It was like being in a sci-fi movie.
When I walked into my office Monday, my calendar showed March 2020. My coffee cup was fine, but a plastic cup in which I had soda (or tea? Gatorade?) was filled with what looked like corrosion from a leaking battery. It was so gross, I had to throw it away.
The office kitchen was empty, with signs limiting how many people could be there and requiring everything to be wiped down after each use. The normal office population of about 50 or 60 people was down to 10 or maybe less.
I was back in my office for the first time in 14 months.
This isn't unique. The returns to "normal" occurred a while ago for many people, but last Monday was my first time in my office since March 16, 2020. The pandemic year-plus of working out of my kitchen ended.
This was what most of us looked forward to the most: When life would return to normal, or at least partway to normal. Working in my office seemed normal, but having a fraction of the normal workplace population didn't. Sitting at my desk seemed normal, but having to keep my door closed if I didn't want to wear a mask didn't. Getting coffee seemed normal, but having to use single-use creamers and wipe down the machine after each use didn't.
I am the first person in my working group to return to the office and I don't know if or when others will. When I sent an email informing them that I had responded positively to an email asking if anyone was interested in coming back, a co-worker sent me an instant message paraphrasing me as a character from "The Hunger Games": "I volunteer as tribute!"
After more than a year of wearing shorts and a T-shirt, of sitting at a makeshift desk in our kitchen, of having lunch with Mrs. Brad and being able to take a walk around my neighborhood the minute I logged off for the day, things were different.
Now I wear adult clothes to work. I drive every day (after buying gas for my Prius four times in 14 months). I have to plan lunches. I see people (few, but still I see them) beyond Mrs. Brad.
Life is returning to normal, but it doesn't seem normal yet. Because it isn't.
Whether you work in an office, at a job site, in retail or at home, the world changed since it shut down last year. Will our work lives ever go back to what they were in early 2020? Will my office ever be filled with my co-workers, chatting in the kitchen and hoping someone else makes coffee? Will we bring co-workers coffee on Friday? Will we collectively wonder why our bosses are meeting behind closed doors?
Or will the changes made in the past year – the ability for some of us to work remotely, the normalization of ordering everything we need online, the realization that wearing a mask may help us stay healthy – become the norm?
I'm not sure. In the past month, Mrs. Brad and I returned to in-person church, I returned to my office and we even went to a restaurant. Maybe you've been doing it for a while, but it's still new to us.
By Wednesday – my third day at the office – it already felt normal again. Updated regulations late in the week concerning masking and social distancing helped, too.
I just hope they emptied the garbage can into which I threw the disgusting cup with drink residue.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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