This is the exact mindset that's becoming more and more prevalent among Americans as more and more go back to work. And it's what many have said here for along time. Seems it's similar North of the border as well. It's a mix of fear initially, but that wanes and is overtaken with a sense of hopelessness and/or inevitability. "Essential Workers" have mostly felt this for months now. So, welcome to your new reality as an "essential worker". You're a couple months later in arriving to this mindset than many, but your white collar, work-from-home privilege was likely filtering your outlook. In the next step of your journey, you'll probably realize that wiping down groceries, probably isn't really a worthwhile use of your time for a respiratory virus. You might even venture out for regular errands more than once every couple of weeks. You'll realize that being forced to wear a mask 8+ hours per day at work can be a pain and could make you less inclined to don one if you're just picking up some carry out or something on your way home. And then, without realizing it, you've become the thing you hated 4-6 weeks ago... Come on in, the water's fine!
You are making a few incorrect assumptions here.
Although I've been working remotely most of the time, I've regularly had to go in to the office when there was need. The industry that I work in (broadcast) was considered an essential service right from the start.
The hopelessness I'm beginning to feel stems from the fact that some assholes didn't fucking take things seriously early on, so it now looks like we'll be unable to get a handle on this thing. These people have managed to help us squander our time so that now we have no choice but to start opening things that aren't safe to open.
If six weeks ago you were fucking around rather than doing what you should have done, with the sick intent of making the pandemic worse for others, make no mistake about it. You, personally, are the problem. You can take your schadenfreude glee and stuff it up your ass.
Just for the record, I've been staying home when possible and avoiding gatherings per my local government's guidelines. I practice social distancing when in public. I wear a mask when I feel it's appropriate in public and all the time at work. I would never intentionally try to get anybody sick as you seem to think, and I'm not sure how many people actually fall into that category.
Good! I'm encouraged to hear that you're not the asshole you portrayed yourself to be in the previous post.
It's not schadenfreude glee on my part, it's just surprising that an intelligent person like yourself thought that this virus was just going to be done, gone and contained in a couple of months because some people can work from home (like yourself).
Your demonstrated reading comprehension is very poor. As mentioned, I've had to regularly go in to my office since March.
It seems like you more or less thought "I'll just hunker down for a couple of months and let other people do the dirty, uncomfortable tasks of full-time mask wearing and social distancing all day every day until it's safe for me to go back", but that's not how this was ever going to go down.
This is not something I ever thought.
This virus has a relatively short period where it transmits (well under a month). If people took the recommended precautions seriously for the past three months, then we should be well on the way to eradication of the disease.
The thousands of people who minimized their outside contact with the world to help limit the spread of this virus were not letting 'other people do the dirty, uncomfortable tasks' for them. They were helping to increase the safety of every single person who was required to work. This was their duty. I'm not sure where your seeming outrage against these people is coming from. Is it purely a jealousy thing, or is there some martyr complex mixed in too?
If you're still working or going out in public frequently, it's going to inconvenience you and increase your personal risk no matter what.
Aside from people like myself who were working in essential services,
nobody should have been going out in public frequently over the past three months. If you have been doing this, you were one of the assholes who ensured that this problem would still be carrying on.
Again, you seem to have misunderstood my issue. The problem is not the series of inconveniences that I've been experiencing on a regular basis since the lockdown began, the problem in the increased danger that is coming as we lift restrictions. Going into my office on a split 24 hour shift system to reduce people on site while many work from home is safer than lifting all restrictions and going back to regular hours. Even the simplest tasks like going to get groceries as this happens at workplaces across our province increases the danger for everyone. As we lift restrictions we will see reduced, not increased mask wearing as people become more and more complacent (as you've indicated you have become).
So I'm not really dancing around with glee that you might have to deal with the reality that many have been dealing with for months, but it was a profound image for me of just how privileged some can be to think that they were just going to leave most of the hassle and risk to fall on those less fortunate. For the most part I just found it interesting that some really intelligent people are only now realizing that this virus is probably here to stay, at least for awhile, and really coming to terms with the fact that they'll have to deal with it first hand.
As someone who has been working in an essential service, who has been required to come in to the office for months while everything was locked down . . . I obviously have no idea what it's like to deal with wearing a mask at work. Please my good martyr, tell me of your troubles and travails.
Thank you ever so much for opening my privileged eyes. Sometimes the privilege gets so very heavy to bear on my own. I've been cladding myself in a covid-proof suit sewn together entirely of those less fortunate than myself to avoid dealing with things first hand while working in the office during this pandemic though - so hopefully that will continue to work into the foreseeable future.
You're clearly angry and upset.
This is true. But not for the reasons you appear to believe.
All of this social distancing stuff was to control the virus as much as we could to limit spread and spare the medical industry to avoid additional deaths. It was never likely to eradicate the virus in a couple of months. We had massive lockdowns with only essential travel for two months down here. The virus still spread because somebody has to drive the trucks to deliver food and somebody has to staff the hospitals/nursing homes and somebody has to make sure the lights stay on, etc. The virus spreading isn't the fault of just a few assholes being assholes. It's just what viruses do. Especially if there's any asymptomatic transmission. It took a ton of sacrifice and effort from a lot of people to do as well as we've done. Perfection was never a realistic expectation.
We have had lockdowns here as well. Here's an example of one of Toronto's parks during lockdown:
I don't believe that 'all of this social distancing stuff' was anywhere near as effective as it should have been because of the large number of people who never bothered to follow it. The virus spreading isn't the fault of a few assholes being assholes . . . but those assholes are certainly helping it spread. While I didn't expect perfection, certainly better than this:
You fear having to wear a mask all day, and wonder how you'll be able to get any work done, but there are lots and lots of people that have been doing just that for months.
I'm used to wearing a mask all day and dealing with work disruptions, as I've been doing that on and off for the past few months. My concern is that when management forces people back to offices where there's no real reason or benefit in going back it increases risk to me being in the office. And every person who pulls their face mask below their chin and walks around like they're doing the right thing, every person who takes their mask off to yell at someone on a phone (a job they could be doing from home) . . . that just increases risk for everyone.