Ultimately I feel that the "work from home" movement is bad for the mental health of most people. Especially in hourly "clock in and out" type jobs that are fundamentally routine and boring, but also were traditionally collaborative and social. Everyone worked together to complete the stupid and boring tasks correctly, sharing the frustration and occasionally, by the weight of sheer numbers, forcing a change for the better. No creativity or concentration is required for the work -- only attention to detail and a good memory. You have to be "on the clock" for a full 40 hours a week -- but the "work" only takes maybe 5 or 10 hours at most? People no longer say "I have to go back to work," they say "I have to clock in for a few hours." So people are just babysitting their email accounts until they can clock out. That is, if they aren't just sleeping.
I persist in driving an hour to get to my old office, but there's only 4 or 5 of us there anymore -- out of the 1000 employees. Everyone else is "at home." I joke that I am performing a "historical reenactment" which always gets a big laugh -- signaling the truth of it. I dress up and pretend that I am an office worker from 2019.
I now have an upstairs corner cubicle and I enjoy watching the various employees who still need to occasionally return to the office -- to my mind they seem to be deteriorating: gaining weight and losing agility, many are still masked and eye other people with suspicion. Others leap on you to chat like prisoners suddenly released from solitary confinement.
People wear sweatpants and sandals to the office, hair is long and beards are reaching Biblical levels. Many of the men look homeless, or like they've been shipwrecked on a desert isle and now prefer the isolation. Women stopped dyeing their hair or getting hair cuts. By and large the work quality has declined exceedingly, not that it was high to begin with. People no longer even fake work. It's impossible to feel pride or accomplishment -- confidence has been replaced by shame, like how the family of looters might feel when they wear the purloined sneakers.
Employees openly announce that they can no longer contribute as much to the work because they have "adopted a new puppy" or they have to babysit because the schools are closed. Upper management will "leave" the virtual meetings to go "stir the soup" or "talk to the plumber." Questions on how to perform a task or solve a problem take ages to get answered as no one can be found to answer them. Most of the time I just "wing it." Most of the time everyone is just "winging it." I fully expect in a year or two that someone will realize they can save 100s of millions of dollars by shutting the office down entirely and having a random number generator do our work.
I loathed many things about my working years--getting up in the morning; a long commute on filthy public transit, and of course being subject to the whims and demands of the usual gang of idiots--but still there is the sensibility of normal life; the people and things one randomly encounters that form the social fabric. Some life demands are useful even when hated. I always made at least one enjoyable acquaintance or friend at every job. Actual human contact is essential. We're gonna have two sick generations at the least from what's been done now.
I agree. I hated having to be at my desk even after having done all my work, the lighting, sometimes the dull company, but once I was no longer there I understood how important it is to do a good job regardless of a good environment, to have your duties regulated by a boss, to go against what you feel like, and to be friendly and sociable where you have no interest. It makes all of life so much easier to have those skills. And human contact is vital to mental health. So even though I work at home, I talk to everyone everywhere.
I saw hilarious advice on Twitter about the "wrongness" of trying to pick up women at work.
Just toss out all the normal ways generations of men and women found suitable longterm mates. Teach 'em that seeking matches must be done in the most impersonal and counter-intuitive ways possible. Pay a fortune to facilitators of "It's Just Lunch" etc. etc. because basic human skills are being wiped out relentlessly. Make guys feel deep abiding shame for offering spontaneous compliments because after you've spent three hours primping at home, for any man to notice that is a crime against your emotional integrity, or something.
I didn't expect to spend my rapidly-tarnishing golden years feeling such sympathy for guys as a class of humans, but here we are.
It is sad. Feminism in itself is such a noble thing but it was infiltrated early on by anti-human and anti-life elements, like the whole Left has been now unfortunately.
What I noticed most about all those famous feminists of the 20th century was how busy they were stealing one another's men.
But more important--they did not give the slightest damn about ordinary women who wanted nothing more than a family and the means to raise one in dignity.
It's not universal childcare women need--it's some sort of retirement-years guaranteed above-starvation-level guaranteed pension so that a woman who stays home to raise children is not impoverished by divorce and, returning to or first entering the workforce too late to build up Social Security credits and personal savings. The professional feminist class wants to liberate all women from children and not just those who don't desire them.
Thats a very good point. It never seemed to occur to them that what they thought of as chains was desirable to most women.
I think that your idea is on the right track, the issue is that wives and mothers are not properly valued and properly compensated. These are truly ESSENTIAL services, and it is too obvious to point out that since education and chikdcare have been outsourced from mothers and associated ladies that the whole society has suffered enormous losses of sense character.
The traditional family had real problems and weaknesses, insufficiently valuing wives and mothers was the weakness that led to its destruction. But the replacement is trending toward being unable to sustain humanity for another generation.
I grew up in a newly-built neighborhood in Queens NY that became one of those "NORCs" (naturally occurring retirement community), and it was quite interesting to see how all those women born mostly circa the 1920s reacted to widowhood. After the first year or so of genuine grieving and bereftness, and often having to learn to manage the technical details of finances for the first time, even after the most successful marriages, the women began to flourish in their widowhoods (as contrasted to the anger and resentment found post-divorces and mostly of course in a younger demographic).
These were women who understood making the best of every stage of life. You married from the available pool (and undoubtedly some may have lost hoped-for prospects in the war so who knows whether their husbands of 60 years had been second or third choices); you raised your family as expected; you enjoyed a new freedom from expectations if you were fortunate enough to have a healthy/relatively healthy old age.
I doubt many of them had passionate lifelong partnerships. You meet a suitable-enough guy, you marry and do as well as possible, in every possible way, if you can. A good decent satisfactory life and this generation of miserable lonely over-educated women think it was a horror to be avoided at all costs.
It sounds like my grandmother. She is 87 now, married for 49 years, widowed now for either 19 or 20. We all knew my granddad was an ass and made things hard on everybody, I guess it got even worse as his health got bad, I was long gone by then, and I found out later that if he hadn't died grandmama was gonna divorce him after 49 years, just couldn't take him anymore. But she has loved being a widow. She is still active in church and community, actually I was gonna say a lot about her but I am pretty sure she was Vax injured. She took the shots when they first came out before anybody knew anything. She needed them so that she could keep going to the nursing home doing Bible studies for 'the old people', a group she wasn't planning to be part of for another ten years. Her neck has been almost paralyzed and in constant pain since her second jab.
That reminds me why I come here and post, although some of you seem like good friends, hurting her demands justice.
So true. And sometimes one does not meet a suitable enough guy. But then the life one ends up with is fine all the same, just as the lives of those married women you mentioned were. As you say, it's about making the best of one's situation. We need to live the life that has been tailored for us, and not spend time trying to conform to a friend's idea (or society's idea) of what life should be.
Yeah, it’s true. If I could just do my work and then go do other things after a few hours, that would be tolerable. And if I lived in bigger town. It’s the pointless clock watching that gets me the most.
But if you don't HAVE to be in the office to get the job done, it's simply not a demand.
These corporations never thought this out; the toothpaste is NOT going to be put back in the tube. Company A might be run by management that insists its workforce be present in the office; Company B is going to grab those employees who have neither the interest nor the desire of doing so. And so Company A will either relent or lose talent.
At the end of the day, the quality of the work submitted is going to be the determining factor of where an employee puts in his or her time; the days of earning promotions through politicking appear to be on their way out.
Agreed. It was not only the press aligned with the government, but corporations as well. The corporations were eager participants in encouraging lockdowns and vaccinations. Now they whine about getting people back to the office. Everything seems to about control. At the same time they push climate change they want you to commute, which is energy intensive. Yet nobody sees the irony.
The media, the corporations, the government...I don’t think we can think of them as separate entities any more. It seems to me that they’re all one big blob now.
I think SCA's point is different, though. I am an introvert and the thought of never leaving home holds a certain appeal. I also know that the past two years have not been good for my outlook on life, in general, or on human beings as individuals, in particular. Being required to interact with people on a routine basis has value in itself if only to remind us that we are innately social creatures - even us introverts.
If I think about were else I might work, I am much more interested in positions that include an office, with co-workers, and colaboration or at the very least some company. I am much more productive there than at home.
I think the point was that even when the benefits of being on site aren't obvious they are real, and not perhaps immediately noticed. Such that the cost of moving to a remote workforce will have unforeseen costs
But the cat's out of the bag; highly-valued employees who have no interest in the daily rat race will either get the concession from their employers or they will move on, any work-in-the-office advantages be damned.
The cost is to the employer, not to the individual who works from a home office and has moved "commute time" to "family time".
Aptly described VeryVer! Our grandaughter, who is working on her Master's in some esoteric branch of statistical analysis, has documented "actual work performed" by thousands of worker bees. She claims the average worker, (in the private sector), actually works between 2 1/2 and 3 hours per day.
Like WTF. Which worker? When I was a cook, I worked 5 to 8 hour days, most of which was work.
As an office drone, yeah, I could see the 3 hours...but I only work 5 hours a day and get tasked with a bunch of stuff that would never make some official 'work' statistics (like maintaining restrooms). Tell her she's got it wrong and it can't be THAT hard to talk to real people about their days....
Yeah, there’s a lot of jobs that don’t actually need doing, lol. Or hard work should be rewarded. It’s even worse in public sector! If I work extra hard I’ll be an outlier and get extra scrutiny. Pay should go back to being results based instead of hourly.
Eventually these things will sort themselves out. But the idea of everyone being in the office, all the time - that era is done. Kaput. It was trending that way before Corona, and while all the nonsense wasn’t necessary, it accelerated the change.
I’m a social person, so I much prefer being in the office around people. But I do also appreciate the flexibility that tech provides to do my job in non-standard ways. People and companies will figure it all out. Some industries really need people together. Others don’t. The interesting aspect from my world is how disruptive this will all be for central city downtowns in big metros, and suburban office parks. A whole lot of real estate is about to change dramatically.
Work is to get things done, often collaboratively. Work is not a place. When the things that can get done, can be done remotely, what's the impetus to show up to do the same work?
Be very, very careful here. You are defining the full ability to outsource to a contractor who may not offer the same benefits thus easily lower overhead.
True. But I don't see a use for losing 2-3 hours per day driving to a job that I can do remotely. If they want to retain talent with institutional knowledge, they'll need to recognize this.
And many companies have learned the hard way that outsourcing to outside companies, particularly in different time zones, has serious downsides as well.
As one who has attended meetings at 3AM for me, quite agree timezones are an issue! I've hired refugees from CA who tell me that between work and commute time they never had enough family time. So quite happy to relocate even with a cut in pay. OTOH most said they ended up with more money in their pocket so were quite happy.
I think there is a balance to be struck and there certainly is value in being flexible about work from home v. work in the office. Sadly, though, humans being human, it takes a certain amount of personal motivation to continue to work assiduously outside of a more formal office environment. I'm not saying it can't be done, I just think it is harder. I consider myself to be a pretty diligent worker with a good work ethic (there's a concept less well-known to my children's generation), and I have found it more easy than I would have thought to get away with doing less for my job. I'm not thrilled about it.
No doubt, that’s one aspect that companies will have to figure out over time. It’s definitely much easier to slack off working from home. Of course the trade off is, it’s easier for a company to assume you’re always available.
All that said, I don’t see any going back to the way it was.
They're closing the doors; look at the vacancies in midtown Manhattan.
The powers to be never thought any of this through. The dirty little secret that people don't have to make a 60-minute commute (each way) five days a week has been exposed; people will work from home or find a job that allows them to.
Wow! Great writing in this little response here. Kudos. I especially liked "beards are reaching biblical levels", "having a random number generator do our work" and the "adopted a new puppy" remark.
ah, thanks -- it feels like everyone else just loves it. I mean, maybe if I was an artist or architect or something it would be different. I bet you're right about the looters!lol
I see where you're coming from but I work with teams in Egypt and Italy and soon Germany. WFH means I can save myself a season ticket of over £5.5k to get to an office I don't need to be in. If trains in the UK weren't so ridiculously expensive (my one-hour trip as a season ticket costing as much as a first-class Bahncard in Germany which allows you to travel the length and breadth of the country!) I'd come in more often but that ship has sailed.
Exactly! Nobody pushes back on anything as everyone feels isolated. They passed a new rule where your salary for remote work is based on where you live, so some people get a pay cut if they telework and you can actually move yourself into a higher salary! How is that fair? The Union says if they protest the most likely outcome is pay cuts for everyone!
Thank you for making 2022 better informed for me. I appreciate your research, writing, and your incredible photography.
Listening to Alabama football radio pre-game and hearing ads with players pushing Covid vax as the best way to keep your family and friends safe. Sigh.
feels like every bus stop in Munich has another dumb poster for the "ich schütze mich" vaccine ad campaign. still, somewhat better than last year, when you couldn't even go to the supermarket without VACCINATE YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY psa-style messaging playing in a loop. world's lamest zombie apocalypse.
In my former state of CT, my supermarket had a PSA which went on and on and ended with “We Are All In This Together!!!”. Really wanted to dry heave every single time...
The same people who just adored all the tik tok and YouTube videos early on, of the nurses and doctors dancing and singing so joyously- still to this day I get nauseous thinking about that disgusting scene
Would love to! We're stuck in D.C. because we share custody of my stepson. However, we are working toward a second home there so we can flee the next time things go crazy here. It was stressful being unvaxxed here. Couldn't tell anyone, had to drive across the border to VA for slightly more normalcy (e.g., Friday date night dinner), still can't go to dance class. I dream of moving every day. Happy for those who could!
Can't stand the heat as it were. 80 + makes me wanna lie on a concrete slab in a basement until it passes. I am currently PO ed at WA state and Inslee, but at least we don't have state income tax and I can evade a certain amount of sales tax.
Continuing growth is very much a mixed blessing but in my 60s I guess I won't to worry too much about it. Political comment: we've remained a remarkably "Red" state per the recent election. Like him or not, Gov. DeSantis was re-elected with about 70% of the vote. Other State-wide offices elected Republicans by a similar margin. It worth mentioning that in 2018, DeSantis won by a hair, against a -- well you can look up who his opponent was. Apparently the vast numbers moving here are not necessarily bringing their Democratic voting habits with them.
It's a marketing phrase that people automatically parrot. Just like "Lather, rinse, repeat." I've always heard that phrase was a wildly successful marketing ploy by a shampoo company, which almost immediately doubled their sales.
Couldn't agree more. And coming from the rich politicians in their mansions...as the poor were starved. Unbelievable. Here's hoping and praying for a better New Year.
My pet peeve is 'abundance of caution' I despise that one. As if caution is free, or more to the point, the one making the decision isn't the one paying the price. One day someone will tell me to do something out of an abundance of caution and I will spend the rest of my life locked up like Hannibal Lecter and that will be roughly appropriate caution.
At least you're in NoVA and not DC. It's only 20 minutes, but the difference is stark. Believe me. NoVA has changed for the worse over the past 20 years, but it's still somewhat sane compared to the clown world city I now call home. Would move back across the river in a heartbeat if I could.
I was a near-lifelong resident until early 2000s*. Been down in FL 20 years to the week. I'm appalled at what it's turned into. I probably won't ever go back, now that the few friends/family either dead or moved away.
*When a Maserati dealer opened in Ashburn ca. 2000, I knew the neighborhood was changing [grin].
Oh my. Loudoun County, esp Ashburn is absolutely appalling. I agree
We moved here in 1995. I loved it.
Wow, then this county just exploded. Yes, the Maserati dealer is still here,
I just saw a Rivian truck today. Nothing on the roads surprises me. Plenty of $$ in Lo Co. Hubbs and I are sure we will double our investment on this house. We have many years to think about it. My dad will live to 110. He just turned 99. Happy New Year!
In the Chicago area, we still hear government-sponsored ads urging all to get the vaccine that will protect you from the original virus and the current variant! I want to bang my head against the wall.
In my supermarket too. For an internal laugh, I would loudly say the phrase through my mask in a monotone zombie voice with the recording as I passed others in my cart.
Gürtelrose is no walk in the park, and like Tetanus and Zeckenschutz probably worth having a vaccination against if you're of a certain age, unlike the 'rona, which even my kidney-transplanted husband who gave up on vaccination survived, with a mere three days of snoozing and pestering me for 'interesting' soups and gluten-free biscuits.
I now work from home full time. I did this part time pre-pandemic, so it wasn’t a huge shift for me. I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to an office if I can help it.
I gained some new friends and lost friends. Some friendships have simply changed. Close friends and family have revealed themselves to be fools. I don’t think I’ll ever trust them the same way again. I’ve lost the closeness we once shared.
I’ve lost all trust in government, media, and the healthcare industry. I wasn’t nearly this skeptical before. I trusted my doctor and got all my shots. Now I’m not sure I’ll ever get another one. I’m not sure if I had a child today that I wouldn’t be a complete anti-vaxxer, something I’d never even considered before.
I live in a desirable area that I never thought I’d leave. I now can’t wait to go. I can’t believe what my fellow citizens did to each other. Although I feel absolutely fed up, until that time comes that I can leave this area, I’m determined to start working to make it better. At least then I can leave with a clean conscience knowing that I tried. Just before covid, I worked to get a community group together for litter pickup. The group was shut down by covid before we even got started. I’m going to try to get that going again in 2023.
I’m going to join whatever volunteer community group that I have opportunity to. I’ve learned that people who join these groups tend to be people who have agendas or people who are easily swayed by group think. They need more people like us, people who have no wish to control others and can act as sand in the gears to whatever stupid idea they come up with. I think for all of us, the one way we can start to make a difference is to do this - join the PTA, join your HOA, join the hospital’s patient advocacy group, join the community groups and start speaking up. Lot’s of local government agencies have community advisory groups. Join these.
I really appreciate this anonymous community. There really were very few to turn to in the height of covid to commiserate with. Almost everyone I knew was all-in. My direct boss was wonderful and supportive. She’s won my lifelong loyalty. One of my old friends, a big fan of the vaccines, was absolutely open-minded and supportive of me and my decisions. I’ll always remember her for that.
At the end of it all, I’m just sad and very disappointed. I’m trying to regain some optimism, but it’s hard. That you, Eugyppius. I really appreciate what you’ve done with this blog and knowing that I wasn’t alone.
YES YES YES to all of this!! And agree we need as many critical thinkers as possible to join community groups now. Solutions and resistance need to be local for the time being.
Happy New Year and congrats on your new career!! I am so grateful for all the comments and personal stories posted here - I am comforted knowing that there are others like me, who are struggling with similar life observations and situations....trying to square up the changes from pre-plandemic life to today. I fall into the “wfh” category and while I am naturally self disciplined to put in an honest days work, I absolutely am soul searching for another career path that doesn’t involve bending the knee to woke ideologies and cultural Marxism in the form of identity politics! On the topic of jabs and covid, an engineer at work told me that he believed whole heartedly in the “vax” and boosters as the only way out of the “plandemic”, and that after his 3rd or 4th booster he developed a severe pain in his kidney. I suggested that he take Advil - he replied with, “I don’t like to take medications”. I just smh... Like living in twilight zone!! It is difficult to continue having meaningful relationships with friends (& some family) who believe in all the government lies and brainwashing on covid and jabs.... I do believe it is a gift to have awareness. We are not alone, just surrounded by too many brainwashed sheep! Substack is a Godsend. Thank you for sharing your work!!
"Colleagues I once admired have totally discredited themselves in my eyes, and I’ll never get over it. "
To have had this happen in my little corner of clinical research, with people who should always be questioning, has been a huge eye-opener, and indicator of the massive psy-op that was done on them. What was the difference? Why was I resistant and not them? Resigned to the fact I will never know, I shake the dust of more than one (de)mentor from my feet. I am better off without them from now on.
Happy New Year! Wishing you a lovely New Year in 2023. I'm hoping that the changes you've encountered will reveal a better environment for you. Glad you got the masked bandit out of our space! If one believes even a smidgen in astrology- and look back at history when these same alinements occurred- big changes are coming in the next years. Top down government will be flipped to bottom up which would be a breath of fresh air. Thank you for providing us with the truth and hope for a better world,
A new nest for Eugyppius and his thoughts! I’ve been encouraging my friends to all feather their nests too- I fear the elites enjoy a bit too much tightening the vise on us with higher electricity and food prices. My new chicken coop arrives in February (hopefully) and I continue to feather my own new nest. Still waiting for my star link dish, though, and I hope that comes soon...
Any thoughts on the new Igor Chudov post with the newest variant? It does appear that the boosters keep giving rise to waves of Omicron.
You are absolutely correct in that the world has changed forever.
But mostly through revelation. "Masks have fallen". (No pun intended.)
The mask of consultative/representative democracy. Gone.
The mask of free speech and debate. Gone.
The mask of the scientific method. Gone.
All replaced by loose-fitting plastic-cloth that does nothing but transmit fear through superstition.
For Dorsten et al, this is now a damage-limitation exercise. They attempt to retreat without admitting wrong or defeat.
This, they must not be allowed to do, and this is the true purpose of calls for an "amnesty": to allow the retreat without liability.
I predict in 2023 we will see more tactical retreats without admitting any wrong or liability. The lies must be exposed. I hope Dorsten and his ilk are as successful as Napoleon on his way back from Moscow.
So well said. Makes me grateful all over again for Substack. Thank you!
I can only concur.
Ultimately I feel that the "work from home" movement is bad for the mental health of most people. Especially in hourly "clock in and out" type jobs that are fundamentally routine and boring, but also were traditionally collaborative and social. Everyone worked together to complete the stupid and boring tasks correctly, sharing the frustration and occasionally, by the weight of sheer numbers, forcing a change for the better. No creativity or concentration is required for the work -- only attention to detail and a good memory. You have to be "on the clock" for a full 40 hours a week -- but the "work" only takes maybe 5 or 10 hours at most? People no longer say "I have to go back to work," they say "I have to clock in for a few hours." So people are just babysitting their email accounts until they can clock out. That is, if they aren't just sleeping.
I persist in driving an hour to get to my old office, but there's only 4 or 5 of us there anymore -- out of the 1000 employees. Everyone else is "at home." I joke that I am performing a "historical reenactment" which always gets a big laugh -- signaling the truth of it. I dress up and pretend that I am an office worker from 2019.
I now have an upstairs corner cubicle and I enjoy watching the various employees who still need to occasionally return to the office -- to my mind they seem to be deteriorating: gaining weight and losing agility, many are still masked and eye other people with suspicion. Others leap on you to chat like prisoners suddenly released from solitary confinement.
People wear sweatpants and sandals to the office, hair is long and beards are reaching Biblical levels. Many of the men look homeless, or like they've been shipwrecked on a desert isle and now prefer the isolation. Women stopped dyeing their hair or getting hair cuts. By and large the work quality has declined exceedingly, not that it was high to begin with. People no longer even fake work. It's impossible to feel pride or accomplishment -- confidence has been replaced by shame, like how the family of looters might feel when they wear the purloined sneakers.
Employees openly announce that they can no longer contribute as much to the work because they have "adopted a new puppy" or they have to babysit because the schools are closed. Upper management will "leave" the virtual meetings to go "stir the soup" or "talk to the plumber." Questions on how to perform a task or solve a problem take ages to get answered as no one can be found to answer them. Most of the time I just "wing it." Most of the time everyone is just "winging it." I fully expect in a year or two that someone will realize they can save 100s of millions of dollars by shutting the office down entirely and having a random number generator do our work.
I loathed many things about my working years--getting up in the morning; a long commute on filthy public transit, and of course being subject to the whims and demands of the usual gang of idiots--but still there is the sensibility of normal life; the people and things one randomly encounters that form the social fabric. Some life demands are useful even when hated. I always made at least one enjoyable acquaintance or friend at every job. Actual human contact is essential. We're gonna have two sick generations at the least from what's been done now.
I agree. I hated having to be at my desk even after having done all my work, the lighting, sometimes the dull company, but once I was no longer there I understood how important it is to do a good job regardless of a good environment, to have your duties regulated by a boss, to go against what you feel like, and to be friendly and sociable where you have no interest. It makes all of life so much easier to have those skills. And human contact is vital to mental health. So even though I work at home, I talk to everyone everywhere.
I saw hilarious advice on Twitter about the "wrongness" of trying to pick up women at work.
Just toss out all the normal ways generations of men and women found suitable longterm mates. Teach 'em that seeking matches must be done in the most impersonal and counter-intuitive ways possible. Pay a fortune to facilitators of "It's Just Lunch" etc. etc. because basic human skills are being wiped out relentlessly. Make guys feel deep abiding shame for offering spontaneous compliments because after you've spent three hours primping at home, for any man to notice that is a crime against your emotional integrity, or something.
I didn't expect to spend my rapidly-tarnishing golden years feeling such sympathy for guys as a class of humans, but here we are.
It is sad. Feminism in itself is such a noble thing but it was infiltrated early on by anti-human and anti-life elements, like the whole Left has been now unfortunately.
What I noticed most about all those famous feminists of the 20th century was how busy they were stealing one another's men.
But more important--they did not give the slightest damn about ordinary women who wanted nothing more than a family and the means to raise one in dignity.
It's not universal childcare women need--it's some sort of retirement-years guaranteed above-starvation-level guaranteed pension so that a woman who stays home to raise children is not impoverished by divorce and, returning to or first entering the workforce too late to build up Social Security credits and personal savings. The professional feminist class wants to liberate all women from children and not just those who don't desire them.
Thats a very good point. It never seemed to occur to them that what they thought of as chains was desirable to most women.
I think that your idea is on the right track, the issue is that wives and mothers are not properly valued and properly compensated. These are truly ESSENTIAL services, and it is too obvious to point out that since education and chikdcare have been outsourced from mothers and associated ladies that the whole society has suffered enormous losses of sense character.
The traditional family had real problems and weaknesses, insufficiently valuing wives and mothers was the weakness that led to its destruction. But the replacement is trending toward being unable to sustain humanity for another generation.
Here we are indeed. They really have it tough. Although it's not exactly a picnic for us either.
Mating has never been a picnic for anyone.
I grew up in a newly-built neighborhood in Queens NY that became one of those "NORCs" (naturally occurring retirement community), and it was quite interesting to see how all those women born mostly circa the 1920s reacted to widowhood. After the first year or so of genuine grieving and bereftness, and often having to learn to manage the technical details of finances for the first time, even after the most successful marriages, the women began to flourish in their widowhoods (as contrasted to the anger and resentment found post-divorces and mostly of course in a younger demographic).
These were women who understood making the best of every stage of life. You married from the available pool (and undoubtedly some may have lost hoped-for prospects in the war so who knows whether their husbands of 60 years had been second or third choices); you raised your family as expected; you enjoyed a new freedom from expectations if you were fortunate enough to have a healthy/relatively healthy old age.
I doubt many of them had passionate lifelong partnerships. You meet a suitable-enough guy, you marry and do as well as possible, in every possible way, if you can. A good decent satisfactory life and this generation of miserable lonely over-educated women think it was a horror to be avoided at all costs.
It sounds like my grandmother. She is 87 now, married for 49 years, widowed now for either 19 or 20. We all knew my granddad was an ass and made things hard on everybody, I guess it got even worse as his health got bad, I was long gone by then, and I found out later that if he hadn't died grandmama was gonna divorce him after 49 years, just couldn't take him anymore. But she has loved being a widow. She is still active in church and community, actually I was gonna say a lot about her but I am pretty sure she was Vax injured. She took the shots when they first came out before anybody knew anything. She needed them so that she could keep going to the nursing home doing Bible studies for 'the old people', a group she wasn't planning to be part of for another ten years. Her neck has been almost paralyzed and in constant pain since her second jab.
That reminds me why I come here and post, although some of you seem like good friends, hurting her demands justice.
So true. And sometimes one does not meet a suitable enough guy. But then the life one ends up with is fine all the same, just as the lives of those married women you mentioned were. As you say, it's about making the best of one's situation. We need to live the life that has been tailored for us, and not spend time trying to conform to a friend's idea (or society's idea) of what life should be.
Yeah, it’s true. If I could just do my work and then go do other things after a few hours, that would be tolerable. And if I lived in bigger town. It’s the pointless clock watching that gets me the most.
"Some life demands are useful even when hated."
But if you don't HAVE to be in the office to get the job done, it's simply not a demand.
These corporations never thought this out; the toothpaste is NOT going to be put back in the tube. Company A might be run by management that insists its workforce be present in the office; Company B is going to grab those employees who have neither the interest nor the desire of doing so. And so Company A will either relent or lose talent.
At the end of the day, the quality of the work submitted is going to be the determining factor of where an employee puts in his or her time; the days of earning promotions through politicking appear to be on their way out.
Agreed. It was not only the press aligned with the government, but corporations as well. The corporations were eager participants in encouraging lockdowns and vaccinations. Now they whine about getting people back to the office. Everything seems to about control. At the same time they push climate change they want you to commute, which is energy intensive. Yet nobody sees the irony.
The media, the corporations, the government...I don’t think we can think of them as separate entities any more. It seems to me that they’re all one big blob now.
I think SCA's point is different, though. I am an introvert and the thought of never leaving home holds a certain appeal. I also know that the past two years have not been good for my outlook on life, in general, or on human beings as individuals, in particular. Being required to interact with people on a routine basis has value in itself if only to remind us that we are innately social creatures - even us introverts.
The Plague Era has enabled me to indulge my worst habits.
I turned down a job offer because it was work from home. I want to get out of the house when I work!
If I think about were else I might work, I am much more interested in positions that include an office, with co-workers, and colaboration or at the very least some company. I am much more productive there than at home.
That's not an irrational decision at all; many people do prefer working in an office over working at home.
(I wouldn't be one of them, but I do understand where they're coming from.)
My point was elsewhere.
I think the point was that even when the benefits of being on site aren't obvious they are real, and not perhaps immediately noticed. Such that the cost of moving to a remote workforce will have unforeseen costs
I imagine that there will be pluses and minuses.
But the cat's out of the bag; highly-valued employees who have no interest in the daily rat race will either get the concession from their employers or they will move on, any work-in-the-office advantages be damned.
The cost is to the employer, not to the individual who works from a home office and has moved "commute time" to "family time".
You haven't tried a home office when there are 5 kids at home have you? Trust me the situation is not so cut and dry.
Then working from home is not for you, Jon.
Aptly described VeryVer! Our grandaughter, who is working on her Master's in some esoteric branch of statistical analysis, has documented "actual work performed" by thousands of worker bees. She claims the average worker, (in the private sector), actually works between 2 1/2 and 3 hours per day.
These must be office workers, not actual workers
Like WTF. Which worker? When I was a cook, I worked 5 to 8 hour days, most of which was work.
As an office drone, yeah, I could see the 3 hours...but I only work 5 hours a day and get tasked with a bunch of stuff that would never make some official 'work' statistics (like maintaining restrooms). Tell her she's got it wrong and it can't be THAT hard to talk to real people about their days....
Real work always needs doing!
Yeah, there’s a lot of jobs that don’t actually need doing, lol. Or hard work should be rewarded. It’s even worse in public sector! If I work extra hard I’ll be an outlier and get extra scrutiny. Pay should go back to being results based instead of hourly.
Eventually these things will sort themselves out. But the idea of everyone being in the office, all the time - that era is done. Kaput. It was trending that way before Corona, and while all the nonsense wasn’t necessary, it accelerated the change.
I’m a social person, so I much prefer being in the office around people. But I do also appreciate the flexibility that tech provides to do my job in non-standard ways. People and companies will figure it all out. Some industries really need people together. Others don’t. The interesting aspect from my world is how disruptive this will all be for central city downtowns in big metros, and suburban office parks. A whole lot of real estate is about to change dramatically.
Work is to get things done, often collaboratively. Work is not a place. When the things that can get done, can be done remotely, what's the impetus to show up to do the same work?
Be very, very careful here. You are defining the full ability to outsource to a contractor who may not offer the same benefits thus easily lower overhead.
True. But I don't see a use for losing 2-3 hours per day driving to a job that I can do remotely. If they want to retain talent with institutional knowledge, they'll need to recognize this.
And many companies have learned the hard way that outsourcing to outside companies, particularly in different time zones, has serious downsides as well.
As one who has attended meetings at 3AM for me, quite agree timezones are an issue! I've hired refugees from CA who tell me that between work and commute time they never had enough family time. So quite happy to relocate even with a cut in pay. OTOH most said they ended up with more money in their pocket so were quite happy.
I think there is a balance to be struck and there certainly is value in being flexible about work from home v. work in the office. Sadly, though, humans being human, it takes a certain amount of personal motivation to continue to work assiduously outside of a more formal office environment. I'm not saying it can't be done, I just think it is harder. I consider myself to be a pretty diligent worker with a good work ethic (there's a concept less well-known to my children's generation), and I have found it more easy than I would have thought to get away with doing less for my job. I'm not thrilled about it.
No doubt, that’s one aspect that companies will have to figure out over time. It’s definitely much easier to slack off working from home. Of course the trade off is, it’s easier for a company to assume you’re always available.
All that said, I don’t see any going back to the way it was.
Yeah, what happens to all that office space? And all those coffee shops and the places that sell suits and fancy shoes?
They're closing the doors; look at the vacancies in midtown Manhattan.
The powers to be never thought any of this through. The dirty little secret that people don't have to make a 60-minute commute (each way) five days a week has been exposed; people will work from home or find a job that allows them to.
I’m fairly certain the powers that be thought that through quite completely. As in how to get the most expensive pieces of land at a bargain.
Yeah. I’ve wondered how lipstick manufacturers have faired during the masking craze.
This is truly unbelievable.
I hope your rewarded for being a normal human being!
Cheers VeryVer!
Thanks, happy new year!
Wow! Great writing in this little response here. Kudos. I especially liked "beards are reaching biblical levels", "having a random number generator do our work" and the "adopted a new puppy" remark.
Thank you! Happy new year!
I concur with you completely about the ‘working from home’ thing. One thing, though...I don’t believe looters feel any shame.
ah, thanks -- it feels like everyone else just loves it. I mean, maybe if I was an artist or architect or something it would be different. I bet you're right about the looters!lol
I see where you're coming from but I work with teams in Egypt and Italy and soon Germany. WFH means I can save myself a season ticket of over £5.5k to get to an office I don't need to be in. If trains in the UK weren't so ridiculously expensive (my one-hour trip as a season ticket costing as much as a first-class Bahncard in Germany which allows you to travel the length and breadth of the country!) I'd come in more often but that ship has sailed.
Sounds like VTDOL.
Exactly! Nobody pushes back on anything as everyone feels isolated. They passed a new rule where your salary for remote work is based on where you live, so some people get a pay cut if they telework and you can actually move yourself into a higher salary! How is that fair? The Union says if they protest the most likely outcome is pay cuts for everyone!
Thank you for making 2022 better informed for me. I appreciate your research, writing, and your incredible photography.
Listening to Alabama football radio pre-game and hearing ads with players pushing Covid vax as the best way to keep your family and friends safe. Sigh.
feels like every bus stop in Munich has another dumb poster for the "ich schütze mich" vaccine ad campaign. still, somewhat better than last year, when you couldn't even go to the supermarket without VACCINATE YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY psa-style messaging playing in a loop. world's lamest zombie apocalypse.
In my former state of CT, my supermarket had a PSA which went on and on and ended with “We Are All In This Together!!!”. Really wanted to dry heave every single time...
I have never been "triggered" by anything in my life except the phrase "we are all in it together "
As a business owner it felt like they were stuffing it in my face.
it is a putrid millennial self virtue-ism phrase.
I see T-shirts with the phrase.
So embarrassing to even be talking with people like that.
icky. Here in Northern Virginia, people put signs in their front yards. yuck
The same people who just adored all the tik tok and YouTube videos early on, of the nurses and doctors dancing and singing so joyously- still to this day I get nauseous thinking about that disgusting scene
Move to Florida. Everyone else is, and this is why (besides no state income tax, inheritance tax, or estate tax).
Best thing many of us have done.
Been here since 4/20.
Best decision of my families life Dr. K.
Glad to see you here in the country of Florida!
Would love to! We're stuck in D.C. because we share custody of my stepson. However, we are working toward a second home there so we can flee the next time things go crazy here. It was stressful being unvaxxed here. Couldn't tell anyone, had to drive across the border to VA for slightly more normalcy (e.g., Friday date night dinner), still can't go to dance class. I dream of moving every day. Happy for those who could!
Can't stand the heat as it were. 80 + makes me wanna lie on a concrete slab in a basement until it passes. I am currently PO ed at WA state and Inslee, but at least we don't have state income tax and I can evade a certain amount of sales tax.
Continuing growth is very much a mixed blessing but in my 60s I guess I won't to worry too much about it. Political comment: we've remained a remarkably "Red" state per the recent election. Like him or not, Gov. DeSantis was re-elected with about 70% of the vote. Other State-wide offices elected Republicans by a similar margin. It worth mentioning that in 2018, DeSantis won by a hair, against a -- well you can look up who his opponent was. Apparently the vast numbers moving here are not necessarily bringing their Democratic voting habits with them.
“Safe and Effective “ makes me want to vomit
It's a marketing phrase that people automatically parrot. Just like "Lather, rinse, repeat." I've always heard that phrase was a wildly successful marketing ploy by a shampoo company, which almost immediately doubled their sales.
It's a slogan phrase that would make Stalin proud
#stayinfected
I’m triggered by the phrase “ be kind” now - thanks Jacinda
Holy crap. Me too! When I see or hear that "be kind" horseshit, it's all I can do to keep myself from blurting out "Kindly go f**k yourself"
Classic. Lol
Make sure you get a Ukrainian flag right next to the half price hand sanitizer.
Be kind...;)
Couldn't agree more. And coming from the rich politicians in their mansions...as the poor were starved. Unbelievable. Here's hoping and praying for a better New Year.
" have never been "triggered" by anything in my life except the phrase "we are all in it together "
What does it to me is "Keep us safe."
That's exactly why I always say "Stay STRONG".
My pet peeve is 'abundance of caution' I despise that one. As if caution is free, or more to the point, the one making the decision isn't the one paying the price. One day someone will tell me to do something out of an abundance of caution and I will spend the rest of my life locked up like Hannibal Lecter and that will be roughly appropriate caution.
https://lindadraper1.bandcamp.com/track/tether
Thanks for the link! Great song! She has a new fan in me for sure.
yes. I hear that same bs in northern Virginia.
Wow, Our country is turning into a mental asylum
At least you're in NoVA and not DC. It's only 20 minutes, but the difference is stark. Believe me. NoVA has changed for the worse over the past 20 years, but it's still somewhat sane compared to the clown world city I now call home. Would move back across the river in a heartbeat if I could.
AAaak
You live in DC?
Virginia is better than Maryland.
Actually, hubbs and I are thinking about moving further west... or south below Richmond
I was a near-lifelong resident until early 2000s*. Been down in FL 20 years to the week. I'm appalled at what it's turned into. I probably won't ever go back, now that the few friends/family either dead or moved away.
*When a Maserati dealer opened in Ashburn ca. 2000, I knew the neighborhood was changing [grin].
Oh my. Loudoun County, esp Ashburn is absolutely appalling. I agree
We moved here in 1995. I loved it.
Wow, then this county just exploded. Yes, the Maserati dealer is still here,
I just saw a Rivian truck today. Nothing on the roads surprises me. Plenty of $$ in Lo Co. Hubbs and I are sure we will double our investment on this house. We have many years to think about it. My dad will live to 110. He just turned 99. Happy New Year!
In the Chicago area, we still hear government-sponsored ads urging all to get the vaccine that will protect you from the original virus and the current variant! I want to bang my head against the wall.
Let's hope karma is a hard mistress
In my supermarket too. For an internal laugh, I would loudly say the phrase through my mask in a monotone zombie voice with the recording as I passed others in my cart.
I like that: "in my former state...".
You should have seen the posters here.
A multicultural crowd, all looking up at an angle, eyeing a brightening horison, the photo cropped at shoulder height.
"Together, we will defeat it!"
Seen those in my dad's books on war-time propaganda.
Even worse are the Werbung für Imfung gegen Gürtlerose that appear everywhere, especially on You-Tube.
Gürtelrose is no walk in the park, and like Tetanus and Zeckenschutz probably worth having a vaccination against if you're of a certain age, unlike the 'rona, which even my kidney-transplanted husband who gave up on vaccination survived, with a mere three days of snoozing and pestering me for 'interesting' soups and gluten-free biscuits.
My own assessment of the covid era:
I now work from home full time. I did this part time pre-pandemic, so it wasn’t a huge shift for me. I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to an office if I can help it.
I gained some new friends and lost friends. Some friendships have simply changed. Close friends and family have revealed themselves to be fools. I don’t think I’ll ever trust them the same way again. I’ve lost the closeness we once shared.
I’ve lost all trust in government, media, and the healthcare industry. I wasn’t nearly this skeptical before. I trusted my doctor and got all my shots. Now I’m not sure I’ll ever get another one. I’m not sure if I had a child today that I wouldn’t be a complete anti-vaxxer, something I’d never even considered before.
I live in a desirable area that I never thought I’d leave. I now can’t wait to go. I can’t believe what my fellow citizens did to each other. Although I feel absolutely fed up, until that time comes that I can leave this area, I’m determined to start working to make it better. At least then I can leave with a clean conscience knowing that I tried. Just before covid, I worked to get a community group together for litter pickup. The group was shut down by covid before we even got started. I’m going to try to get that going again in 2023.
I’m going to join whatever volunteer community group that I have opportunity to. I’ve learned that people who join these groups tend to be people who have agendas or people who are easily swayed by group think. They need more people like us, people who have no wish to control others and can act as sand in the gears to whatever stupid idea they come up with. I think for all of us, the one way we can start to make a difference is to do this - join the PTA, join your HOA, join the hospital’s patient advocacy group, join the community groups and start speaking up. Lot’s of local government agencies have community advisory groups. Join these.
I really appreciate this anonymous community. There really were very few to turn to in the height of covid to commiserate with. Almost everyone I knew was all-in. My direct boss was wonderful and supportive. She’s won my lifelong loyalty. One of my old friends, a big fan of the vaccines, was absolutely open-minded and supportive of me and my decisions. I’ll always remember her for that.
At the end of it all, I’m just sad and very disappointed. I’m trying to regain some optimism, but it’s hard. That you, Eugyppius. I really appreciate what you’ve done with this blog and knowing that I wasn’t alone.
YES YES YES to all of this!! And agree we need as many critical thinkers as possible to join community groups now. Solutions and resistance need to be local for the time being.
Excellent comment and excellent suggestions. Trying to figure out my own way to contribute to the "change I want to see."
P.S. I am certain I would be a full-blown anti-vaxxer were I having children today. No question.
We eagerly await the book, E.
Wait, how will we we know he authored it, unless he keeps his Eugyppius moniker? lol
Happy New Year and congrats on your new career!! I am so grateful for all the comments and personal stories posted here - I am comforted knowing that there are others like me, who are struggling with similar life observations and situations....trying to square up the changes from pre-plandemic life to today. I fall into the “wfh” category and while I am naturally self disciplined to put in an honest days work, I absolutely am soul searching for another career path that doesn’t involve bending the knee to woke ideologies and cultural Marxism in the form of identity politics! On the topic of jabs and covid, an engineer at work told me that he believed whole heartedly in the “vax” and boosters as the only way out of the “plandemic”, and that after his 3rd or 4th booster he developed a severe pain in his kidney. I suggested that he take Advil - he replied with, “I don’t like to take medications”. I just smh... Like living in twilight zone!! It is difficult to continue having meaningful relationships with friends (& some family) who believe in all the government lies and brainwashing on covid and jabs.... I do believe it is a gift to have awareness. We are not alone, just surrounded by too many brainwashed sheep! Substack is a Godsend. Thank you for sharing your work!!
"Colleagues I once admired have totally discredited themselves in my eyes, and I’ll never get over it. "
To have had this happen in my little corner of clinical research, with people who should always be questioning, has been a huge eye-opener, and indicator of the massive psy-op that was done on them. What was the difference? Why was I resistant and not them? Resigned to the fact I will never know, I shake the dust of more than one (de)mentor from my feet. I am better off without them from now on.
Happy new year.
Happy New Year! Wishing you a lovely New Year in 2023. I'm hoping that the changes you've encountered will reveal a better environment for you. Glad you got the masked bandit out of our space! If one believes even a smidgen in astrology- and look back at history when these same alinements occurred- big changes are coming in the next years. Top down government will be flipped to bottom up which would be a breath of fresh air. Thank you for providing us with the truth and hope for a better world,
A new nest for Eugyppius and his thoughts! I’ve been encouraging my friends to all feather their nests too- I fear the elites enjoy a bit too much tightening the vise on us with higher electricity and food prices. My new chicken coop arrives in February (hopefully) and I continue to feather my own new nest. Still waiting for my star link dish, though, and I hope that comes soon...
Any thoughts on the new Igor Chudov post with the newest variant? It does appear that the boosters keep giving rise to waves of Omicron.
With all due respect, Josef Mengele was clearly more qualified to be Dr. Fauci's mentor than any other German.
It’s his last day officially,even though nobody is at work for USA quasi government agency today,he held on to the end of the year literally.
You are absolutely correct in that the world has changed forever.
But mostly through revelation. "Masks have fallen". (No pun intended.)
The mask of consultative/representative democracy. Gone.
The mask of free speech and debate. Gone.
The mask of the scientific method. Gone.
All replaced by loose-fitting plastic-cloth that does nothing but transmit fear through superstition.
For Dorsten et al, this is now a damage-limitation exercise. They attempt to retreat without admitting wrong or defeat.
This, they must not be allowed to do, and this is the true purpose of calls for an "amnesty": to allow the retreat without liability.
I predict in 2023 we will see more tactical retreats without admitting any wrong or liability. The lies must be exposed. I hope Dorsten and his ilk are as successful as Napoleon on his way back from Moscow.