The Coronavirus

[David Horn]

(12-19-2021, 04:47 AM)nguyenivy Wrote: It is starting to feel a lot like March 2020 again here in the northeastern USA, with more & more places closing down, cancelling events, etc with Omicron spreading so much faster than prior variants. I wonder if this time around the people who still refuse to get vaccinated or mask up in public will finally have a change of heart and do what's right. As for lockdowns, we in the US never had a true lockdown like some European countries or China had. The most we had were non-essential business closures, event cancellations, school closures, and stay-home advisories. In my city Philly you were still free to go out even if there wasn't much of anything to do.

I am one of the smaller number of Americans who is still WFH for the last 21 months straight so in my case it feels different than March 2020 when a shutdown back then meant no longer commuting, etc. My workplace chose the wrong time to insist on a return to office scheduled for mid-January and we were required to e-mail the boss on the 1st of Dec as to whether we will return or resign. I told my boss the concerns and would be happy to continue to work as long as remote work is still available, & he agreed with me but the higher-ups want everyone back in mid-January. He claims that should anything change between now & then (complicating things is this is a college and so we're on break for about 4 weeks now) I would be welcome to return remotely, though it's kind of out of his hands as I already stated in the spring semester availability sheet I won't be back on campus - I was forced to make some kind of yes or no commitment on the 1st as a deadline. So my plan? Look for work elsewhere online that does fully remote work. I wonder if WFH is all that wise a hill to 'die on', work-wise, anyway. Are there all that many people leaving jobs they previously enjoyed just to avoid a commute & office politics/gossip (I am fully vaccinated, BMI 24, & in my mid-30s, so unless Omicron changes the game that much COVID may be less of the real reason for turning down returning)?

As a member of the leisure set (retired since 2016) it's a bit disengenuous for me to comment, but I will anyway.  WFH in the midst of a huge pandemic upswing is, or should be, the defauolt option when possible.  Look at the people who can't, and you see massive burnout: equally true for grocery store workers, cops and trauma doctors.  So being driven back to the office or in-person schooling seems worse than counter intuitive; it borders on criminal.  Best of luck flying outside the radar.  Better: your leaders might rethink this work mandate in the face of rising numbers.