About my Post-C-19 World Part I

COVID-19 sucked for so many people. Too many deaths. Too many families torn apart by whether they have to wear a mask. Too many families torn apart by whether it is acceptable for family members to take opposite sides of cultural issues, such as Black Lives Matter, whether there is systemic racism in every aspect of America. I'm speaking from personal experience about situations I've encountered that are inappropriate for this blog - trust me, my private journal has taken a beating (figuratively of course!) as I have wrote about COVID-19 and its impact on my life. What I think is relevant is that, throughout COVID-19, there has been a chorus of people that have begged for a "return to normal" - to what life was like prior to COVID-19.

That's why I come down on this issue in clear-cut terms. 

Situation: you worked from your company's building pre-COVID-19 less than 5 days a week and worked from home the other days of the 5 day work week. For example, I have a co-worker who worked from home on Mondays & Fridays and I know of a fellow employee who worked from home on Fridays. I think those two employees should be able to return to their pre-COVID-19 work arrangement post-COVID-19.

Situation: you worked from your company's building pre-COVID-19 5 days a week, but during COVID-19, you began to work from home, either because you wanted to do so or you were asked to do so by your employer. This was my situation. Pre-COVID-19, I did not work from home. However, when I was going to be required to wear a mask in my cubicle, I explored the possibility of working from home because I didn't want to wear a mask when I live 2 miles north of my employer's building and could sit at the desk in the den in the basement and still do my work. In my specific situation, I believe that, post-COVID-19, I do not have any guarantee from my employer that I will be able to continue to work from home post-COVID-19.

Furthermore, in my specific case, this is what happened to me. I started working from home on Monday, April 13, 2020, and while I worked a few days, here and there, I only started coming back to my desk at the building 2 miles from my house on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. My employer has mandated that all employees return to their pre-COVID-19 employment arrangement no later than Tuesday, July 6, 2021, which is a (short) 33 days (1 month, 3 days) away.

They are Wailing and Gnashing Any Teeth within their Toddler-Sized Teeth

When I saw the headline for this story Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home, my first thought was "if an employee quits their job, I surely hope that there is a plan for the employee to pay their monthly bills because I don't want my taxes to pay for THEIR monthly bills if the employee impulsively quits." Per the article - Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home- The drive to get people back into offices is clashing with workers who’ve embraced remote work as the new normal - it seems as though that IS a legitimate concern. Consider this quote from the article:

Call it PTSD or whatever you want, but the idea of walking into work, learning there is a change in policy, and then turning around, impulsively, without the possibility of returning "tomorrow" terrifies me. In my mind, it reminds me, perhaps too vividly, what I felt 1955 days (5 years, 4 months, 1 week, 1 day) ago. On that day, January 26, 2016, I was laid off at Pearson. I had walked into the building with every intention of walking into the building "tomorrow" but due to a "change in policy" (my position was being eliminated), I was not going to be able to do that. I was terrified! I was losing my income! 

Maybe that is why the quote about co-workers impulsively quitting their job rubs me the wrong way in so many ways. To me, those employees are children throwing an impulsive temper tantrum. I can liken it to if a child is told, "No, you can't continue drawing with crayon on the wall" and, in reaction to that change in policy, you watch as the child begins to wail and gnash any teeth within their toddler-sized mouth. 

I Want to Return to the Office

The Case for Letting People Work From Home Forever | WIRED

I Need to TAKE CONTROL

I want to learn how to edit videos as I want to be able to post individual tunes that RPM has played together - including original tunes that Randy wrote as well as cover tunes - in the hopes that we can play jam in the same room in the future.

I want to organize my cassette tapes as I need to know how many I need to convert - my self-made compilations and my "Jam Tapes" of me playing drums with different musicians lead this list - and how many I can locate on YouTube.com - the albums I purchased / obtained through purchasing at a store or by some other means.

I want to organize my External Hard Drives. Currently, I have 51.79 TB capacity and 31.07 TB used, which leaves 20.72 TB free across my 7 External Hard Drives. This is unacceptable. I outlined what I want to do in my personal journal, which is to identify exactly what is my data and, once I have that identified, I want to designate an External Hard Drive for the specific purpose of backing up that data. I also want to designate an External Hard Drive for being a "Sandbox" for projects I dream up, including renaming JPG files to not have a space in the file name as well as to create a single folder with all of my MP3s so that I can identify duplicate files. I also want to figure out - and decide once and for all - how I want to organize my files. On one hand, I have a need to organize by date while I also have a need to organize by topic. For example, I shouldn't have to remember that the Bayside concert at Gabes in January 2019 was on January 30, 2019 - I should be able to search for "Bayside" and have a folder display in my search results that includes the folder with the pictures and videos from that concert as well as any pictures and videos from the concert I attended with Megan in October 2013.  

And when do I want all of this figured out? Yesterday.

On another topic, today is starting my 33rd week of working from home.