heard a podcast the other day where the guest estimated that 85% of the population is either going to get Covid or get the vaccine. You made the right choice.

I got both!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/N3dMcQa.jpeg)

farley3k wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/N3dMcQa.jpeg)

This even further meta-tracks with the "Eagles fix everything!" meme, but they don't fix everything just what they are supposed to.

There's also a very nasty insurrection to take care of back in the Shire.

Stengah wrote:

There's also a very nasty insurrection to take care of back in the Shire.

"We've had one, yes, but what about second Confederacy?"