I still think the most eye opening part was watching the smog clear up in real time in India where the Himalayan mountains became visible again to many parts of the north

I'm a tad jealous of people who got to do this. My work just got busier. It was like normal except people were dying and I had all my groceries delivered.

I worked for the hospital system... I only remember dreading tomorrow and wishing for a moment to catch my breath. I didn't really get to work from home and I rarely got time off outside of my schedule.

It sucked! I didn't even get to enjoy other people's enjoyment 👎

My plants all died in the end, except my persimmon tree :)

I work in a hospital. I continued to commute to work and do my job through all of the shortages and all of the uncertainty. I died a little each day I had to stop my then 3.5yo twins from rushing to hug me at the door so I could change, drop my clothes in the wash, and wash my hands before they touched me. Then they stopped trying. It was a year before I was greeted at the door with a hug. I knelt there crying the first time they did it again.

I saw all my friends doing all the lock down things and knew that society and employers would never make it up to those of us who worked through it all. We didn't even get pizza parties because my hospital had a no shared food policy for infection prevention.

I walked past maskless protestors outside my hospital accusing of us every ludicrous talking point there was. For the first time in my career I questioned why I did it. Why was I risking my family's health and my own to take care of THEM.

Yes... #blessed

I remember thinking, "i am not essential. I am expendable"

I know for many it was a nightmare, but as an introvert it was amazing. I was an "essential worker" so I still had to go into work a few days a week, but the office was most empty and wfh was amazing. Oh and the no traffic thing was chefs kiss.

When companies decided that COVID was costing them too much in profits, and workers couldn't be micro-managed from home or on a rotating office schedule, is when things went to shit.

No.

I was an “essential worker”. Nothing changed for me.

A lot of negative opinions on the tweet author here but there's one thing I'd like to note. My own experience during the pandemic was much worse than my average life, it was depressing to keep staying home at all time, I got infected, didn't get a proper medical attention for non-covid related stuff, etc. But after time passes the negatives look smoother and the positives get brighter, like that there were no useless meetings, much less pressure for doing stuff, and so on.

Also, I'm not sure that the author meant it to be 'pandemic isolation was great', more like 'it has shown us that there are things to be done at home'. Although for medical and essential workers it rather was time when they barely got home at all, but if we get to spend more time at home without the pandemic, then they will not be overburdened, I guess.

“Everyone”

Edit: as a project manager who stayed home for months, I find the ignorant privilege blasting from these kinds of statements enraging. How can someone be so blind to the world around them, that they don’t even realize that other human beings had a vastly different experience?

Must have been nice. I was an "essential" worker so I spent the entire time busting my ass in the middle of a packed grocery store, terrified of being assaulted by some angry dicknosed moron and bringing their lethal infection home to my elderly parents. I started having panic reactions to seeing unmasked faces, even those of close family members I was living with. Meanwhile, I kept hearing all these people talk about being paid twice my wages to sit at home and learn new skills like I had always wished I could afford to do.

And what did I get for all of my hard work? A fancy pin from my employer with a letter patting themselves on the back for protecting us. They didn't protect us at all! They actively defied the mask mandate and told us it was our own fault if customers threatened or attacked us for wearing one!

You can tell who the introverts and who the extroverts were during the pandemic. For those that got to stay at home:

Extroverts: "My mental health is crumbling! I'll never be the same after this. Literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me!"

Introverts: "I just beat a handful of games in my backlog, read 4 books, started learning how to make Chinese food at home, and I just started learning Spanish on Duolingo. I'll never be the same after this!"

i wish i did that instead of getting depressed from the lack of human contact and living the same day for almost a year

In this thread everyone was a work martyr and no one had time off. As Marsha said in the Brady Bunch "Sure Jan".

No I don't remember that. I remember doing what I did before lockdown. Work.

Hell no, I was buried in a depression hole and couldn't leave the house

Still had to work myself and ngl I was really envious of people who got to stay home :( in food service we just got more and more yelled at by people

Ah yes, "everyone". I'm not even in healthcare, but as an "Essential Worker", I got to be exposed to the the virus before a vaccine was available as well as extra work, abusive people, and anti-vaxxer blame. The entitlement...

i do not remember that

As someone who made bread every week and took care of a lot of plants before the pandemic and is still doing so up to the present day, I'm quite glad everyone went back to "normal" so I don't have to fucking compete with everyone to do these parts of my life.

Where does the flour for the bread come from ?

"everyone"...

I remember my brother suffering from depression because he just no way of getting out of his apartment

I remember people people dying and not being able to go meet/help them

I remember the working class suffering because they just couldn't work

I am not blaming anyone but it wasn't "singing and dancing" for most people except the most privileged