Return to normalcy11/27/2023 ![]() The idea that everyone is ‘okay’ at all times - and that we should pretend we are if we’re not - has been shattered, and it should stay that way.” An oppressive work culture and career pressure We shouldn’t need to cite a global pandemic to take extra time for ourselves and set necessary boundaries at work and school. But an undercurrent in the responses was the idea that the pandemic was a seismic event that made it socially permissible to foreground mental health and self-care - something that wasn’t necessarily true before Covid-19 came along.Īs University of San Diego student Lily Yates told me, “I think people’s increased willingness to intentionally care more for their mental health during the pandemic reveals the problem of just how taboo it is during ‘normal’ times. Several people told me they feel the pandemic has left them with PTSD, while others said it exacerbated preexisting conditions like depression. How we talk and think about mental health is another major concern. Her perspective underscores the accessibility issues that still hinder the prospects of people with disabilities three decades after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act - and highlights how unjust one facet of American life was in normal times. ![]() She’s afraid that going back to normal means she’ll be shut out of those opportunities again. Voglewede added that the lockdown opened up lots of doors for her professionally because all the conferences and webinars moved online. “Now, if everything goes back to normal, where would that leave people like me who do have disabilities and would like to continue working but may not have that option anymore if work-from-home isn’t allowed?” The pandemic has given many employees a glimpse of just how feasible remote work is for a range of jobs - an option that may soon disappear for many as the pandemic recedes. She left and started her own business to give herself the accommodations she needed. “I believed it to be a reasonable accommodation, but my employer never believed that and never allowed it,” she told me. In a previous job, she had asked her boss if she could do some of her work from home as commuting was difficult for her. US immigration attorney Yasmin Voglewede is physically disabled. How society fails on disability and mental health issues once said, “There are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted.” The people I heard from expressed the concern that the world would quickly readjust to an unjust normal. Will returning to normal life mean sweeping these hard conversations back under the rug? The pandemic broke open public discourse around issues that were either typically sidestepped - mental health struggles, for instance - or accepted with little resistance, like the rigidity of the modern workday. And this one, arguably, might be worth cultivating: the worry about returning to a global normal we’d rather not come back to. Barnard College president Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist who researches anxiety for a living, told me she’s feeling it herself: “When you haven’t practiced in a while, anything can become harder or less fluent.”īut there’s a second category of worry here. It’s very normal to feel this type of anxiety right now. For example, those of us who’ve had the luxury of working from home may find it nerve-wracking to go back to commuting in a crowded subway car or making small talk around the water cooler. One is the anxiety we feel about doing anything we haven’t had to do in a while. And they’re worried about returning to a new normal that looks much like the old normal - one whose flaws the pandemic threw into sharp relief.Īs I read the responses, it struck me that there are actually two kinds of worry here. They’re worried about returning to commutes and office work that added to their stress and chipped away at their quality of life. When I asked Vox readers if they were nervous about the return to normalcy, nearly 100 people responded with a resounding “yes.” They’re worried about the awkwardness of reacclimating to social life. And of course, we all want an end to the pandemic that has taken so many lives.īut many of us are also feeling anxious about returning to normal, having realized that our pre-pandemic lives contained a lot that we’re better off without. With America vaccinating people at a good clip, it’s starting to feel like we could get back to normal-ish life soon.
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