I had a few thoughts on my commute in to work today. I first realized that I should appreciate the lighter traffic and open roads. Similar to the time I got stranded in the Detroit Airport by myself and just took it all in.
I then thought, you know what, that Stan Lee is quite the foreshadowing king. This is probably what the five year timeline they had between End Game 1 and End Game 2 felt like when half the people disappeared.
One day, everyone is gonna come back outside again and fill up the world. Until then, I’ll take it all in.
Then I started to think about all the ways people are working through this and not on the road with me.
There’s three ways, ok four, that income driven adults are living in the Pandemic.
- Work life is no different, other than busier.
That’s the essentials, seen and unseen, that still go business as usual and have new procedures, rules and higher demand in service hours to ensure that everyone else has normalcy and assistance in living.
I relate this experience to the way it felt when we were living in a full, main level remodel of our home. We do it ourselves, by that I mean my husband has all the skills and I clean, paint and drop whatever I am doing when he tells me to do whatever extra hands he needs and I smile and bite my lip. For three months.
Hauling dishes to the basement laundry area because of the janitor sink. More drywall dust after I just cleaned it all.
Another analogy is taking on another part time job for extra cash.
It is like a fast moving carousel you can’t get off of but keep telling yourself one day you can breathe and catch up.
Emotional Limbo and Exhaustion.
2. There’s the 50/50 split. You have the ability to work from home here and there but you still go in to work a few times a week too.
I relate this life experience to when we built a new house. We still had to work full time, take care of the kids and run a household while spending the rest of the time away on the site and living in a trance for months, short term sacrifice.
It was stressful but you could still come home and chill as usual to keep sane.
3. Working from home and wearing pajama pants all day on your zoom calls.
You know what you have to accomplish to be efficient and must learn how to co-mingle it with home life.
I’ve had a work from home position before and try to sneak them in when I can for creative focus. I use to call it OTG – Off the Grid. I don’t know if you noticed but I write a lot and have to come up with new ideas a lot so jumping off the gird at times is my balance craving.
This feeling to me is one of self-discipline like joining weight watchers, a fitness schedule or completing projects. You must make a routine that is sustainable and continue to stick with it and get it done.
Virtual workers fight the mental resistance of feeling essential when no one sees you, so your results must make a bigger impact to remain top of mind to on-site colleagues.
4. Those furloughed, laid off or out of work because their job is forbidden right now.
These are the hairstylists, tattoo artists, estheticians, nails, waitresses and waiters, etc.
I don’t know what this feels like, although I have had waitress and casino jobs that if I had them today would put me in this predicament.
The analogy I have here is being on bedrest for several weeks. Except you can’t clean your house out and tackle all those projects. Or day drink.
Same as this must be what living in a nursing home feels like. I hope one day our seniors get the care they deserve. And by that I mean increase the workforce to care for them. There are pure saints working in nursing homes there just aren’t enough of them.
Whichever boat you are in, it takes a toll. One way of another you’ve got wear and tear happening but at the same time you also don’t have any obligations beyond it either.
It is surreality.
Thanks for reading,
Heather
