After a decent recovery from Covid, it looked like my supervisor would be able to deliver the sessions next week - except now her partner has it and with a small child at home, she might have to skip anyway , which means I will have to deliver her parts. I am not really looking forward to being on the stage in front of 150 people, so I hope that things will work out and I can stay low-key instead.
But, regardless of what I hope, plans change and therefore I have to be prepared to do my job if things don't go well. This means learning my supervisor's job for the three days of various delivery and organization tasks, which is going to take some time, which lo and behold, I don't have much of this weekend, as my wife is away all of tonight, my daughter has a dance show on tomorrow and on Sunday, I will already be in Helsinki to have work meetings with the Team, as people are coming in from the US for this event.
Right now - I am heading off for a massage.
That's nice!
One of the work benefits that come from the company is some additional credit that can be spent on various activity, like exercise, cultural events and since WFH became so pronounced, massage. Some of my credits are expiring next month, so I am trying to use them up now.
Take care of yourself!
While it is a nice perk, working from home hasn't been the best for my body all up, as my office (at least I have one) isn't exactly built for physical excellence. I do have an adjustable-height table thankfully, but I really, really need a new work chair, but have been holding out until the office area is actually renovated. Two and a half years is a long wait!
But as I mentioned in the brackets, at least I have an office. I have many friends who are working from their homes a lot still, but they are sitting at kitchen tables and on beds. Suffice to say, two years of this hasn't been great for their back health and I wonder how much impact it will have on hundreds of millions of people globally. Poor physical condition is the average at the best of times and now it has been amplified even further in so many ways, including mentally.
This morning, I spent a couple hours in an onboarding session with a recent hire, and he brought up his mental health. He found in the first months from when lockdowns started, he recognized how much better his mental health was, after escaping the grind. However, after a 18 months, it started to decline and he realized that a big part of his wellbeing came through human interaction.
Now that everything is opening up again around the world, things should improve. But what he has noticed in himself, that last week when he was on a couple day work trip, he was extremely tired afterward. Not only that, the way he interacted "live" has changed and he found it difficult to connect with people in scenarios that used to be easy.
Again, what kind of changes does this make if even 20% of the global population struggles to get back into a workable routine? For some, this disruption will be good, for others, a detriment to their career potential and quality of life. Then on top of this, there are changes to the way children interact with each other, with many teachers anecdotally reporting changes in social behaviors. Maybe in some ways it is for the better, but I think that at least in the short- to mid-term, it is going to likely put pressure on more than our spines and waistbands.
In the long-term, it is impossible to predict the breadth and depth of the effects the last few years will make on us and due to the wide range and complexity, much of it isn't going to be attributed to this period of time, even if it is related. Pretty much, everything is affected in some way and while there will be an average across the spectrum, at the individual level, outcomes can be dramatically different. How many are going to be "left behind" as the world moves on and, what kind of affect will the disconnected have on the rest?
Personally, I don't think I am stronger after the last few years and feel far weaker in many ways, especially physically. It is impossible to say how much is due to the conditions of the last two years and what is brought on by the stroke, but I do know that I wasn't feeling great before the stroke either.
But this is all very personal, so results are going to be wide on the spectrum. But, I wonder, now that work from home is still common and many people are continuing, how many are doing so because they are better at home, and how many are staying home because going back scares them, as it is now uncomfortable and they have lost their motivation to push themselves.
Well, at least for a few moments, a massage helps and it is a good way to start the weekend.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]