I’ve finally made it. I have been a enforced remote worker for 6 months. 6 months?! How did that happen?
With everything going on at the moment some things have gone by in a blink of an eye and others have dragged on. If you go back through my earlier posts about becoming a remote worker you can go on the journey with me that I have been on. In the early days there was a lot of ups and downs. There have been times where I have found it very mentally tough. I have tried to be as open and honest as I can be in my posts to show it’s ok to not be ok and ask for help. I’ve been very lucky to have my wife for support during this time.
It’s not quite how I wanted to become a remote worker and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to be a full time remote worker but now I am I think I could get used to it. Going into the office a day every other week or something will be fine when things improve but at the moment I am happy to be at home.
Don’t get me wrong there are bits of office life I miss. Such as pickup chats, random interactions in the kitchen over a cuppa and talking to other collegues which aren’t part of my team or current project. I am quite a social creature and would take different routes around the office to get to different meeting rooms, going to the toilet or leaving the building to see different people. That I miss. However if/when I go back to the office it won’t be like that again for a while so I will continue to miss it.
The past 2 months specifically have been quite different. They have been mainly school summer holidays so my wife and the kids have been off. They’ve been to some childcare to break up the weeks but generally just doing some day trips and having fun. I’ve been lucky to have had a couple of weeks off towards the end of August and in typical fashion we were ill the first week. Due to the recommendations from the Government we all had tests for Covid and luckily it was negative. I just had a really bad cold / cough which took me a while to shake off. We didn’t go away but did enjoy some nice day trips out and fully used out National Trust memberships.
Now term time has started up again it’s relatively quiet in the house during the day but due to my wife changing jobs I now have a fellow WFH buddy. I get to see my wife at coffee breaks and sometimes lunch if our schedules line up. It’s nice :-)
Things are going to continue to be strange for a long time. Will we ever get back to “normal” I’m not sure and if we do it won’t be for a while yet.
Have I changed as a person? Yes, I think I have. It’s made me more nervous around people and going to the shops. This I am not a fan of and will look forward to things being more relaxed again. I have declined to buy a ticket to the F1 British GP next year as at the moment the thought of sitting in a stand very close to other people makes me very anxious. It may all have changed by next year but I don’t want to take the risk. I’m banking on things being better for the summer of 2022 and fully enjoy a grand prix weekend.
Try and keep positive. Stay home if you can, keep safe!
If you’re feeling similar and want to reach out then I’m contactable on @WestDiscGolf.