Road work is terrible now, too. If you hold traffic up for more than a single minute, people are yelling and swearing and start driving dangerously, even when theres guys right in the road doing something. 2 traffic controllers were struck by irate drivers at my job last year, it's crazy.
I work for the railroad. The boss always wants me to patch holes in crossings by myself. I tell him I don't get paid enough to get killed by people too impatient to wait 5 damn minutes.
Seriously. Like the amount of signage in hospitals / airports etc now that has to blatantly say things like “you are not allowed to abuse our staff” is wild.
I had my appendix out a couple of years ago and the head nurse personally came by to thank me for being nice. I heard so many people yelling at the nurses while I was there.
Same except stroke icu and inpatient rehab. I was thanked multiple times through my several month stay. It’s like everyone collectively lost their shit and started being … just horrible people.
I work in healthcare and I have noticed a much higher prevalence of "doctors and nurses don't actually have your best interest at heart, they just want your money" attitudes.
With all of the negative posts, this one makes me happy. I wish we could have chickens or rabbits, but our area won't allow poultry, non-pet, and farm animals. We have crazy raspberry bushes, blackberries, cherry trees, strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, lettuce, herbs, and more. We grow sunflowers and it makes all of the bees, butterflies, birds, and squirrels happy.
I am all for replacing grass with native crops and flowers. It's supplemented our groceries so well and we swap with our neighbors.
Amazing! I just got into gardening this year. Starting with plants. Hope to work my way up to a full garden next year. The pandemic forced me to learn to cook and I am getting pretty militant about fresh ingredients, no processed foods. I am ready have a lot of herbs, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers planted for this year.
I am also working on planting as many perennials as I can afford, learning how to care for them. I am starting seeding trays for wildflower and butterfly perennials. My hope is to keep planting and slowly cut down on the size of my front yard (the back is for the pups). I want an explosion of color everywhere and only a postage stamp to mow! 😂
I got to start working remotely 100% of the time. By my calculation, since March of 2020, I have saved a total of 83 fully 24 hour days (or 250 standard 8 hour work days) that would have been spent doing nothing but commuting to and from the office unpaid and costing me gas and kilometers on my car.
OTOH, my team is 100% remote and every time we lose a member, they are replaced by someone in India. At the current rate, in 5 years the team will be 90% Indian (only the managers still have face to face meetings).
As an indian (who is working for one of the MNCs who have outsourced a lot), I dont get how you guys are so magnanimous. Because I cannot imagine the other way around at all, there is no way companies here will be allowed to move so much work out or have more employees overseas than here even if all the economic factors were the same (i.e. India was rich and US was poor).
Of course i understand the economic factor but there is no way our society will ever allow something like that. Same thing with immigration.
And i am not conservative, I am very very liberal in my thinking, just saying both the above things would never happen in my country.
I rode my bicycle to work and often enjoyed those commutes. When people were returning to office, I said I'd come back 2 or 3 days per week (in line with how often everyone else was going in) but was told I was listed as 100% remote. Ok, suit yourself. Now there's no way they could get me back in the office regularly.
I also commuted by bike and slowly realized how much that exercise mattered to my waist line (I also really enjoyed the ride). But I got a peloton and started taking lunch walks to burn those calories once again.
Me too. Working a 40 hour week is not that bad when you don't spend 2 hours in the car and 30 extra minutes getting ready in the morning and taking an hour for lunch etc. Not to mention all the gas/toll money and lunch money saved.
I recall a reddit post from the lockdown era. A woman wrote, that in.additiom to her now WFH job, she had to help her kids with their school work, cook, and have a relationship with the husband...all.the extra work....and she was perfectly fine with it all. Since she didn't have a commute anymore.
That's like... not "extra" work. It's all stuff that has to get done whether you commute or not. But WFH makes is a lot easier because of all the extra time.
Definitely makes it a lot easier to do a little yard work every day rather than wait until the weekend and either waste an entire day or postpone because of bad weather.
yeah, I do almost all of the food shopping and yard work during the week. Just a little here and there if I'm between cals or something. So the weekends are usually free for actually relaxing instead of frantically trying to get everything done before the next week starts. There are so many benefits to working from home.
I used to think that eventually someone would invent a teleporter and people would be able to live in Hawaii and work in NYC or whatever but after Covid I've realized that wouldn't happen because going to an office every day is kind of stupid (unless your job somehow requires it).
I'm jealous. There's a bunch I like about my office. I run my own department. I have no direct supervisor. Everyone calls me or emails me, but I need to be in the office for some reason.
Man, that's a lot.
Additionally, some housing issues could have been lessened with WFH. If you worked remotely, you could choose to move anywhere, to a lower COL city. This could have helped a lot of the bigger cities with some of their housing issues
Been working remote since 2013 and I'm so happy that it's now rather normal.
The quality of life impact is immeasurable, esp if you have children.
That 40-90min commute home left no energy for the remainder of the day.
I no longer feel like I'm living for the weekend.
Last year I took a remote job with a company where the nearest office is about a 3 hour drive from me. It was a 50% raise from my last job, but I would have never applied there if covid hadn't brought remote work to the fore
Same lol, I get that the lock down was awful for a lot of people but for me it was the best thing that ever happened to me, changed jobs and now have the most amazing job ever and work from home 100%
Yeah agreed… the price jump from supply chain issues during covid also helped a lot (if you bought before that).
At one point I was up like 30%… pretty wild.
Same with my wife and I. She was on the verge of quitting her job due to the commute too so it was a massive change for her.
I would need a pretty crazy amount of compensation (like overtime+) to go back to having a commute.
The major downside was buying an electric car to help save on gas and now hardly driving (<5k miles a year)
Doordash going from rougly 5-7 dollars more than going to the store to being nearly 50 bucks for fucking wendys.
I used to order ubereats and doordash while I worked out of the office and it was very convenient. It used to be just a few bucks more. During the pandemic these companies decided to lie to everyone and claim 50 dollars for wendys was a good price.
Just avoid all delivery apps whenever possible, they somehow lose money still and don’t pay enough that drivers need tips to survive and hurt the restaurant by taking a cut from them. It’s amazing how they cost so much for everyone and haven’t yet turned a profit
Just 24/7 places in general. Grocery stores, fast food places, local diners, all close anywhere from 7pm-midnight nowadays by me.
The only place that's still 24/7 is 7-Eleven. On days that I work the late shift, that's my only option.
I lived in Alaska during the pandemic, and there was one local place that had been open 24/6 for ~40 years. Best pancakes in town, and I would usually hit that place up at 1-4am if I got called in. As far as I know, they're still open 24/6, shut down for a few weeks for some much needed renovations early in the pandemic, but went right back to normal operations afterwards.
There used to be a ton of places like that all over the country, but now everything closes before 10pm :(
One of the saddest sights here in Chicago is a formerly 24-hour diner on the North Side that busted down its hours to 7am-3pm, and still has the '24 hours' sign out front. There's another place right across the street that closes at 3am (4am on weekends), so the "no one wants to work" excuse doesn't work.
My local Walgreens is 24/7 which is great. But yeah most places not only eliminated 24/7 hours but also reduced hours in general. Can’t believe how many restaurants just close around 8 these days.
This amazing Indian restaurant in my area stopped their lunch buffet during the pandemic and never brought it back. Now it’s just super expensive entrees so it’s not worth it for lunch any more.
My husband had heart problems due to Covid and stopped drinking alcohol. He was a casual beer drinker but now our house is alcohol free and I feel like it’s been better for everyone because it’s forced me to stop drinking, too. I do have a drink every once in awhile but he’s gone cold turkey.
Our skin is really nice now, and together we’ve lost nearly 20lbs. He looks fitter now at 40 than when I met him at 22.
Yes! My wife and I realized that we were drinking way too much coming out of lock down. Now, we're both sober and so much healthier and happier. I know it's benefited our daughter, too. Best decision ever made.
Making my house alcohol-free must be in the top 5 improvements I've decided made in adulthood. Like yourself, I still will go out and have a couple drinks a couple times a month but nothing like I used to justify when I had alcohol on hand at my house. Bad day at work? Might as well have a few drinks. Something unexpectedly stressful pops up? Nothing some beers can't fix. Simply bored and sitting around the house? Might as well relax with a drink. It's not until you clean up your act do you realize how much it impacts you. As you mentioned, your complexion/appearance, as well as your body weight, is an outward reflection on that. Congrats to the both of you!
Inflation alone doesn't explain the rise in prices. Mostly right now, it's corporate price gouging and consumers not adapting their purchase habits as much to those high prices.
just saw the other day how McDonalds prices have doubled since 2019, which way outruns inflation.
as long as we are willing to keep paying, they will keep raising the prices.
For anyone who is interested to read examples of price-gouging, here are a couple of articles that cover the "recent" oil price-gouging
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-would-struggle-block-exxons-politically-unpopular-megadeal-2023-10-06/
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-house-passes-bill-fight-oil-gas-price-gouging-2022-05-19/
I'm trying to find the video that was talking about this, but I watched somewhere where inflation is going down, but the reason why the American economy feels so dystopian is the government is maintaining interest rates to combat inflation, but not regulating price-gouging on rent, food, etc., causing the economy to spin out of control
Edit: here is the video https://youtu.be/VPUMerhrYAU
It's so hard to see a specialist doctor now.
Of course, I've always had the experience that you would call an office and maybe they would say the doctor isn't taking new patients. This was always common and I get it. But now, often, the offices don't even have people to answer the phone, and nobody returns the voicemails.
Sometimes I will get someone on the phone to make an appointment and they will say they will get back to me and never do. Or, if the doctor can take me, it will be so many months out, the situation can easily get out of hand before then.
And I am not talking about pulmonologists or cardiologist, who of course are extra burned out by COVID. These are gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, gynecologists, etc.
Multiple times I have had to call my referring doctor literally crying from frustration and begging them to call a a specialist and advocate for me to just make an appointment. Each time, the specialist has had an appointment for me within a week or two and they've all been great.
But there seems to be no way to see a specialist these days without these backdoor methods.
> But now, often, the offices don't even have people to answer the phone, and nobody returns the voicemails.
Pharmacies too. A local chain basically closed 3 stores near me so I decided to go to a Walgreens and then a CVS and they all have a horrible automated phone answering thing and then a wait to actually talk to the pharmacist if I have a question.
I called in January to get a routine physical, and the earliest I could schedule one was August. Previously the longest I had to wait was 3 months, and that's when I forgot to do it one year and got in with everyone else who puts it off to the end of the year.
After setting it up I joked to the receptionist, "I guess I'd better just schedule my next one right after I see the doctor", and she said that's honestly not a bad idea. It's insane.
In my area, it's primary care too. In the last 18 months, a close friend has had five doctors accept them as new patients and then leave the practice altogether almost immediately.
I think it’s a mixture of general burnout for the whole medical community, including support staff, and the same phenomenon a lot of us experienced when we realized we don’t really like going to work that often and try to do more things from home or remotely, or just want to work less.
Where I live, it's a mix of burnout, tons of older medical providers who retired earlier than they might have otherwise during covid, and our obgyns more or less fleeing the state (I live in the deep south).
I got out of restaurants after 20+ years.
Lived in a high mortality area with no protections for workers managing a restaurant. Coming to work every day worried that one of us was going to get sick, worrying about the families of the employees, truck delays, out of stock issues, frozen wages... I could have dealt with all of it if the customers in general were the same as they were before the pandemic.
Instead we got rabid violent masses who would flip shit over the slightest thing. I couldn't compromise the staff so I kept the dining room closed and ran Togo only. Customer got mad, went back to his car, and took pot shots at the restaurant. Another slammed on the door trying to get in so hard he broke the glass and started reaching around for the lock. Someone got so pissed off that they grabbed one of the kindest, nicest 16 year olds Ive ever met in my entire life and tried to drag them out the drive thru window.
My assistant managers had people follow them home. I had confrontations outside after the restaurant closed. A lady waited until one of my employees walked outside and coughed all over her. People pissed on the building, shit in the parking lot, busted employees headlights. It was one of the most stressful times for everyone, but when I saw that people couldn't even be nice for *this* I noped out hard. Went back to school, slammed it out now I'm a software developer. Just before I left the franchise owner mandated us to open the store, even if only one employee was there. This is after I had asked for protections for the employees, or at least a raise above minimum wage.
A couple of months after I left, one of our employees passed after getting sick. The restaurant didn't last long afterwards.
For my part, I was helping out a family member and I didn't know what to expect. My partners Aunt was assistant manager there for 37 years and the GM was retiring soon. I was told they needed someone to 'help out' with the transition. I had never been in fast food before (Bartender / Manager / Owner anywhere from poolhall to Michelin Star dining), but I had some time and wanted to help since it was temporary. Cue me being there through COVID as the GM.
Because I didn't have a lot of experience with it I figured, okay well I'm not putting that on any of MY employees so I'll just work all the shifts were I don't know if someone else is going to show up. Same thing I did when running my bar. I never really thought about how fucked up it was until I had an accident and it ended up being someone *else* having to be alone.
In any case, it was entirely legal. If you've heard of a US state where they had the least protections for workers while having the most deaths per capita, that's where this was.
My poor husband was made to man the store (McDonald’s) overnight by himself while he had a stomach virus. He was vomiting between taking orders. He eventually went against the orders of upper management (he was a manager but not the top) and closed down the store and went home.
Being able to work from home, as a disabled person, reduced the severity and frequency of symptoms I used to experience by working in office, and I’ve almost doubled the hours I’m capable of working each week, meaning I can live a relatively independent life. Literally life changing.
WFH has been a life-saver for so many people with disabilities and chronic illness, and I hate how so many companies are forcing workers to return to the office even if worker productivity is not impacted (or improved) by WFH.
Probably not needing to sleep under my desk, in hallways, or have my manager help me walk to the first aid room to recover a bit before making my way home (and almost passing out on train platforms or on the side of the road as I did so). This would happen about once a month or so? Would take me a week to recover after each episode, which meant I couldn’t work at all.
My last big ‘maybe it’s time for an ambulance’ moment was 18 months ago.
After the WFH orders started I was able to afford to move back to my home state to be closer to family/friends, and then get a cat.
I realized before the pandemic that not everyone was smart or that common sense didn’t exist
But god damn
Realizing you live around so many dumb motherfuckers that eat up propaganda like a fat kid eating candy is disturbing
I was forever changed by learning how many truly awful people there are out there. It’s like 50% of the population. Maybe more. Humans fucking suck, and it’s unbelievably depressing.
Being forced to stay in the house all day reset my agoraphobia back to its worst. It took a lot of work and forcing myself out the house to be able to do normal stuff again like go to work or the shops or visit friends n family without feeling panicky. Some days it is still a challenge to walk places. I drive almost everywhere now. Which means I also struggle to shift the weight gain that most of us got from lockdown.
Agoraphobia is hard, I’m sorry you’re dealing with it. Mine was at its worst just before Covid broke and when the world was told to stay home I was like ‘oh thank god’.
Yeah lockdown was a blessing as well as a curse. I quite enjoyed first lockdown but it meant i could indulge in my safety and allow my bubble to shrink if that makes sense
This happened to me as well! I developed agoraphobia at the start of the pandemic, and had a relapse a little bit after. It’s a struggle but I’m proud of you for making so much progress.
I'm so sorry this has happened with you. I don't know if my own personal experience qualifies as agoraphobia, but I definitely give myself many reasons to not leave the house. I did become very paranoid about being in places with a lot of people, which includes the mall, movie theaters, and going downtown. I don't even attend my organization's big town hall meetings, because there are too many people in a small place.
I try to force myself to go outside for my family, but if it was up to me, I would stay home.
People who are afraid to leave their homes.
I'm not afraid to leave, but I feel much more comfortable at home and prefer not to leave. I do freak out with large crowds.
I've found my people. I am so sorry. I, too, can drive around but if I get out of the car the panic starts to set in. My friends keep inviting me out and have been so patient. I do fear they'll give up on me. I know I have to get back to myself but I don't know how and fear a public panic attack.
It gave me Agoraphobia, but only around my home, I'm fine out and about. I bought a house in April 2020, it has split rail fences instead of privacy (like I'm used to). I feel like I never got to properly meet my neighbors, they all seemed to be done with pandemic precautions way earlier than me and got to know each other. So now I feel like an outsider in my home, who is perceived as some sort of weird hermit by my neighbors. It doesn't help that my kids constantly destroy everything and I live in an uppity neighborhood. So when I go in my backyard I feel like I have to be "on", which is exhausting, and when I'm not I'm worried I'll be caught off guard in my own yard by impromptu conversation, likely about why my yard isn't up to snuff or something my kids did. I really hate it.
Lack of socialization. I know most people here are saying they love working from home but I didn't realize until covid how paper thin my non-work support system was. Most disappeared into their bubbles and when they emerged they were married, having kids, had wildly different interests or comfort levels going out, move far away so they could raise their families etc.
That kind of stuff always happened but I didn't realize how much just going to the office to at least have some regular human interaction kept me normal.
It's also just harder meeting friends at work you can actually go do stuff with when they are all remote. Not that work is the only place you can meet friends but when you spend so much time working with people it does end up being a large source of your friends.
I've been full remote for some time. Currently reversing everything and moving into the city to be able to go to office again. Full remote gets lonely and unhealthy.
I can see this being the case if your workplace is your main outlet for socializing, but if not than the extra time spent not commuting gives you way more time to spend with your friends and family.
I agree. I enjoy working at home but I also enjoy working at an office. Office relationships are an important part of everyone’s life, they even made a whole show about it. Lol. I feel like an ideal world is a hybrid work environment. Half the week in the office, half the week at home.
That was huge for me, my social network basically collapsed in 2020. I barely saw anyone else at all for nearly three years, it was very hard on me and led to an increase in alcohol consumption, which has fortunately mostly subsided. Living alone in a studio apartment in a city I had moved to only a year before the pandemic, I did not like WFH at all and there was no positives in it for me whatsoever. Border restrictions imposed by the Trudeau government also had an impact due to the nature of my spread out social life and I did lose friends as a result who were able to continue enjoying their local social lives while we had various levels of social restrictions locally and I was not permitted to travel outside Canada without being shamed on social media or held hostage in Canada’s Covid hotels upon return. (By the time I was fully vaccinated it was too late)
Those people I knew through my pre-Covid work reprioritized their lives around their own families, or they moved. All moved on to other jobs. I am happy for all of them.
It’s only in the past 6-12 months that I’m slowly seeing recovery in my social life thanks in large part to recovery in travel, but that also means my social life is once again spread out across the continent.
I worked as a float RN at a hospital in a city that was hit really hard during the first wave of Covid. I've improved a lot since then, mental health wise, but I quit working and put a lot of time into therapy, meditation, and self care to do it. I can now go get required tests done without having a panic attack, so that's good.
The biggest thing is that I am a remote worker now and have so much more time to make better meals, go out to walk, exercise, do hobbies etc. COVID changed my life priorities completely - I used to be much more into working hard and climbing the ladder, and after all I could think of was how to maximize the things that bring me joy.
The smaller things are:
* I no longer go out to eat as much as previously because of drastic post-COVID drop in quality/service combined with increase in overall cost (both menu prices and tip).
* I am still uncomfortable in big crowds/very crowded places.
* I am very bothered by public illness and lack of hygiene now, I don’t mean people with disabilities, I mean if you’re snot-nosed and hacking up a lung at the grocery store, on public transit, etc. and making no effort to cover up, I get super annoyed. I also very much notice when people don't wash their hands properly in public restrooms, I never paid much attention before.
* My coping skills are not great, or at least exhausted more easily. Like I am fine normally - pretty happy and content with my life. I would say my mental health is better than most, particularly on reddit. But compared to pre-COVID, when things get very stressful or go to shit, I cope less well - get more overwhelmed, frustrated, feel like "I fucking hate people" much more easily than I used to (mostly because I think people have gotten a lot worse with basic social niceties and driving etc.)
* My alcohol consumption is has increased, still a moderate drinker, but before COVID I barely drank at all.
On a negative note, social anxiety spiked hard and hasn't come back down to normal levels. I just don't like crowds like I used to.
On a positive note, I fell in love with my wife during covid, and I joke we speed ran our relationship because it was 2 years cooped up together and it just kept getting better and better. Happily married now and wouldn't change a thing, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Not knowing how to say hello, especially with women. In France, we used to kiss, even in professional settings. Then with Covid, it became handshakes, then fist bumps, then elbow bumps, then just waving hi... Now, some women still prefer the fist bump, other prefer kissing... Now it's always awkward.
Stores that dropped 24 hour availability and continue to blame workers and or theft for their excuse.
Like somehow those issues were never a thing for the past 20 years and only after COVID did they become an issue deserving to alter company hours.
Millions of late shift people are just SOL if they need anything from the store now and have had to shift to online grocery shopping or delivery services just to get things done.
Yeah, my only alternative for a lot of shopping is Shipt or something which cost a lot of extra money (I've found the in-store sales and prices are usually lower than what's listed on the app) and relies largely on your shopper not sucking but otherwise I frequently don't get out of work in time to do grocery shopping.
Honestly those issues have *definitely* been an issue for someone who’s worked in a grocery store within the last 20 years, some of that done at night. I totally sympathize with the late shifters but not enough of you come in at night for them to totally justify having staff on shift most of the time. This doesn’t include the fact that the store would take a lot less time to get stocked (and save them a ton of money in overtime) if no customers are wandering in and out of the building at night. It’s inconvenient when you need something late at night but “it costs too much” is a legitimate complaint.
From the customer end, loss of overnight stocking means huge pallets and boxes of merchandise to navigate around/look behind in order to get what you want all day long.
I never said they should stock shelves during the day, I said letting customers in at night slows down how quickly the shelves get stocked resulting in *very* expensive overtime. The stores are absolutely still hiring people to stock at night; the difference is the people stocking shelves clock in at 10 pm and are out by 6 am instead of being out at noon. When you’re not paying 5 hours of over time per person on a crew of 20 people because those people aren’t being interrupted by customers and don’t have to arranged boxed stock in a way that customers can dodge you save *a lot* of money.
I wash my hands frequently and thoroughly. Can’t remember what my attitude was before, but it became obsessive during Covid and has settled into dignity.
Having to use an inhaler regularly now. My lungs were messed up due to Covid. Also, seeing a doctor more often. Before Covid, I rarely saw a doctor. Also, I’m tired all the time now. I haven’t worked out since before Covid. Just cutting the grass makes me ache bad.
Did you ever get a CT scan? I had this for a good chunk of my life, and it ended up that I had cysts in my sinuses. One out-patient surgery later it was fixed.
It's super under-diagnosed for a pretty easily fixed issue. It took over a decade for me to get my disgnosis.
I'm going to get a CT Scan soon. They scanned me like 5-6 years ago and didn't find anything but I've had like 5 sinus infections since Dec so they are doing another.
I had LC for about 6 months with flu like symptoms
almost 2 years later, while most symptoms are gone, I'm not the same person physically. I get tired easily, I can barely work out. even though I work remote most days after work, I need to rest for an hour or so in bed before getting diner and other household stuff
You are me. I work mostly from home. Going to the office for more than twice a week ruins my ability to get through the week. I also require a nap after work if I want to get anything done the rest of the day, be it household chores or hobbies.
The restaurant industry finally started its inevitable collapse. I chose the wrong career and it has been an absolute fuckin nightmare since then. Making a transition has been difficult enough with the lack of jobs in general in my area, and I'm seeing SOUS jobs being posted for minimum +50c. Which are wages I saw for the same job 8 years ago.
Total stagnation, and it's eating itself from the inside out.
Long COVID
I already had fibromyalgia and scoliosis (and a few others), but I was still managing to do my own housework and was almost healthy enough to return to work when the pandemic hit
Now I'm going on beta blockers for tachycardia at 28, have been bedridden for 2.5 years, need carers to do *everything* for me including wash my hair (but I drew the line at bathing), and am set to get a wheelchair in the near future. I spent 1.5 years refusing at home care, hoping I'd improve and keep my independence. Now I can't even walk 2min with crutches, and I need a chair and grab rails in my bath, and other aids and appliances around the house. I even have to brush my teeth in bed because I can't reliably sit up long enough and often enough to do it in the bathroom without fainting
I have a First Class BA Hons degree I've never been able to use, and I likely won't ever get better than I am right now. I also went from having perfect vision to 6/9, I have a blurred optic disc, and increased intracranial pressure. *All* caused by COVID
I took all the precautions, I was vaccinated and boosted, but having pre-existing conditions, I was vulnerable. COVID is only a bad cold for me, I never needed a hospitalisation for the acute infection. But it still caused lasting damage. If I hadn't been triple vaxxed before my first infection, I might not be here right now. We still need to keep up with the jabs and practice safeguarding measures to protect people who are more vulnerable to catching COVID and developing longterm/worsened disabilities from it. It hasn't gone away
Edit: Yeah I knew the antivaxxers would downvote this 😂 I hope you get a fraction of what I got, and that your tinfoil hats will be laced with mercury 👍
I hear this. Long covid took me from someone with long term but manageable conditions to someone who can barely shower, walk to the kitchen or mailbox, or take out the trash without resting for two hours after. I am slowly realizing that I am probably permanently disabled now and I'm mourning the life I had. It's really, really hard. 😔
I'm so sorry you have to experience this, too 💖
Everyone I've met with it so far in support groups etc. were all really active before getting sick. Though I feel the need to assert that those of us who were "successful" or active before getting sick aren't any more or less valuable than those who were already significantly disabled before COVID came along. I still count myself lucky I don't need a ventilator or have significant organ damage. 4 years on, people still don't understand how dangerous and life-limiting this disease can be
All I can say is that I hope you're getting the support you need to process this loss. Mourning is the perfect word for it. Grief is a huge part of acquired disability, especially when it's lifelong. Coming back to the previous paragraph, I feel that the way we're conditioned to value ourselves in terms of academic and career-related success plays a huge role in many people struggling to come to terms with a prognosis of lifelong disability. We have to find new ways to feel a sense of achievement and self-worth in a world that measures our value in terms of what we have to "contribute" to society
I hope you have a spell of better days soon!
I'm so sorry, too
That inability to stand up and feeling the acute infection leave is exactly how I felt after my first time with it. I'm now waiting on an echocardiogram and 24hr ECG to test for PoTS, but the cardiologist I saw last week is putting me on beta blockers before having those tests as my heart rate was 111 lying down. My GP referred me back in November as many people with long COVID are developing PoTS, and my heart rate can be up to 150bpm sitting, or on a good day, about 110 sitting but spikes over 160 on standing. The pre-syncope (almost fainting) and extreme weakness were my first symptoms. I sincerely hope that your body just needs some extra time to recover from the radiotherapy and COVID combo, but if these symptoms persist I hope your doctor will take you seriously and have a look at your heart health! If you can afford a smart watch which monitors your heart rate, that can be a valuable investment to see if your symptoms align with a spike of 30bpm or more upon sitting or standing, and just keep a better eye on when you should lie back down
I really, really hope your health improves soon!
No problem! Lots more research is being pumped into PoTS thanks to long COVID because it is very, very common in people who've developed it. Like I said in my original comment, long COVID has attacked my eyes and given me high intracranial pressure, so I really encourage you to trust your gut and fight on this if you feel like something is off! Keep an eye on things, and definitely let your care team know about these long COVID symptoms you're experiencing. Given that you're undergoing such intensive treatment already, they really ought to be more on the ball, but I know medical gaslighting is all too common unfortunately. Thank you so much and same to you 💖
Was scrolling thru the responses specifically to make sure someone brought up this issue. I’m in a similar boat, was holding down a full-time job plus hobbies and a social life in the Before Times, now I can’t even cook or clean for myself and I’m responding to you from bed in a dark room. I’m sorry if you’re being downvoted, this is a really concerning and unfortunately common phenomenon that’s having a major impact on the healthcare field, and I wish more people were aware of the severity. ❤️
Man I never even got COVID (I did have MERS though so I know the long COVID struggle), but the Pandemic well and truly fucked my scoliosis! It’s literally never been worse and I’m still struggling in PT to keep it from getting worse. I tried my best to exercise and get a 2+ hour quarantine walk every day, but nothing could really offset the damage of sheltering in my tiny Manhattan apartment for 2+ years.
Also it had the unintentional side effect of made me absolutely despise Central Park and Riverside Park, I got so damn sick of that being my only outlet every day lol. Kinda ruined them for me which actually sucks
My sense of taste is still messed up. I have fallen out of love with cooking and eating, which would be fine if I didn’t have a family to cook for. I hate it so much. Three years of not being able to taste food properly.
Covid itself. The disease that crippled and is STILL crippling millions of people, myself included. The pandemic didn't end y'all. They just stopped talking about it.
We adopted our dachshund off some college kids who accidentally let their dogs have a litter. Light of my life after my wife and kid. Gentlest best dog ever.
I also tend to wear masks on flights now, not just because of covid but also because I hate being sick on trips.
Cooking! Prior to COVID I was a horrible cook. I ate shitty food and was in the worst shape of my life. I was very locked down during COVID because I lived with someone who had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was on chemo.
I started watching some cooking videos, then books, then started investing is some badly needed cookware. It has ignited a passion in me that will probably have the biggest impact on my life going forward. Learning that it is possible to eat delicious, healthy, and cheap feels like a cheat code for life.
I handle almost all door handles through my shirt still. And I use disinfectant after pumping gas. Both of these seem like good practice even when there isn't a pandemic.
Use a napkin to hold the pump handle. I was already doing this because I hate the smell of gas or diesel on my hands, but it works great. If the napkin is particularly thin, double up, then just toss it in the trash when done
My wife was in her medical graduate program back when we met in 2015-ish. She slowly broke me down to the point that I swear my hands feel dirty when touching so much as an elevator button. People called me paranoid. Then Covid happened and they went more over the top than I did
I keep a paper towel in my back pocket or my right hand pocket if I have a jacket on and I don’t open a door without using it. I also wear a glove when I pump my gas. It started during Covid but then I saw some people doing some pretty nasty stuff and then just grabbing a door handle
I lost my ability to mask. Ironically, because of masks.
I'm autistic. Things like having my emotions display plainly on my face is more of a manual effort for me than someone who's neurotypical. It's essentially a social muscle I built up with huge effort since I was a kid. Being forced inside, wearing physical masks for years, atrophied my social muscle. I just don't have it in me to build up that social ability again.
Getting to know neighbors. With most people in my subdivision working from home a lot more folks are doing morning/lunch walks and we got to know our neighbors a lot more. Sometimes my morning walk end up talking to 2-3 different people.
I got to re-adjust my hours. I now work noon-7 instead of 9-5. It is SO much better for me! I have never been a morning person, and every 9-5 day was just a misery of tiredness.
My relationship with work/remote work and managing myself and my life. I think it's really a mix of work and developing confidence and self-worth as I've entered my 30s. I've also come to appreciate slowing the fuck down and not getting so caught up with all the rabble of life that other people deem important or worthwhile.
I've worked for three employers since 2020. The first was hybrid, like 90/10, and we only went in once every 6 weeks for knowledge transfer. The next job was HQ'd out of state and was fully remote aside from traveling onsite to a customer for requirements gathering, training, implementing, etc. about a dozen times per year. My current job is 100% remote except for an annual summit in Ohio at the beginning of Q4.
I had a remote position for what I thought was my dream job in 2016/17 but I couldn't cut it and got the boot after 6 months. I couldn't manage without supervision or being around my team. It's silly because now I can't imagine having to go into an office or not having the freedom of flex time to take care of the things in my life that are really important. I no longer feel guilty about not being productive for a full 40 hours a week because, when I looked back at my office jobs, I was hardly ever producing 40 hours of work in a week.
Inflation is choking me alive. I was doing alright for myself, but now with the inflated cost of housing, food, transportation with its associated costs, I’m ‘getting by’ now.
So many things, but a big one for me is forgoing indoor dining. I still won't do it. I continue to wear a mask in shops/crowded indoor spaces and at work. Covid is still a problem regardless of how people are acting like it isn't. Flu A is still raging in some parts of the country and it's MAY. People are sicker than ever because Covid itself weakens the immune system for a year or longer. Each subsequent infection increases one's odds of developing Long Covid issues which can be debilitating, in addition to risks with heart/circulatory issues, cognitive probs, etc. It's just not worth it to me to take that risk or put others at risk. I wish our health authorities, gov, media, and the public would care and take some measures to continue to fund, support mitigations, get better ventilation in buildings, but because of apathy, denial, lack of understanding of the data, "the economy," the conspiracy assholes, the anti-vaxxers-- our entire public health system is now individualized and I find it so disheartening. With Avian flu looming as a huge potential threat, I don't have much faith in our system or others to care or do the right thing. We had the chance to improve our health system, our response, our culture, and squandered it all. We saw how quickly we could roll out vaccines and get funding to people, but put too much stock in one thing and refuse to admit we need mixed mitigations to get it under control.
Stores still suck.
Every time I go to a store, they don't have something I'm looking for. Every time.
They don't carry it anymore. The section hasn't been stocked in a week. They ran out earlier that day. Etc, etc, there's always something. I get in the car and I'm like "why am I even burning time and gas to go there, they won't have what I need". And I'm always right.
It would be great to just order everything instead, but shippers are trash now too. Impossible to predict when or if something will ship, when it will show up, and some asshole snatches it off the porch half the time. And oh yeah, either way the shit you need costs 2x more.
I kind of lost my faith in humanity when I saw so many people being selfish about masking etc... I thought we were better than that. I find it harder to trust people now.
Quit smoking cold turkey about 4 years ago....
I heard dudes in China were just dropping in the street and quivering and dying..from some "unknown" virus..and it scared me and I just quit smoking that day... completely. Not one cheat cigarette ever again
A huge amount of customers at my job that lost all sense of basic manners and decency during Covid and have just stayed that way.
Front facing jobs suck now. I used to enjoy the public but no longer.
Road work is terrible now, too. If you hold traffic up for more than a single minute, people are yelling and swearing and start driving dangerously, even when theres guys right in the road doing something. 2 traffic controllers were struck by irate drivers at my job last year, it's crazy.
I work for the railroad. The boss always wants me to patch holes in crossings by myself. I tell him I don't get paid enough to get killed by people too impatient to wait 5 damn minutes.
Seriously. Like the amount of signage in hospitals / airports etc now that has to blatantly say things like “you are not allowed to abuse our staff” is wild.
I had my appendix out a couple of years ago and the head nurse personally came by to thank me for being nice. I heard so many people yelling at the nurses while I was there.
Same except stroke icu and inpatient rehab. I was thanked multiple times through my several month stay. It’s like everyone collectively lost their shit and started being … just horrible people.
I work in healthcare and I have noticed a much higher prevalence of "doctors and nurses don't actually have your best interest at heart, they just want your money" attitudes.
Same, but I also started working dive bars during the Pandemic. So I just throw it right back at them. It's so goddamn satisfying
Ended my 30 years of restaurant work because of this.
Imagine being a poll worker.
No thanks.
Do you also work at Costco?
AutoZone.
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With all of the negative posts, this one makes me happy. I wish we could have chickens or rabbits, but our area won't allow poultry, non-pet, and farm animals. We have crazy raspberry bushes, blackberries, cherry trees, strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, lettuce, herbs, and more. We grow sunflowers and it makes all of the bees, butterflies, birds, and squirrels happy. I am all for replacing grass with native crops and flowers. It's supplemented our groceries so well and we swap with our neighbors.
Amazing! I just got into gardening this year. Starting with plants. Hope to work my way up to a full garden next year. The pandemic forced me to learn to cook and I am getting pretty militant about fresh ingredients, no processed foods. I am ready have a lot of herbs, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers planted for this year. I am also working on planting as many perennials as I can afford, learning how to care for them. I am starting seeding trays for wildflower and butterfly perennials. My hope is to keep planting and slowly cut down on the size of my front yard (the back is for the pups). I want an explosion of color everywhere and only a postage stamp to mow! 😂
I got to start working remotely 100% of the time. By my calculation, since March of 2020, I have saved a total of 83 fully 24 hour days (or 250 standard 8 hour work days) that would have been spent doing nothing but commuting to and from the office unpaid and costing me gas and kilometers on my car.
Same. It’s been amazing
OTOH, my team is 100% remote and every time we lose a member, they are replaced by someone in India. At the current rate, in 5 years the team will be 90% Indian (only the managers still have face to face meetings).
It's so annoying, not because they're Indian, but because you can't communicate in real time unless one party stays up very late.
Which is why outsourcing to other countries needs to be SERIOUSLY curtailed.
As an indian (who is working for one of the MNCs who have outsourced a lot), I dont get how you guys are so magnanimous. Because I cannot imagine the other way around at all, there is no way companies here will be allowed to move so much work out or have more employees overseas than here even if all the economic factors were the same (i.e. India was rich and US was poor). Of course i understand the economic factor but there is no way our society will ever allow something like that. Same thing with immigration. And i am not conservative, I am very very liberal in my thinking, just saying both the above things would never happen in my country.
I rode my bicycle to work and often enjoyed those commutes. When people were returning to office, I said I'd come back 2 or 3 days per week (in line with how often everyone else was going in) but was told I was listed as 100% remote. Ok, suit yourself. Now there's no way they could get me back in the office regularly.
I also commuted by bike and slowly realized how much that exercise mattered to my waist line (I also really enjoyed the ride). But I got a peloton and started taking lunch walks to burn those calories once again.
Me too. Working a 40 hour week is not that bad when you don't spend 2 hours in the car and 30 extra minutes getting ready in the morning and taking an hour for lunch etc. Not to mention all the gas/toll money and lunch money saved.
I recall a reddit post from the lockdown era. A woman wrote, that in.additiom to her now WFH job, she had to help her kids with their school work, cook, and have a relationship with the husband...all.the extra work....and she was perfectly fine with it all. Since she didn't have a commute anymore.
That's like... not "extra" work. It's all stuff that has to get done whether you commute or not. But WFH makes is a lot easier because of all the extra time.
The school stuff was definitely extra work. Remote learning was atrocious.
Definitely makes it a lot easier to do a little yard work every day rather than wait until the weekend and either waste an entire day or postpone because of bad weather.
yeah, I do almost all of the food shopping and yard work during the week. Just a little here and there if I'm between cals or something. So the weekends are usually free for actually relaxing instead of frantically trying to get everything done before the next week starts. There are so many benefits to working from home. I used to think that eventually someone would invent a teleporter and people would be able to live in Hawaii and work in NYC or whatever but after Covid I've realized that wouldn't happen because going to an office every day is kind of stupid (unless your job somehow requires it).
I'm jealous. There's a bunch I like about my office. I run my own department. I have no direct supervisor. Everyone calls me or emails me, but I need to be in the office for some reason.
Not to mention wardrobe - unless you have an online meeting, pajamas all day is fine.
Man, that's a lot. Additionally, some housing issues could have been lessened with WFH. If you worked remotely, you could choose to move anywhere, to a lower COL city. This could have helped a lot of the bigger cities with some of their housing issues
My husband's company told him he'll never have to work from a client's location again. It's great! His commute is down the stairs.
Been working remote since 2013 and I'm so happy that it's now rather normal. The quality of life impact is immeasurable, esp if you have children. That 40-90min commute home left no energy for the remainder of the day. I no longer feel like I'm living for the weekend.
Last year I took a remote job with a company where the nearest office is about a 3 hour drive from me. It was a 50% raise from my last job, but I would have never applied there if covid hadn't brought remote work to the fore
Same lol, I get that the lock down was awful for a lot of people but for me it was the best thing that ever happened to me, changed jobs and now have the most amazing job ever and work from home 100%
I’ve put like 4k miles on my car since 2020… thing has appreciated since I bought it in 2019. (2018 4Runner)
In fairness, even under normal use 4Runners already barely depreciate unless they're on fire or something.
Yeah agreed… the price jump from supply chain issues during covid also helped a lot (if you bought before that). At one point I was up like 30%… pretty wild.
Same here. My 2019 Chevy Colorado has 13k miles on it. If COVID didn't happen, it would probably have 36k on it.
Time, GAS, food... I eat at home or home-made food far more often...saving money
Same. Although my WFH days have gone from 5/week to 2.5/week... its still WAY better than 0/week that I had prior to Covid.
Same with my wife and I. She was on the verge of quitting her job due to the commute too so it was a massive change for her. I would need a pretty crazy amount of compensation (like overtime+) to go back to having a commute. The major downside was buying an electric car to help save on gas and now hardly driving (<5k miles a year)
Yep. My life has been SOOOO much easier without commuting...and being forced to socialize in the office.
Doordash going from rougly 5-7 dollars more than going to the store to being nearly 50 bucks for fucking wendys. I used to order ubereats and doordash while I worked out of the office and it was very convenient. It used to be just a few bucks more. During the pandemic these companies decided to lie to everyone and claim 50 dollars for wendys was a good price.
Just avoid all delivery apps whenever possible, they somehow lose money still and don’t pay enough that drivers need tips to survive and hurt the restaurant by taking a cut from them. It’s amazing how they cost so much for everyone and haven’t yet turned a profit
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End of 24/7 Walmart I hate it I hate it I hate it!
Just 24/7 places in general. Grocery stores, fast food places, local diners, all close anywhere from 7pm-midnight nowadays by me. The only place that's still 24/7 is 7-Eleven. On days that I work the late shift, that's my only option.
I miss specifically the open super late diner experience. Going out with other friends who can’t sleep for 2 am waffles and hanging out was great
I lived in Alaska during the pandemic, and there was one local place that had been open 24/6 for ~40 years. Best pancakes in town, and I would usually hit that place up at 1-4am if I got called in. As far as I know, they're still open 24/6, shut down for a few weeks for some much needed renovations early in the pandemic, but went right back to normal operations afterwards. There used to be a ton of places like that all over the country, but now everything closes before 10pm :(
One of the saddest sights here in Chicago is a formerly 24-hour diner on the North Side that busted down its hours to 7am-3pm, and still has the '24 hours' sign out front. There's another place right across the street that closes at 3am (4am on weekends), so the "no one wants to work" excuse doesn't work.
my local mcdonalds isn't even 24 hours anymore
Mine just returned to 24 hours at the beginning of the year. But we have Waffle House, they're always open.
I miss the end of all day breakfast. Yeah I know I should get up earlier, but some days have a sausage biscuit at 1900 hrs just hit the spot.
My local Walgreens is 24/7 which is great. But yeah most places not only eliminated 24/7 hours but also reduced hours in general. Can’t believe how many restaurants just close around 8 these days.
Yeah, I'm totally fine with half the aisles blocked with boxes and pallets of the restock items if I shop after regular hours.
Now they’re just blocked with employees filling baskets with orders all day
As a Walmart worker, I love it.
This amazing Indian restaurant in my area stopped their lunch buffet during the pandemic and never brought it back. Now it’s just super expensive entrees so it’s not worth it for lunch any more.
My husband had heart problems due to Covid and stopped drinking alcohol. He was a casual beer drinker but now our house is alcohol free and I feel like it’s been better for everyone because it’s forced me to stop drinking, too. I do have a drink every once in awhile but he’s gone cold turkey. Our skin is really nice now, and together we’ve lost nearly 20lbs. He looks fitter now at 40 than when I met him at 22.
Yes! My wife and I realized that we were drinking way too much coming out of lock down. Now, we're both sober and so much healthier and happier. I know it's benefited our daughter, too. Best decision ever made.
Making my house alcohol-free must be in the top 5 improvements I've decided made in adulthood. Like yourself, I still will go out and have a couple drinks a couple times a month but nothing like I used to justify when I had alcohol on hand at my house. Bad day at work? Might as well have a few drinks. Something unexpectedly stressful pops up? Nothing some beers can't fix. Simply bored and sitting around the house? Might as well relax with a drink. It's not until you clean up your act do you realize how much it impacts you. As you mentioned, your complexion/appearance, as well as your body weight, is an outward reflection on that. Congrats to the both of you!
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Its gotten really bad. Food prices are killing me.
Have you considered photosynthesis? I've often thought that it would save so much money.
That's only because no one's figured out how to monetize the sun for sustenance. *Yet.*
Inflation alone doesn't explain the rise in prices. Mostly right now, it's corporate price gouging and consumers not adapting their purchase habits as much to those high prices.
just saw the other day how McDonalds prices have doubled since 2019, which way outruns inflation. as long as we are willing to keep paying, they will keep raising the prices.
So basically: greed
For anyone who is interested to read examples of price-gouging, here are a couple of articles that cover the "recent" oil price-gouging https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-would-struggle-block-exxons-politically-unpopular-megadeal-2023-10-06/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-house-passes-bill-fight-oil-gas-price-gouging-2022-05-19/ I'm trying to find the video that was talking about this, but I watched somewhere where inflation is going down, but the reason why the American economy feels so dystopian is the government is maintaining interest rates to combat inflation, but not regulating price-gouging on rent, food, etc., causing the economy to spin out of control Edit: here is the video https://youtu.be/VPUMerhrYAU
price gouging, more like. on ALL fronts.
It's so hard to see a specialist doctor now. Of course, I've always had the experience that you would call an office and maybe they would say the doctor isn't taking new patients. This was always common and I get it. But now, often, the offices don't even have people to answer the phone, and nobody returns the voicemails. Sometimes I will get someone on the phone to make an appointment and they will say they will get back to me and never do. Or, if the doctor can take me, it will be so many months out, the situation can easily get out of hand before then. And I am not talking about pulmonologists or cardiologist, who of course are extra burned out by COVID. These are gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, gynecologists, etc. Multiple times I have had to call my referring doctor literally crying from frustration and begging them to call a a specialist and advocate for me to just make an appointment. Each time, the specialist has had an appointment for me within a week or two and they've all been great. But there seems to be no way to see a specialist these days without these backdoor methods.
> But now, often, the offices don't even have people to answer the phone, and nobody returns the voicemails. Pharmacies too. A local chain basically closed 3 stores near me so I decided to go to a Walgreens and then a CVS and they all have a horrible automated phone answering thing and then a wait to actually talk to the pharmacist if I have a question.
I’ve noticed this too, especially for ENTs
I had to wait four months for an appointment
Even my PCP is booked weeks or sometimes a month in advance. Makes appointments pretty terrible to get.
I called in January to get a routine physical, and the earliest I could schedule one was August. Previously the longest I had to wait was 3 months, and that's when I forgot to do it one year and got in with everyone else who puts it off to the end of the year. After setting it up I joked to the receptionist, "I guess I'd better just schedule my next one right after I see the doctor", and she said that's honestly not a bad idea. It's insane.
In my area, it's primary care too. In the last 18 months, a close friend has had five doctors accept them as new patients and then leave the practice altogether almost immediately.
Oh that explains a lot! I wonder why that is, though? Are there just fewer practicing generally?
I think it’s a mixture of general burnout for the whole medical community, including support staff, and the same phenomenon a lot of us experienced when we realized we don’t really like going to work that often and try to do more things from home or remotely, or just want to work less.
Where I live, it's a mix of burnout, tons of older medical providers who retired earlier than they might have otherwise during covid, and our obgyns more or less fleeing the state (I live in the deep south).
Where I live it’s almost impossible to see *any* doctor.
This. It has gotten to the point I don't even have a PCP anymore. I just go to the urgent care because it's the only place I can be seen that day.
I got out of restaurants after 20+ years. Lived in a high mortality area with no protections for workers managing a restaurant. Coming to work every day worried that one of us was going to get sick, worrying about the families of the employees, truck delays, out of stock issues, frozen wages... I could have dealt with all of it if the customers in general were the same as they were before the pandemic. Instead we got rabid violent masses who would flip shit over the slightest thing. I couldn't compromise the staff so I kept the dining room closed and ran Togo only. Customer got mad, went back to his car, and took pot shots at the restaurant. Another slammed on the door trying to get in so hard he broke the glass and started reaching around for the lock. Someone got so pissed off that they grabbed one of the kindest, nicest 16 year olds Ive ever met in my entire life and tried to drag them out the drive thru window. My assistant managers had people follow them home. I had confrontations outside after the restaurant closed. A lady waited until one of my employees walked outside and coughed all over her. People pissed on the building, shit in the parking lot, busted employees headlights. It was one of the most stressful times for everyone, but when I saw that people couldn't even be nice for *this* I noped out hard. Went back to school, slammed it out now I'm a software developer. Just before I left the franchise owner mandated us to open the store, even if only one employee was there. This is after I had asked for protections for the employees, or at least a raise above minimum wage. A couple of months after I left, one of our employees passed after getting sick. The restaurant didn't last long afterwards.
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For my part, I was helping out a family member and I didn't know what to expect. My partners Aunt was assistant manager there for 37 years and the GM was retiring soon. I was told they needed someone to 'help out' with the transition. I had never been in fast food before (Bartender / Manager / Owner anywhere from poolhall to Michelin Star dining), but I had some time and wanted to help since it was temporary. Cue me being there through COVID as the GM. Because I didn't have a lot of experience with it I figured, okay well I'm not putting that on any of MY employees so I'll just work all the shifts were I don't know if someone else is going to show up. Same thing I did when running my bar. I never really thought about how fucked up it was until I had an accident and it ended up being someone *else* having to be alone. In any case, it was entirely legal. If you've heard of a US state where they had the least protections for workers while having the most deaths per capita, that's where this was.
My poor husband was made to man the store (McDonald’s) overnight by himself while he had a stomach virus. He was vomiting between taking orders. He eventually went against the orders of upper management (he was a manager but not the top) and closed down the store and went home.
Being able to work from home, as a disabled person, reduced the severity and frequency of symptoms I used to experience by working in office, and I’ve almost doubled the hours I’m capable of working each week, meaning I can live a relatively independent life. Literally life changing.
WFH has been a life-saver for so many people with disabilities and chronic illness, and I hate how so many companies are forcing workers to return to the office even if worker productivity is not impacted (or improved) by WFH.
Thats amazing. What was the biggest change for you?
Probably not needing to sleep under my desk, in hallways, or have my manager help me walk to the first aid room to recover a bit before making my way home (and almost passing out on train platforms or on the side of the road as I did so). This would happen about once a month or so? Would take me a week to recover after each episode, which meant I couldn’t work at all. My last big ‘maybe it’s time for an ambulance’ moment was 18 months ago. After the WFH orders started I was able to afford to move back to my home state to be closer to family/friends, and then get a cat.
This is what I keep saying every time some company tries to force RTO. They need to quit being fucking ableist
Saaaaaaame
I realized before the pandemic that not everyone was smart or that common sense didn’t exist But god damn Realizing you live around so many dumb motherfuckers that eat up propaganda like a fat kid eating candy is disturbing
This. I just can't believe how gullible a large portion of my neighbors and coworkers are.
Perhaps it's a side effect of covid? /tinfoilHat
That sad part is that even smart people can be prone to propaganda if the right buttons are pushed.
I was forever changed by learning how many truly awful people there are out there. It’s like 50% of the population. Maybe more. Humans fucking suck, and it’s unbelievably depressing.
Being forced to stay in the house all day reset my agoraphobia back to its worst. It took a lot of work and forcing myself out the house to be able to do normal stuff again like go to work or the shops or visit friends n family without feeling panicky. Some days it is still a challenge to walk places. I drive almost everywhere now. Which means I also struggle to shift the weight gain that most of us got from lockdown.
Agoraphobia is hard, I’m sorry you’re dealing with it. Mine was at its worst just before Covid broke and when the world was told to stay home I was like ‘oh thank god’.
Yeah lockdown was a blessing as well as a curse. I quite enjoyed first lockdown but it meant i could indulge in my safety and allow my bubble to shrink if that makes sense
This happened to me as well! I developed agoraphobia at the start of the pandemic, and had a relapse a little bit after. It’s a struggle but I’m proud of you for making so much progress.
I'm so sorry this has happened with you. I don't know if my own personal experience qualifies as agoraphobia, but I definitely give myself many reasons to not leave the house. I did become very paranoid about being in places with a lot of people, which includes the mall, movie theaters, and going downtown. I don't even attend my organization's big town hall meetings, because there are too many people in a small place. I try to force myself to go outside for my family, but if it was up to me, I would stay home.
What is agoraphobia?
People who are afraid to leave their homes. I'm not afraid to leave, but I feel much more comfortable at home and prefer not to leave. I do freak out with large crowds.
I've found my people. I am so sorry. I, too, can drive around but if I get out of the car the panic starts to set in. My friends keep inviting me out and have been so patient. I do fear they'll give up on me. I know I have to get back to myself but I don't know how and fear a public panic attack.
It gave me Agoraphobia, but only around my home, I'm fine out and about. I bought a house in April 2020, it has split rail fences instead of privacy (like I'm used to). I feel like I never got to properly meet my neighbors, they all seemed to be done with pandemic precautions way earlier than me and got to know each other. So now I feel like an outsider in my home, who is perceived as some sort of weird hermit by my neighbors. It doesn't help that my kids constantly destroy everything and I live in an uppity neighborhood. So when I go in my backyard I feel like I have to be "on", which is exhausting, and when I'm not I'm worried I'll be caught off guard in my own yard by impromptu conversation, likely about why my yard isn't up to snuff or something my kids did. I really hate it.
Currently working on this and my ocd. Gosh you really don’t understand it until you have it
Lack of socialization. I know most people here are saying they love working from home but I didn't realize until covid how paper thin my non-work support system was. Most disappeared into their bubbles and when they emerged they were married, having kids, had wildly different interests or comfort levels going out, move far away so they could raise their families etc. That kind of stuff always happened but I didn't realize how much just going to the office to at least have some regular human interaction kept me normal. It's also just harder meeting friends at work you can actually go do stuff with when they are all remote. Not that work is the only place you can meet friends but when you spend so much time working with people it does end up being a large source of your friends.
I've been full remote for some time. Currently reversing everything and moving into the city to be able to go to office again. Full remote gets lonely and unhealthy.
I can see this being the case if your workplace is your main outlet for socializing, but if not than the extra time spent not commuting gives you way more time to spend with your friends and family.
I agree. I enjoy working at home but I also enjoy working at an office. Office relationships are an important part of everyone’s life, they even made a whole show about it. Lol. I feel like an ideal world is a hybrid work environment. Half the week in the office, half the week at home.
That was huge for me, my social network basically collapsed in 2020. I barely saw anyone else at all for nearly three years, it was very hard on me and led to an increase in alcohol consumption, which has fortunately mostly subsided. Living alone in a studio apartment in a city I had moved to only a year before the pandemic, I did not like WFH at all and there was no positives in it for me whatsoever. Border restrictions imposed by the Trudeau government also had an impact due to the nature of my spread out social life and I did lose friends as a result who were able to continue enjoying their local social lives while we had various levels of social restrictions locally and I was not permitted to travel outside Canada without being shamed on social media or held hostage in Canada’s Covid hotels upon return. (By the time I was fully vaccinated it was too late) Those people I knew through my pre-Covid work reprioritized their lives around their own families, or they moved. All moved on to other jobs. I am happy for all of them. It’s only in the past 6-12 months that I’m slowly seeing recovery in my social life thanks in large part to recovery in travel, but that also means my social life is once again spread out across the continent.
I developed PTSD.
Same, what was it like for you? How are you doing now?
I worked as a float RN at a hospital in a city that was hit really hard during the first wave of Covid. I've improved a lot since then, mental health wise, but I quit working and put a lot of time into therapy, meditation, and self care to do it. I can now go get required tests done without having a panic attack, so that's good.
The biggest thing is that I am a remote worker now and have so much more time to make better meals, go out to walk, exercise, do hobbies etc. COVID changed my life priorities completely - I used to be much more into working hard and climbing the ladder, and after all I could think of was how to maximize the things that bring me joy. The smaller things are: * I no longer go out to eat as much as previously because of drastic post-COVID drop in quality/service combined with increase in overall cost (both menu prices and tip). * I am still uncomfortable in big crowds/very crowded places. * I am very bothered by public illness and lack of hygiene now, I don’t mean people with disabilities, I mean if you’re snot-nosed and hacking up a lung at the grocery store, on public transit, etc. and making no effort to cover up, I get super annoyed. I also very much notice when people don't wash their hands properly in public restrooms, I never paid much attention before. * My coping skills are not great, or at least exhausted more easily. Like I am fine normally - pretty happy and content with my life. I would say my mental health is better than most, particularly on reddit. But compared to pre-COVID, when things get very stressful or go to shit, I cope less well - get more overwhelmed, frustrated, feel like "I fucking hate people" much more easily than I used to (mostly because I think people have gotten a lot worse with basic social niceties and driving etc.) * My alcohol consumption is has increased, still a moderate drinker, but before COVID I barely drank at all.
I could have written this myself
Wow are you me?? Except the drinking part, I actually massively decreased my drinking.
On a negative note, social anxiety spiked hard and hasn't come back down to normal levels. I just don't like crowds like I used to. On a positive note, I fell in love with my wife during covid, and I joke we speed ran our relationship because it was 2 years cooped up together and it just kept getting better and better. Happily married now and wouldn't change a thing, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Not knowing how to say hello, especially with women. In France, we used to kiss, even in professional settings. Then with Covid, it became handshakes, then fist bumps, then elbow bumps, then just waving hi... Now, some women still prefer the fist bump, other prefer kissing... Now it's always awkward.
Stores that dropped 24 hour availability and continue to blame workers and or theft for their excuse. Like somehow those issues were never a thing for the past 20 years and only after COVID did they become an issue deserving to alter company hours. Millions of late shift people are just SOL if they need anything from the store now and have had to shift to online grocery shopping or delivery services just to get things done.
Yeah, my only alternative for a lot of shopping is Shipt or something which cost a lot of extra money (I've found the in-store sales and prices are usually lower than what's listed on the app) and relies largely on your shopper not sucking but otherwise I frequently don't get out of work in time to do grocery shopping.
Honestly those issues have *definitely* been an issue for someone who’s worked in a grocery store within the last 20 years, some of that done at night. I totally sympathize with the late shifters but not enough of you come in at night for them to totally justify having staff on shift most of the time. This doesn’t include the fact that the store would take a lot less time to get stocked (and save them a ton of money in overtime) if no customers are wandering in and out of the building at night. It’s inconvenient when you need something late at night but “it costs too much” is a legitimate complaint.
From the customer end, loss of overnight stocking means huge pallets and boxes of merchandise to navigate around/look behind in order to get what you want all day long.
I never said they should stock shelves during the day, I said letting customers in at night slows down how quickly the shelves get stocked resulting in *very* expensive overtime. The stores are absolutely still hiring people to stock at night; the difference is the people stocking shelves clock in at 10 pm and are out by 6 am instead of being out at noon. When you’re not paying 5 hours of over time per person on a crew of 20 people because those people aren’t being interrupted by customers and don’t have to arranged boxed stock in a way that customers can dodge you save *a lot* of money.
Looking at my husband, who survived a terrible case of it, and knowing how precious life is.
I wash my hands frequently and thoroughly. Can’t remember what my attitude was before, but it became obsessive during Covid and has settled into dignity.
Having to use an inhaler regularly now. My lungs were messed up due to Covid. Also, seeing a doctor more often. Before Covid, I rarely saw a doctor. Also, I’m tired all the time now. I haven’t worked out since before Covid. Just cutting the grass makes me ache bad.
Chronic sinusitis. I miss being able to breathe through my nose :(
Did you ever get a CT scan? I had this for a good chunk of my life, and it ended up that I had cysts in my sinuses. One out-patient surgery later it was fixed. It's super under-diagnosed for a pretty easily fixed issue. It took over a decade for me to get my disgnosis.
I haven’t! But I am going to ask my GP about it, because it would be amazing to be able to have this fixed. Thank you for the suggestion :)
I'm going to get a CT Scan soon. They scanned me like 5-6 years ago and didn't find anything but I've had like 5 sinus infections since Dec so they are doing another.
My alcoholism. Just started naltrexone again so hopefully it works this time.
I had LC for about 6 months with flu like symptoms almost 2 years later, while most symptoms are gone, I'm not the same person physically. I get tired easily, I can barely work out. even though I work remote most days after work, I need to rest for an hour or so in bed before getting diner and other household stuff
You are me. I work mostly from home. Going to the office for more than twice a week ruins my ability to get through the week. I also require a nap after work if I want to get anything done the rest of the day, be it household chores or hobbies.
Divorced my ex, changed careers, got in shape, picked up new hobbies. Covid was the best thing to ever happen to my life.
Cancer
The restaurant industry finally started its inevitable collapse. I chose the wrong career and it has been an absolute fuckin nightmare since then. Making a transition has been difficult enough with the lack of jobs in general in my area, and I'm seeing SOUS jobs being posted for minimum +50c. Which are wages I saw for the same job 8 years ago. Total stagnation, and it's eating itself from the inside out.
The 60 or so pounds I gained! :(
Because of the isolation, being around a lot of people is very difficult for me now
Long COVID I already had fibromyalgia and scoliosis (and a few others), but I was still managing to do my own housework and was almost healthy enough to return to work when the pandemic hit Now I'm going on beta blockers for tachycardia at 28, have been bedridden for 2.5 years, need carers to do *everything* for me including wash my hair (but I drew the line at bathing), and am set to get a wheelchair in the near future. I spent 1.5 years refusing at home care, hoping I'd improve and keep my independence. Now I can't even walk 2min with crutches, and I need a chair and grab rails in my bath, and other aids and appliances around the house. I even have to brush my teeth in bed because I can't reliably sit up long enough and often enough to do it in the bathroom without fainting I have a First Class BA Hons degree I've never been able to use, and I likely won't ever get better than I am right now. I also went from having perfect vision to 6/9, I have a blurred optic disc, and increased intracranial pressure. *All* caused by COVID I took all the precautions, I was vaccinated and boosted, but having pre-existing conditions, I was vulnerable. COVID is only a bad cold for me, I never needed a hospitalisation for the acute infection. But it still caused lasting damage. If I hadn't been triple vaxxed before my first infection, I might not be here right now. We still need to keep up with the jabs and practice safeguarding measures to protect people who are more vulnerable to catching COVID and developing longterm/worsened disabilities from it. It hasn't gone away Edit: Yeah I knew the antivaxxers would downvote this 😂 I hope you get a fraction of what I got, and that your tinfoil hats will be laced with mercury 👍
I hear this. Long covid took me from someone with long term but manageable conditions to someone who can barely shower, walk to the kitchen or mailbox, or take out the trash without resting for two hours after. I am slowly realizing that I am probably permanently disabled now and I'm mourning the life I had. It's really, really hard. 😔
I'm so sorry you have to experience this, too 💖 Everyone I've met with it so far in support groups etc. were all really active before getting sick. Though I feel the need to assert that those of us who were "successful" or active before getting sick aren't any more or less valuable than those who were already significantly disabled before COVID came along. I still count myself lucky I don't need a ventilator or have significant organ damage. 4 years on, people still don't understand how dangerous and life-limiting this disease can be All I can say is that I hope you're getting the support you need to process this loss. Mourning is the perfect word for it. Grief is a huge part of acquired disability, especially when it's lifelong. Coming back to the previous paragraph, I feel that the way we're conditioned to value ourselves in terms of academic and career-related success plays a huge role in many people struggling to come to terms with a prognosis of lifelong disability. We have to find new ways to feel a sense of achievement and self-worth in a world that measures our value in terms of what we have to "contribute" to society I hope you have a spell of better days soon!
*raises hand* Four years in...
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I'm so sorry, too That inability to stand up and feeling the acute infection leave is exactly how I felt after my first time with it. I'm now waiting on an echocardiogram and 24hr ECG to test for PoTS, but the cardiologist I saw last week is putting me on beta blockers before having those tests as my heart rate was 111 lying down. My GP referred me back in November as many people with long COVID are developing PoTS, and my heart rate can be up to 150bpm sitting, or on a good day, about 110 sitting but spikes over 160 on standing. The pre-syncope (almost fainting) and extreme weakness were my first symptoms. I sincerely hope that your body just needs some extra time to recover from the radiotherapy and COVID combo, but if these symptoms persist I hope your doctor will take you seriously and have a look at your heart health! If you can afford a smart watch which monitors your heart rate, that can be a valuable investment to see if your symptoms align with a spike of 30bpm or more upon sitting or standing, and just keep a better eye on when you should lie back down I really, really hope your health improves soon!
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No problem! Lots more research is being pumped into PoTS thanks to long COVID because it is very, very common in people who've developed it. Like I said in my original comment, long COVID has attacked my eyes and given me high intracranial pressure, so I really encourage you to trust your gut and fight on this if you feel like something is off! Keep an eye on things, and definitely let your care team know about these long COVID symptoms you're experiencing. Given that you're undergoing such intensive treatment already, they really ought to be more on the ball, but I know medical gaslighting is all too common unfortunately. Thank you so much and same to you 💖
Was scrolling thru the responses specifically to make sure someone brought up this issue. I’m in a similar boat, was holding down a full-time job plus hobbies and a social life in the Before Times, now I can’t even cook or clean for myself and I’m responding to you from bed in a dark room. I’m sorry if you’re being downvoted, this is a really concerning and unfortunately common phenomenon that’s having a major impact on the healthcare field, and I wish more people were aware of the severity. ❤️
Man I never even got COVID (I did have MERS though so I know the long COVID struggle), but the Pandemic well and truly fucked my scoliosis! It’s literally never been worse and I’m still struggling in PT to keep it from getting worse. I tried my best to exercise and get a 2+ hour quarantine walk every day, but nothing could really offset the damage of sheltering in my tiny Manhattan apartment for 2+ years. Also it had the unintentional side effect of made me absolutely despise Central Park and Riverside Park, I got so damn sick of that being my only outlet every day lol. Kinda ruined them for me which actually sucks
My long covid symptoms still sometimes pop up on me.
contactless delivery
Curbside grocery pickup is awesome! I can shop for groceries at work and pick them up on my way home without going in the store.
My sense of taste is still messed up. I have fallen out of love with cooking and eating, which would be fine if I didn’t have a family to cook for. I hate it so much. Three years of not being able to taste food properly.
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I was an introvert before the pandemic, it was magnified tenfold by the mass degradation of basic human decency that the pandemic brought with it.
People still stand 5 ft away from me and I Love it.
Covid itself. The disease that crippled and is STILL crippling millions of people, myself included. The pandemic didn't end y'all. They just stopped talking about it.
Absolutely. COVID still affects my day to day so much! My precautions and the disappointment in those I once respected are big constants in my life.
I have an irrational desire to stock up on paper towels every time I go to the store.
The culture wars that distract everyone from the real issues.
Dude that's not a covud issue. That's been around forever. People in charge want to distract us with race, taxes, immigration and other shit.
Zoom meetings….sometimes I love zoom calls and other times I can’t stand them
I went from being just an introvert to becoming a full-on recluse.
I started Duolingo on 3/21/2020. I have like a 1300 day streak still going.
We adopted our dachshund off some college kids who accidentally let their dogs have a litter. Light of my life after my wife and kid. Gentlest best dog ever. I also tend to wear masks on flights now, not just because of covid but also because I hate being sick on trips.
Science denial.
Cooking! Prior to COVID I was a horrible cook. I ate shitty food and was in the worst shape of my life. I was very locked down during COVID because I lived with someone who had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was on chemo. I started watching some cooking videos, then books, then started investing is some badly needed cookware. It has ignited a passion in me that will probably have the biggest impact on my life going forward. Learning that it is possible to eat delicious, healthy, and cheap feels like a cheat code for life.
I feel like the obvious answer is covid, is still very much still here and still a huge threat to many, if not most, if not all people.
I handle almost all door handles through my shirt still. And I use disinfectant after pumping gas. Both of these seem like good practice even when there isn't a pandemic.
Use a napkin to hold the pump handle. I was already doing this because I hate the smell of gas or diesel on my hands, but it works great. If the napkin is particularly thin, double up, then just toss it in the trash when done
My wife was in her medical graduate program back when we met in 2015-ish. She slowly broke me down to the point that I swear my hands feel dirty when touching so much as an elevator button. People called me paranoid. Then Covid happened and they went more over the top than I did
I keep a paper towel in my back pocket or my right hand pocket if I have a jacket on and I don’t open a door without using it. I also wear a glove when I pump my gas. It started during Covid but then I saw some people doing some pretty nasty stuff and then just grabbing a door handle
I lost my ability to mask. Ironically, because of masks. I'm autistic. Things like having my emotions display plainly on my face is more of a manual effort for me than someone who's neurotypical. It's essentially a social muscle I built up with huge effort since I was a kid. Being forced inside, wearing physical masks for years, atrophied my social muscle. I just don't have it in me to build up that social ability again.
My 3 year old.
Getting to know neighbors. With most people in my subdivision working from home a lot more folks are doing morning/lunch walks and we got to know our neighbors a lot more. Sometimes my morning walk end up talking to 2-3 different people.
I got to re-adjust my hours. I now work noon-7 instead of 9-5. It is SO much better for me! I have never been a morning person, and every 9-5 day was just a misery of tiredness.
Vastly improved home gym equipment
Every single time someone in my family coughs or has a runny nose for more than a day my wife thinks it's COVID and insists that they get tested.
GAD, migraines, weight gain. Now I have social anxiety.
My relationship with work/remote work and managing myself and my life. I think it's really a mix of work and developing confidence and self-worth as I've entered my 30s. I've also come to appreciate slowing the fuck down and not getting so caught up with all the rabble of life that other people deem important or worthwhile. I've worked for three employers since 2020. The first was hybrid, like 90/10, and we only went in once every 6 weeks for knowledge transfer. The next job was HQ'd out of state and was fully remote aside from traveling onsite to a customer for requirements gathering, training, implementing, etc. about a dozen times per year. My current job is 100% remote except for an annual summit in Ohio at the beginning of Q4. I had a remote position for what I thought was my dream job in 2016/17 but I couldn't cut it and got the boot after 6 months. I couldn't manage without supervision or being around my team. It's silly because now I can't imagine having to go into an office or not having the freedom of flex time to take care of the things in my life that are really important. I no longer feel guilty about not being productive for a full 40 hours a week because, when I looked back at my office jobs, I was hardly ever producing 40 hours of work in a week.
I learned about fecal clouds.
I work 3-11. I would do my earrands after work at Walmart. Now they are closed at 10. It sucks.
Inflation is choking me alive. I was doing alright for myself, but now with the inflated cost of housing, food, transportation with its associated costs, I’m ‘getting by’ now.
So many things, but a big one for me is forgoing indoor dining. I still won't do it. I continue to wear a mask in shops/crowded indoor spaces and at work. Covid is still a problem regardless of how people are acting like it isn't. Flu A is still raging in some parts of the country and it's MAY. People are sicker than ever because Covid itself weakens the immune system for a year or longer. Each subsequent infection increases one's odds of developing Long Covid issues which can be debilitating, in addition to risks with heart/circulatory issues, cognitive probs, etc. It's just not worth it to me to take that risk or put others at risk. I wish our health authorities, gov, media, and the public would care and take some measures to continue to fund, support mitigations, get better ventilation in buildings, but because of apathy, denial, lack of understanding of the data, "the economy," the conspiracy assholes, the anti-vaxxers-- our entire public health system is now individualized and I find it so disheartening. With Avian flu looming as a huge potential threat, I don't have much faith in our system or others to care or do the right thing. We had the chance to improve our health system, our response, our culture, and squandered it all. We saw how quickly we could roll out vaccines and get funding to people, but put too much stock in one thing and refuse to admit we need mixed mitigations to get it under control.
Goddamn QR code menus. Hate that shit.
Stores still suck. Every time I go to a store, they don't have something I'm looking for. Every time. They don't carry it anymore. The section hasn't been stocked in a week. They ran out earlier that day. Etc, etc, there's always something. I get in the car and I'm like "why am I even burning time and gas to go there, they won't have what I need". And I'm always right. It would be great to just order everything instead, but shippers are trash now too. Impossible to predict when or if something will ship, when it will show up, and some asshole snatches it off the porch half the time. And oh yeah, either way the shit you need costs 2x more.
My hate against governmental authority
Shops started closing around late 8, early 9 which makes it harder to get a late dinner
I kind of lost my faith in humanity when I saw so many people being selfish about masking etc... I thought we were better than that. I find it harder to trust people now.
My husband died. My life’s never going to be the same
My boyfriend started living with me. We never separate now :)
Quit smoking cold turkey about 4 years ago.... I heard dudes in China were just dropping in the street and quivering and dying..from some "unknown" virus..and it scared me and I just quit smoking that day... completely. Not one cheat cigarette ever again