Lockdown Continues (The Coronavirus Diaries, Part VI)
When we originally got told to work from home, we were told four weeks. That would have had us returning to the office on April 13. Then it was pushed back not once, but twice, which would have had us back in the office on May 4, for a total of seven weeks out of the office. From there, we were pushed back again, so that our next day in the office was going to be June 1. That would have been a total of eleven weeks.
Now that the state of Ohio is (unwisely, in my opinion) relaxing most of the rules, it definitely seemed like we might actually go into the office. Our employer did a survey of workforce, and based on that and current threat assessment, we're now not returning to the office until at least August 3. That's a total of 20 weeks. Quite frankly we were told that since most of our employees had expressed concern about their lack of childcare before the schools and daycare open, we've already been told to expect it to push back until at least the start of the school year. Of course, nobody is quite sure what the school year will look like, but assuming the usual late August start, that's another about 24 weeks total out of office. Heck, we only made it eleven weeks in the office before we were sent home.
I'm completely fine with this. I've very productive at home. My commute has gone from 40 minutes of driving or 2 hours of cycling to 1 minute to walk downstairs. Various minor chores like dishes and laundry get done during the day. More importantly, I'm very appreciative of our employer not forcing us back, as M (and I'm sure many others) wouldn't be comfortable with it. Apparently a lot of people expressed that they preferred working from home, especially the developers, so I expect our office culture will be very different when we do finally return. While I have missed a bit of the serendipity of learning things unexpectedly, I've found other channels to cover them.
The only real bummer is that the employees in the daycare and diner were furloughed, so they get health care but had to file for unemployment. My one close friend in the daycare reports that she's actually treating it as a "retirement preview" and having a fine time using that filter. Hopefully it's not too bad for anyone else financially.
In other lockdown news, both M and I finally went into other buildings besides our home this past Thursday. My streak was 71 days, which ended because I broke a spoke and dented a rim on my bike. They had curbside pickup when I dropped off, but I had to go into the store to pay and pick up. M's streak was a bit longer.
I will say that we've done curbside pickup from a lot of places in recent weeks, like two different garden centers, so maintaining a list of all the businesses we've frequented is no longer trivial. In all cases (besides the vet) we've pulled up, popped the trunk, and left after it was loaded. It's pretty easy, and since I've generally hated all non-grocery shopping this is fine with me. I still miss grocery shopping though, particularly at the West Side Market.
And finally, I only had one vacation planned so far as having a date selected and blocked off at work, but I've now canceled that. I was supposed to climb Mt. Whitney with Adam and Cris and a fourth coworker, Jerry. We had won the permit lotto for July 26, but since three of us were going to fly to Adam's in Vegas, and flying does not seem like the best idea right now, climbing the tallest mountain in the lower 48 will have to wait. Since my cardio has probably been impacted by not going to CrossFit (they just re-opened last week but I'm not comfortable going), this may be just as well.
Now that the state of Ohio is (unwisely, in my opinion) relaxing most of the rules, it definitely seemed like we might actually go into the office. Our employer did a survey of workforce, and based on that and current threat assessment, we're now not returning to the office until at least August 3. That's a total of 20 weeks. Quite frankly we were told that since most of our employees had expressed concern about their lack of childcare before the schools and daycare open, we've already been told to expect it to push back until at least the start of the school year. Of course, nobody is quite sure what the school year will look like, but assuming the usual late August start, that's another about 24 weeks total out of office. Heck, we only made it eleven weeks in the office before we were sent home.
I'm completely fine with this. I've very productive at home. My commute has gone from 40 minutes of driving or 2 hours of cycling to 1 minute to walk downstairs. Various minor chores like dishes and laundry get done during the day. More importantly, I'm very appreciative of our employer not forcing us back, as M (and I'm sure many others) wouldn't be comfortable with it. Apparently a lot of people expressed that they preferred working from home, especially the developers, so I expect our office culture will be very different when we do finally return. While I have missed a bit of the serendipity of learning things unexpectedly, I've found other channels to cover them.
The only real bummer is that the employees in the daycare and diner were furloughed, so they get health care but had to file for unemployment. My one close friend in the daycare reports that she's actually treating it as a "retirement preview" and having a fine time using that filter. Hopefully it's not too bad for anyone else financially.
In other lockdown news, both M and I finally went into other buildings besides our home this past Thursday. My streak was 71 days, which ended because I broke a spoke and dented a rim on my bike. They had curbside pickup when I dropped off, but I had to go into the store to pay and pick up. M's streak was a bit longer.
I will say that we've done curbside pickup from a lot of places in recent weeks, like two different garden centers, so maintaining a list of all the businesses we've frequented is no longer trivial. In all cases (besides the vet) we've pulled up, popped the trunk, and left after it was loaded. It's pretty easy, and since I've generally hated all non-grocery shopping this is fine with me. I still miss grocery shopping though, particularly at the West Side Market.
And finally, I only had one vacation planned so far as having a date selected and blocked off at work, but I've now canceled that. I was supposed to climb Mt. Whitney with Adam and Cris and a fourth coworker, Jerry. We had won the permit lotto for July 26, but since three of us were going to fly to Adam's in Vegas, and flying does not seem like the best idea right now, climbing the tallest mountain in the lower 48 will have to wait. Since my cardio has probably been impacted by not going to CrossFit (they just re-opened last week but I'm not comfortable going), this may be just as well.