It’s Day #7 of Working from Home/Social Distancing, and my wife has already reported me to HR three times.
A co-worker asked me yesterday if I was going to be working in the office. I told him “No, I’m avoiding the office like the…plague”.
I spoke to a good friend last week. He told me that they are reporting to the office as normal, but that they had made to bold decision to curtail meetings with non-employees, either in their office or elsewhere.
Folks, this pandemic isn’t going to be going away by itself. We are going to be socially distancing ourselves for a good long while. Look at China. They started isolation in December and they are nowhere near done. The whole world has to get over this, and we will.
The other day I was on a conference call. One of many during this COVID-19 outbreak. Two of my colleagues were chatting prior to the meeting. One indicated that this social distancing is great for introverts, but it isn’t so wonderful for extroverts like them. I didn’t much care for this remark. It isn’t that introverts don’t want to be with, near or around other people. We do. We like people. Perhaps my colleague was confusing bashfulness with introversion. Or even anti-social people. To me, the greatest distinction between introverts and extroverts is that introverts recharge their batteries in small groups, or alone. Think of having a few drinks with friends after work, watching TV or reading a book. Extroverts get their batteries recharged in large groups. Not that introverts dislike large groups.
Where were we? Oh, yes. Social distancing. That sounds like an oxymoron, am I right? Wouldn’t “anti-social distancing” make more sense? Okay, social distancing isn’t new, although I understand that we are doing a tremendous job of it. Probably the most tremendous job in the history of social distancing. Just tremendous.
Social distancing isn’t new, and I’m not just talking about staying away from that creep that keeps showing up at parties. During the 1918 flu pandemic, US authorities implemented school closures, bans of public gatherings, and other social distancing interventions. Several cities experienced a second epidemic peak after social distancing controls were lifted, because susceptible individuals who had been protected were now exposed. (Ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_distancing)
During this pandemic, many of us are working remotely (man, I’m all over the place with this blog!). Working from home, for example. There is a lot of guidance out there regarding working from home, like “shower, save and dress the part”. I for one, would say that you should get your job done as best as you can. And, if you want to take a walk in the middle of your work day… more power to you. I try to get to the gym five days a week. The least we can do is to peel our eyes off of our computer screens every now and then.
One parting thought. I think that more people should be practicing more social distancing and less time hoarding TP. The TP thing seems to be a nearly global epidemic. I’m not yet ready to declare it a pandemic.
If you actually wanted some useful information on social distancing, consider reviewing this: https://www.folio.ca/social-distancing-what-it-means-and-what-you-should-do-about-it/
Until next time, see ya man, I’m going to do some social distancing and chill!