Must have been nice. I was an “essential” worker so I spent the entire time busting my ass in the middle of a packed grocery store, terrified of being assaulted by some angry dicknosed moron and bringing their lethal infection home to my elderly parents. I started having panic reactions to seeing unmasked faces, even those of close family members I was living with. Meanwhile, I kept hearing all these people talk about being paid twice my wages to sit at home and learn new skills like I had always wished I could afford to do.
And what did I get for all of my hard work? A fancy pin from my employer with a letter patting themselves on the back for protecting us. They didn’t protect us at all! They actively defied the mask mandate and told us it was our own fault if customers threatened or attacked us for wearing one!
I felt with the same thing, god did I hate that shit. Our place opened an hour early to allow seniors to shop, but I’m pretty sure from what I saw we were open an hour early, were we allowed to come in an hour early to get the same work done? Fuck no. Did they hire on additional staff to allow us to get everything done? God fucking no. God I hated that place. I was so jealous of people that got to stay home. I was on my local reddit at the time and some one suggested doing that dumb thing of “he, lets all yell out our windows at 8 or 9.” I replied fuck no, I have to go to bed at that time and get up super early, I didn’t want to hear a bunch of entitled fucks screaming for five minutes and while I’m trying to go to sleep. Yeah people with an office job got a glimpse of the good life, miserable fucks working retail were treated so much worse then working regular retail. I always say I can tell who hasn’t worked retail before.
I was and am still blown away people worked through all that without getting/demanding hazard pay.
I mean, considering all the unions going on strike nowadays I’d have been furious if my union didn’t seize the opportunity to demand better wages and working conditions.
My Union is banned from striking since I work in health care here in Sweden, yay us
I still think the most eye opening part was watching the smog clear up in real time in India where the Himalayan mountains became visible again to many parts of the north
The visibility in Bangkok was nuts. Normally I expect to see smog rising up by 7 every morning, but the skies were like Montana clear.
Same in Denver. It has never been that clear ever. That’s what I guess it could be like if we actually started to fight greenhouse gases for real.
And then animals started being seen a lot more around here.
Sigh
I saw so much wildlife in my city. Including a deer for once. Drunk ass me: well deer, looks like me the other essential workers and you inherited the earth.
Of course the bankers survived. Of course they would.
From where ?
You can tell who the introverts and who the extroverts were during the pandemic. For those that got to stay at home:
Extroverts: “My mental health is crumbling! I’ll never be the same after this. Literally the worst thing that’s ever happened to me!”
Introverts: “I just beat a handful of games in my backlog, read 4 books, started learning how to make Chinese food at home, and I just started learning Spanish on Duolingo. I’ll never be the same after this!”
Is there a third thing besides extroverts and introverts? Because I hate being around people and I also hate being alone.
Maybe just don’t try to to label yourself then, that’s great actually
I’m the opposite of you. I like being alone and I like being around people.
Based on my quick Google search, it seems like ambivert more closely resembles your situation than mine. I may in fact be a fourth thing, which doesn’t even have a name: ;_;
Depressed? Antisocial? Grumpy?
In case you actually care, you might look up what those terms really mean. It’s not always simple and takes some effort to understand your own nature. A lot of people don’t bother or care.
Otherwise the advice of not trying to label yourself too much is good.
Welcome to the world of ambiverts! Not always a fun place to be hahaha
Ambivert maybe?
Avert.
As an introvert, I did a lot of things like that. But the tendency to be online more during that time started to result in depression. I don’t have many friends but I do have close friends. Not seeing them kinda ate at me. Things still feel weird.
I never stopped Duolingo. Started in Day 1 of the lockdown and I’m over 1100 days in a row.
Also learned that I have a passion for cooking. I’ve been learning all sorts of fun recipes. :)
I’m introverted but I also hated being trapped inside for months. Am I a freak?
Right? I don’t know what those people are smoking but it’s cool to be able to meet my friends a few times a month and grocery shop normally. Being stuck inside too long makes you go funny in the head.
Guess it depends on how strongly introverted you are. As a strong introvert, I absolutely enjoyed time spent at home; besides general lockdown, I’ve been through three of the strict 2-week isolations (twice as contact person, once as a COVID carrier), and those were amazing times!
I’m an introvert who was afraid to do things I wanted to do outside the house. You are not a freak.
I thought it was more like:
Introverts: Nothing has changed.
I’ve historically been rather extroverted but has spent the last decade doing WFH and years leading up to the pandemic doing so without any of my previous friends group nearby. For me, nothing fundamentally changed, except for managers trying to pressure me into going into the office and be telling them “no”.
And a reminder that the ‘extroverted’ were ‘suffering constantly’ and decided everyone must be so they made going back into the office mandatory
If by “extroverted” you mean middle management that realized that they are largely superflous without offices.
Nah I don’t plan on working in the office, but I certainly do feel the need to go out there and be on a mission, or to feel like I’m progressing, even if only on a personal level, and the lockdowns really killed that vibe, though I do agree that I think many people who have more durable worldviews, and can consistently remain introverted to a schizoid degree, e.g. old people, pets, midwives and anyone on the far end of type B personality spectrum, probably did much better than others over the lockdowns.
Did anyone else read this and not understand the point?
It looks like a chat gpt comment to be honest
ChatGPT has better grammar
Um, the extroverts didn’t want to do more work in office, they wanted to hang out with their friends lol.
The extroverts need to learn how to make friends outside of the office
They have friends outside of the office… That they couldn’t see… because of the pandemic. They didn’t only close offices, they closed tons of stores, venues, even public parks. And even if you could gather at someone’s house, you might not want to because you might have a lot of contact with a vulnerable person. It just kinda sucked overall.
Hey, don’t blame us. It was the money-hungry breathing*-over-your-neck type of managers who tried to make this pushback.
Wow excuse my fucking typo I’m only fucking human*
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Excuse me, is micro-management like a brand new concept to you? Anyway welcome to earth.
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Oh you found a typo, that’s wonderful. Here’s a cookie. I think this is the pettiest I’ve seen on Lemmy so far.
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Given*, come on! Lmfao
I think you sound like you’ve had a long day and so do I.
“Everyone”
Edit: as a project manager who stayed home for months, I find the ignorant privilege blasting from these kinds of statements enraging. How can someone be so blind to the world around them, that they don’t even realize that other human beings had a vastly different experience?
Yeah, this pissed me off. Covid was nothing more than checking on relatives, making sure they don’t die, and yelling over an international phonecall for my aunts to take my aging grandfather to get a vaccine after they tried to wiggle their way out of it several times.
I also got Covid during the time when no one was being tested, only the elderly, and had to live alone in my dorm room with a pile of frozen pizza, using the shared student kitchen at night so as to not get anyone killed. For a few of those days I was completely bed-ridden, couldn’t even get the fuck up, and the Swedish authorities refused to test me because I’m not a risk group. Later on I discovered I have asthma so I was at risk all along.
It’s great that everyone got to make bread and not work as many hours as they usually would or at least save time on transportation, but for a social person who actually has a goddamn life, this was shit. Pure shit. I would never repeat it. I don’t want millions to get sick and die while I stand by the oven with mittens on taking out my sourdough bread slab, surrounded by all these plants.
Ah yes and also, I already have fucking plants. You don’t need the world to end to go buy yourself a few and spend 10 minutes reading about how to care for them. There’s a few apps for that too.
Edit: typo
I’m curious, why would OP believe that it is only possible for people to have time to learn bread making if a pandemic disease is busy killing 3ish million other people? Wouldn’t they advocate instead for a 4-day work week? More PTO?
Parents didn’t have this experience either. We were busier than ever. My wife and I each did half a day of parenting and schooling and half a day of work during the day, then dinner, more parenting and cleaning, then another 5 hour shift of our jobs, then about 5 hours of sleep before repeating the next day. We were exhausted and not relaxing and enjoying our creative sides.
And this was still a far easier time than many people had, because we had jobs and they were flexible enough to be done this way.
Also people we knew died and there was a constant worry about who would be next. Not a fun time.
I worked for the hospital system… I only remember dreading tomorrow and wishing for a moment to catch my breath. I didn’t really get to work from home and I rarely got time off outside of my schedule.
It sucked! I didn’t even get to enjoy other people’s enjoyment 👎
Thank you for your service
It was my honor to server in what way I was able to. Thank you.
But hey at least I cultivated kickass sourdough
I work in a hospital. I continued to commute to work and do my job through all of the shortages and all of the uncertainty. I died a little each day I had to stop my then 3.5yo twins from rushing to hug me at the door so I could change, drop my clothes in the wash, and wash my hands before they touched me. Then they stopped trying. It was a year before I was greeted at the door with a hug. I knelt there crying the first time they did it again.
I saw all my friends doing all the lock down things and knew that society and employers would never make it up to those of us who worked through it all. We didn’t even get pizza parties because my hospital had a no shared food policy for infection prevention.
I walked past maskless protestors outside my hospital accusing of us every ludicrous talking point there was. For the first time in my career I questioned why I did it. Why was I risking my family’s health and my own to take care of THEM.
Yes… #blessed
i worked more than i ever did during pandemic and made less than the people who didnt work :/
As long as you recognize that the thing to be mad at is exploitative labor laws that allow for “bare minimum to support yourself during these trying times” to be MORE than what you normally make.
it just sucks i could have been at home for 2 years instead of going to a shitty job lol
That hits hard. Honestly, from all my heart, thanks for keeping up and doing the thing you did and do. You’re a hero!
I remember my brother suffering from depression because he just no way of getting out of his apartment
I remember people people dying and not being able to go meet/help them
I remember the working class suffering because they just couldn’t work
I am not blaming anyone but it wasn’t “singing and dancing” for most people except the most privileged
The ‘most privileged’ we’re throwing ‘Covid parties’. They were the ones pushing ahead in line for limited vaccines. They were the ones out at ski resorts while sick. They were the ones who denied Covid but went out and got Covid and then demanded treatment, putting more than necessary pressure on a limited and very strained emergency system.
I don’t think the home bodies are your enemy here.
Nah I don’t think anyone is the enemy really, but it certainly wasn’t a very comfortable experience, for myself at least I think that the lockdowns gave everyone a kind of deep empathy for how society can breed a prison mentality at a large scale
Whether it’s to uphold a certain system in society, e.g. drug war, propaganda or to prepare to engage in a hot war or simply to spread a cult dogma, there’s a huge Stockholm syndrome experience for everyone who is born into a society or complex system as a whole
Participating in society isn’t the same thing as being in a prison. There are always rules and consequences in any social organization, whether it’s a prison, a school, a gang or a rave. If the organization is a village, city or state, that is somewhat wealthy and somewhat democratic, most people followed rules to be ethical, rather than out of fear for themselves.
Our society right now is organized in the fashion of 20th century institutions, and in the ways that ideas are validated, rules are made, disseminated and followed does feel like an institutional bureaucracy - like a prison, a school, or an office that generates rules by consensus of a small group of leaders or experts. And it is always a moral good to see the water we are swimming in, whether it’s how our society is organized and its shortcomings, how our thoughts and behaviors are habitualized and unhealthy.
And yes, there are always people who have strong feelings for or against institutional rules, make that a large part of their identity, and crusade for the rules to be adopted or rejected. And sometimes, these people are crusading against their own self interests. For example, a working class individual who fights against progressive or corporate taxation.
So I agree with most of your points. But your framing makes it seem like (assuming you’re American) we live in an oppressive society that uses psychological tricks to brainwash people into following draconian rules. But, relative to much of the world today, and all of history, that is just a wild exaggeration. The kind of wild exaggeration that is used to sell ad time these days, which beggars down votes.
Quarantine was a tough time for large majority people in my country
Everyone wasn’t dancing and making bread at home.
Thats all.
Noted. Still not an excuse to misuse words like ‘privlege’ just so you can start a fight with someone who isn’t your enemy.
What are you going on about enemies?
I just found the post insensitive.
I know for many it was a nightmare, but as an introvert it was amazing. I was an “essential worker” so I still had to go into work a few days a week, but the office was most empty and wfh was amazing. Oh and the no traffic thing was chefs kiss.
When companies decided that COVID was costing them too much in profits, and workers couldn’t be micro-managed from home or on a rotating office schedule, is when things went to shit.
There are plenty of industries where people are generally less productive WFH than in an office with other people. My coworkers distract me all day, but it’s a lot easier to get or give help when we’re in the same place. WFH was nice for a couple months, but I’m glad it’s mostly over. Once we setup the capabilities to WFH we did keep them, so now we can WFH in an emergency or something.
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Engineering design.
Maybe turn your hostility dial down a notch. Lol
Hell no, I was buried in a depression hole and couldn’t leave the house
Yeah, it was a year of hell on earth for me. Isolating, depressing, soul-destroying.
Agreed. I went to work over a short period of the lockdowns and also stayed at home, both times were crappy. Generally speaking, I’m not against the lockdowns or the idea of quarantine, however I would argue that although it may have been the best approach for society at large, it certainly made my mental health much worse in a lot of ways, it really opened up the door for my schizoid independent personality and logic overriding paranoia
It’s almost funny, for me it was really the opposite. Not because i had time to learn new small things, but because i was alone. I had time to get my mind straight, started working out every day and was at peace of mind when going to sleep.
I really tried, but I’m a fucking loner and it feels good to be alone most of the time and just interact with other humans on occasion.
Now I’m again in the office and don’t really have time left, in one day’s timespan, to get my head straight, after 12 hours of non-stop close human interactions. It’s really exhausting.
I love not being alone, but in smaller doses, than being alone.
Yeah I definitely understand that, especially if you don’t get a break from people. Though when I was in lockdown and work from home, I realized those work interactions were pretty much keeping me sane, otherwise I could go days in a row without actually talking out loud. It got to the point where my highlight of the week was leaving the house to go to the grocery store lol. It sounds pretty different for you though, and sounds exhausting on your end. I hope you find more or a balance that’ll keep you more sane and comfortable.
With the “grocery store is a weekly highlight” thing, i may also completely share the same sentiment. I also had exactly this in mind, when it was happening. Like it was the only time, where i got ready to go out, went out and met people, for quite a long time.
Being outside was so eerie. That’s where i felt the complete halt of society and always felt like “the last man on earth”, walking the streets, especially at night.
I sincerely appreciate your sentiment and i actually found balance - even with being back in the office now, i kept working out and to my surprise, it was really life changing, in many ways, it helped me to take on things with a different attitude. I really was ignorant to the real impact on life-quality, a somehow healthy, fit body can have.
The saying goes, healthy body = healthy mind. I think it’s not that easy, but definitely a step in the right direction.
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Yeah, every comment here, “Sure, and every single thing sucked like disease and inequality.” It’s not that complicated. The suggestion is that in our society, we consider spending more time on ourselves and our families. My daughter and I learned guitar, crocheting, knitting, weaving (notice a pattern?). It was lovely during a difficult time. Now, we’re, “back to normal”. There may be a happy medium.
No.
I was an “essential worker”. Nothing changed for me.
Samesies
Even if - as a software engineer - I got the long end of the stick.
Where does the flour for the bread come from ?
From the essential workers who don’t get to enjoy this wonderful utopia everyone is so excited about. Ask healthcare workers how they liked the pandemic.
Right? This utopia is only for a select few who brag about how great it will be when they don’t have to deal with anyone else and can just fuck around without having to think of others.
Some of us were laid of in states that didn’t provide unemployment pay and suffered trying to find work, and being taken advantage of. They dream of a dystopia because they were on the good side of it.
Well obviously somebody has to toil so the rest of us can do fuck all, but if they’re poor and far away we don’t have to think about them too much.
I’d like to fully automate grain harvesting.
Fun fact: I once talked about this with a distant relative, and they replied “but wouldn’t that imply a loss of workplaces for farmers?”.
Funner fact: they basically have automated grain harvesting. Combine harvesters can use GPS positioning to drive themselves. They also come with remote controllers much like a model airplane, or drone does.
And yes, it does mean that the farmers aren’t hiring as many farm hands as they used to.
Do you happen to have a link? I only find articles talking about attempting it, but not making it.
Unfortunately, no. I can’t find the article that I read about it.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=825040354964874
That’s the best I found
From my pantry, duh
A lot of negative opinions on the tweet author here but there’s one thing I’d like to note. My own experience during the pandemic was much worse than my average life, it was depressing to keep staying home at all time, I got infected, didn’t get a proper medical attention for non-covid related stuff, etc. But after time passes the negatives look smoother and the positives get brighter, like that there were no useless meetings, much less pressure for doing stuff, and so on.
Also, I’m not sure that the author meant it to be ‘pandemic isolation was great’, more like ‘it has shown us that there are things to be done at home’. Although for medical and essential workers it rather was time when they barely got home at all, but if we get to spend more time at home without the pandemic, then they will not be overburdened, I guess.
A lot of commutes going from an hour+ to the 45 seconds it takes to walk into the next room also opened up more time for your own activities
I remember how awesome it was isolating in my private life so I didn’t share my heightened exposure with the people I loved, while I worked to transport people dying of covid from little podunk hospitals in towns that worked hard to pretend they didn’t need to change a thing to any port in the storm.
I remember then getting broken up with, because the people I loved also wanted to pretend they didn’t need to change anything while my work was filled with death.
Yeah. I remember what life is supposed to be like.
