There Is No Such Thing As “Normal”
I Can’t Go Back To The “Normal”, So I Won’t Go Back To The “New Normal” Either
How can you?
Two months ago I received a warning letter from HR because I put my family first. You see, I had to take a leave and work from home to be there for my family in the time of need — to support them. I should not excuse my decision to anyone, it should be understood and accepted that family comes first, no matter what.
A month ago my friend got fired because of a similar situation. She requested to continue working from home but was willing to come into the office when needed. You see, the work she does can be easily done remotely — and the pandemic showed us all that’s possible to work from home and be productive.
In certain industries, work from home improved business revenues. For example, the video games industry revenues skyrocketed and many of the employees were already working one way or another from home long before the pandemic. The flexibility that work from home provided for employees made them happier and reflected on their work performance.
The company I work with want’s everything to go back to “normal”, meaning that they want us in the office. Why? They believe that we are more productive that way.
In translation — they don’t trust us and want us under control.
You see, the pandemic is back on the rise and people fear going back to the office. Some don’t want to go back to the office because they got used to the flexibility that work from home gave them. Some just don’t want to leave their pets home alone. Others want to spend more time with their families because they have realized once again how fragile life is.
Two weeks ago three of my colleagues resigned because of the same reason — they don’t want to go back to normal.
The girls I worked with have children and they nourish every minute they get to spend with their kids, especially since they can manage both kids and work. Not just manage — they excel at it.
Since the company announced that there would no flexibility and we are bound to work from the office even when the numbers of infected are above 12,000 a day employees have started becoming “sick”. Some took sudden annual leaves, others are feeling under the weather every other day, and more people are resigning.
Corporations are acting as if everything is normal again.
They expect employees to go back to the office and sit there for 8–10 hours when just a few months back, it was okay to work from home. They expect us to be okay with putting our families, friend and our well-being on hold. They expect us to get vaccinated and go to the office thinking that now we are invincible and Covid isn’t a threat anymore.
My two vaccinated friends just recently caught covid again and their health suffered greatly anyway. They were also made to go to the office or they would lose their jobs. They will not be compensated for the fact that they caught Covid when pleading to work from home.
The offices around the world are suffering in silence and the productivity of the team members is dropping rapidly.
Society wants us to go back to normal. They want us to organize weddings, go to doctors appointments, go clubbing, go to the cinema and concerts and ultimately go back to work. But it seems that it’s impossible to go back to normal: people are still getting sick, countries are changing regulations from day today, and we don’t know what normal is anymore.
For God’s sake, Mark Zuckerberg has just recently announced that he will be plugging us all into the Matrix aka “Meta”!
My friends and colleagues are seriously considering quitting if their employer's don’t give them flexibility. They are ready to enter the unknown, poverty even.
You see, working from home has given us opportunities to have lunch with our spouses, to go on a walk with the dog in the afternoon, to take a midday run.
Working from home has made our lives a little bit slower and has taught us how to enjoy our lives. It has shown us that a standard office model is not needed, that paying taxes can be postponed, that our freedom as we have known it can be taken away from us with an excuse that “desperate times call for desperate measures. ”
Why then just go back to some elements of “normal life” which were perhaps pointless? Why lose hours commuting when we can do work at our own pace? Why not go for a midday stroll to the park if tomorrow police could decide to stop me because the new regulations came in place?
Why not enjoy every minute we have? Why settle for less when life is so fragile? Why settle at all?
So if we can’t go back to normal, society tells us let’s go to the “new normal” instead.
New normal involves testing before entering the office, showing proof of vaccination in cinemas, restaurants, offices and grocery stores. It makes me uncomfortable.
I don’t want this new normal either. I just can’t. I don’t want to return to the office. Small talks with people that I don’t care about, the excuses why I was late, the traffic jams, the open spaces, the memos, the sweaty bodies — the lost time.
My dog died when I was supposed to be in the office. Thankfully, something told me that day that I will stay at home and take a sick leave, even when I wasn’t sick. That afternoon he died.
If I went to the office he would have died alone.
At times, I don’t want to work at all. I believe I’m not the only one who feels this way, Marie Le Conte wrote an amazing article, pointing down all the reasons why she is unable to work too. It just makes no sense anymore.
The great resignation has already started. The next would be a great depression. I’ve realized that I have felt the intense career pressure that has obscured my true priorities in life.
My priority is myself and my family.
These last two weeks when I went to the office, I always thought of my dog who I left behind. It was a battle to get out of the apartment, he always grabbed my coat or my sleeve and tried to pull me back into the apartment.
I had to leave him alone with strangers who were renovating the bedroom while I sat in the office, smiled and acted as if I am okay. My work revolves around talking with people on the phone/ Zoom: I launch international, global and nationwide campaigns. I don’t interact with people in the office.
I don’t have to be there.
Last Monday I had stayed longer in the office because my manager scheduled a late meeting to go over KPI’s and usual corporate bullshit. I was stressed — I had two missed calls from the renovation worker and I was thinking of my younger dog, “ Is he alright? What if something happens to him as it has happened to my older dog?”
I was freaked out and scared. Travelling, going out, dining out, being in the office and commuting feels strange. I often wonder what’s the point of going back to the normal, what is “normal ”anyway?
I read the news and all I can see is deaths, covid cases, murders, stabbings, rapes and natural disasters. Sometimes I wish they would lock us back in again. Coming back after nearly two years of not socializing, of not participating in the acts of everyday life, is hard.
I think of this too often. I thought of it when I was going back home from work and had a panic attack in the subway which caused me to fall unconscious. The strangers in the subway called the ambulance and I woke up in the hospital.
This happened three days ago. The doctors think it’s chronic stress.
I think it’s the covid depression.
At the hospital, I reached out to grab the nurses hand — she stepped back and asked if I was vaccinated. After I reassured her, and a negative Covid test, she held my hand and I thought about the “normality” again.
How hard it must be for those who lost loved ones during a pandemic and were unable to see them, hold them and say goodbye. Why is it now different? Why can the “rules” change so quickly?
My father picked me up that evening and I knew that I would not be going back to the office back anymore.
I told the work what happened and they weren’t happy, obviously. Nor was I happy with myself for letting myself do something that makes me so uncomfortable for so long.
I paid the price.
Since that day I am scared of going back outside. But then again I was scared of going back outside for the last two years anyway.
I don’t want to be scared anymore.
Coming back to normal will never be easy, and in fact, it’s not. Coming back will not even be possible for many of us. Coming back to “normal ”or the “new normal” isn’t possible for me.
I want something different — I am not sure what yet, but when I figure it out I will let you know.
But please do tell, how is the “new normal” working for you?
Dr Mehmet Yildiz; Tom Kuegler; Maxwell Jordan; Dew Langrial; Tim Denning
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