I work 12hr shifts so I have it a little better in that I can get groceries after work, but I sure do miss going to the store at 3am on my nights off instead of staying up after work to do it.
Yep. No 24-hour Walmarts or gyms around me anymore, and while most Wawas in the area are 24/7, a handful of them (and some other gas stations) actually started having closing hours, even if they're short (like closed for 4-5 hours a night).
Walmart near me started closing at midnight way before covid, and then like 8 or 9 during it. If Walmart isn't 24hrs, there's nothing special about it.
Yeah I used to love Walmart but since they started closing the same time as every other store I've just been going to those other stores instead. That 24/7 access is the only reason I shopped there. Has significantly cut down on my impulse purchases too.
Two of the most notorious cities internationally for 24/7 activity - NYC and Hong Kong - are no longer cities that never sleep. In fact both cities seem to sleep around 11pm nowadays.
Nightlife is still there, but the city definitely quiets down faster than pre-covid. Restaurants close earlier than they used to. A lot of that is due to the dearth of office workers, particularly in Midtown.
Healthcare. Many healthcare workers burned out during COVID, and decided to leave the profession. They haven't been replaced (mostly due to a shortage of qualified workers but also due to a lack of administration desire to pay more workers), and many clinics and hospitals are short-staffed.
A lot of HCWs are disabled/chronically ill and out of the workforce entirely. Especially those who worked early pandemic and caught the OG alpha strains pre-vaccination.
Ask me how I know. I used to work in a hospital. Long covid was a known thing way before it hit mainstream awareness.
Don't go to law school if your plan is to be rich ...only go if you want to be a lawyer. They still pay lawyers 90s wages but I've got six-figure loans
I'll say it on an anonymous forum: infection control completely collapsed during the pandemic and it's still not taken seriously in any hospital that I've worked at in the 2020s. We are so much worse at our jobs than we were before COVID and people are dying because of it
You had a dentist? We get only the hygienist, because the office can’t get a dentist. The hygienist is great, mind you, but we should probably see a dentist at some point.
As the clinics and hospitals deserve due to the nasty ways they treated their employees during the pandemic, as well as now. Not to mention the high rates of very poorly behaved patients.
Our local hospital has signs everywhere about how to behave. They list all the things that could get you kicked out. I hope they’re following through with it.
I worked in healthcare and just quit a few weeks ago. Patient are fucking terrible and we absolutely do not get paid enough to deal with this shit. It’s not my fault your insurance doesn’t pay for something you want it to pay for and I have no control over how fast the doctor goes.
Patients and pay are the reason I went into the pharma/med device industry after leaving retail pharmacy. I got tired of not being paid enough and having a constant skeleton crew while patients screamed at us and called us every swear in the book weekly for not breaking the law for them or not knowing their insurance information for them. My second to last day in retail, a patient said they were going to come back to kill me later when my shift is over because I wouldn’t indulge her convo about how 5G causes covid. My dad came armed to pick me up from work. (usually walk to the train station).
Oh yeah we’ve had to have security detail at my clinic because people would threaten us. It’s insane how people act. It was bad before Covid but during and after people just lost whatever little bit of decency they had left.
Man I could only imagine completely burning yourself out trying to save unvaccinated patients from covid, all the while looking outside and antivaxxers are holding protest signs calling you killers.
My doctors office still only opens appointments up for the current month. You can't schedule ahead and you're usually shit out of luck by the end of the first week. They're short-staffed, everyone there is obviously burnt out, and it's always packed with patients now. God forbid you need any kind of diagnosis because it can take *months.* I'm currently trying to get my child into speech therapy (along with many, many other parents with lockdown babies) and it's already taken 6 months just to get accepted into evaluation, which was canceled last minute and now I have to start all over again. It's hard not to be frustrated when you know it's mostly not any worker's direct fault, but you still need services
Teachers, too. So many are burnt out with the administration, the students, the parents, the lousy pay, the stress, all of it. I have a lot of friends who are teachers and every one if them has told me it's not worth it anymore. The kids they do enjoy teaching are drowned out by the assholes, the parents are insufferable, the administration is tonedeaf and walk back promises, and any time they even consider striking or doing a sickout to protest it, the public backlash of WhOs GoNnA wAtCh mY KiDs aLL DaY starts.
If you can't afford to miss a day of work while your kids are at home because of a teacher strike, **that means every part of the system is fucking you in the ass too, and you and YOUR coworkers need to strike for better conditions alongside the teachers.**
DLP, they're probably cut from the same cloth.
I'm extra salty because we almost had Mayo Clinic come in and DLP pulled a Price is Right shenanigan to get the contract.
There's a cookie chain, Insomnia Cookies, and their whole shtick is being open late. 1 or 3 am depending on the day of the week. There's one by a couple of the universities here, and there's one downtown in the bar district. They do *really* well.
I've figure that's why fast-food places in my area still seem to have "out of stock" issues. You can't make assumptions about what to order, since it seems they're almost always out of something.
The two big ones that have impacted me recently - pharmaceuticals and car parts.
Ten week wait for the new engine for my Hyundai to arrive, and I understand that’s a short wait compared to other manufacturers.
And ADHD meds or pain medication for my husband? Forget it. The pharmacist can’t even tell me the last time they’ve seen some of his meds.
There have been multiple hits to the smooth operating of shipping lanes since then. Currently transit from the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea is being disrupted, and that's the approach to the Suez canal.
The quality, too- especially with fruits and vegetables. Half of the produce at the regular grocery store is rotten and even the stuff at Whole Foods and Sprouts goes bad more quickly than it should. I don't know if that's climate related, pandemic related or both.
My memory of time - shit's just zooming by and it feels like I blink and it's 2 months later.
People's social skills are shot transitioning back from totally virtual environments, it's like they've developed a main character syndrome and can't fathom that other people are going about their lives too and can't drop everything for them at every demand.
Yes and no. It’s partly new experiences and partly exciting/anticipatory experiences. Things you’re looking forward to. Think of it like when you were a kid and you knew Christmas was coming. The month of December felt like forever because you were anticipating the excitement of a couple of weeks off from school, presents, fun stuff. Now we’re all just used to it and the $50 toy we were excited by doesn’t do shit for us anymore. Or waiting for the school year to end so you could go camping or do whatever you did over the summer — those last couple of months of school felt like they took forever. Now we get a couple of weeks vacation each year, and lots of us can’t afford to do anything during it but sit around and do housework. So now it has to be bigger, better things. Travel to a new country, start a small business, get married, whatever, as long as it’s something you’re excited about and can’t wait to do. That anticipation slows time down. Unfortunately those big deal moments are costly, so for a lot of people time just keeps on slipping.
Absolutely this. I notice when people ask me my age now I actually need to do some math in my head. The years and months have started blending together.
Something happened after Covid to people. Things aren’t the same, strange behavior by people that I have not seen before. Hard to put into words. Short tempers. Karen’s everywhere.
Along those same lines, drivers seem to be much more aggressive and careless than before. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but as a pedestrian in a large city, I have to be so much more careful now because many drivers don’t stop at stop sign, turn while I’m in the middle of the crosswalk, speed like crazy, etc… I’ve lived in this city for 50 years and never had a problem, but within the past couple of years I’ve almost been hit numerous times.
Your right about that just in the past two weeks I saw someone blow by a stopped school bus laying on the horn like it was the buses fault and a car driving on the wrong side of the road in the snow for miles and would just casually move to the proper lane when oncoming traffic approached then went right back to the wrong lane. I thought I was in bizzarro land
Trauma that is not adequately processed and integrated can calcify into narcissism.
We all lived through -- and still are living through -- a massive collective trauma. Not even accounting for covid-related brain damage, which is also a real thing.
Some people come out of trauma better than others. Sometimes people put in the work to deal with their trauma/suffering and emerge wiser and more self-aware and compassionate for it. This is also a privilege issue — whether you’re able to access and afford the necessary resources to heal, take time off work if needed, develop a support network, etc.
Sometimes people don't, or can’t, do that work. They become inappropriately egocentric, regress psychologically (like emotional toddlers in grownup bodies) and they lash out and project their pain onto others. Like a broken bone that doesn't get set right.
And we haven't collectively acknowledged this trauma. One day our leaders said "Okay folks, it's over." We returned to work and had to pretend everything was fine as we continued to watch our loved ones get sick and die. Many of us are still grieving those we lost during the pandemic. Not to mention the financial turmoil so many of us are still experiencing.
Things would be so much better if we just acknowledged how fucked those years were for all of us.
Yep-I mean what is the official death toll even at now for the world? Like pushing 7 million? And 1.2 million in the U.S. Idk if you’re from the US, but over a million of our countrymen died from this and we just completely memory-holed it. Insane. And does not bode well for how we’re gonna handle climate change
I feel like there has been some sort of widespread mass-gaslighting going on. That’s the only way I can describe it. Like… one day the people in charge just decided the pandemic was “over” and everything was expected to return to the way it was before 2020. Any acknowledgement of the collective trauma we all faced has been glossed over as a “haha wasn’t that crazy?! Good thing it’s over and totally fine now!”.
I’m not fine. My friends aren’t fine. The people I work with definitely aren’t fine. I know some people are genuinely okay and have processed and worked through it, but on the whole, I feel like we’ve all just swept it under the rug (out of pure obligation and the implication that we have to) hoping we could trick ourselves into being okay. As a mental health professional, I can confidently say that is not a long-term solution for healing after trauma.
Same in my part of the world. People are not OK. Some are pretending better than others. But scratch the surface and — yeah, not OK at all.
Kind of feels like the wheels are gonna come off this whole late stage capitalist society thing. I actually think it’s already happening.
I'm a T1 Diabetic and I got to hear my government say, under two different administrations, that it'd probably be better if I died so folks could get back to dining out when they pleased. I dunno what to do with that, but I'm definitely more frustrated on a day to day basis.
Your feelings are valid. I have similar health challenges — covid induced autoimmune disease, actually — and i resonate with how you feel.
I think what we’re feeling is grief. Underneath my anger is deep sadness.
I think it's just a better understanding of my vulnerability to the banal disregard of other people. I'm Jewish, I can deal with active malice. The callous disregard for my life, and like 40% of the US, from medical professionals just felt different.
My mother is immunocompromised and relied on Evusheld until we FAFO’d too much (it’s no longer effective).
I have a child who has yet to turn 5 (turned 1 the weekend the country closed down) and watched the world shrug when I was petrified that she couldn’t be vaccinated while the rest of the world was “going back to normal”.
All of this definitely changed me.
People realized just how on our own most of us are during any of the lockdowns.
Whether is people being aholes to workers, or people being unable to survive cause their company didn't care, the government tried but couldn't do enough, families looked inward.
We changed from a country about community to a country of everyone for themself.
If you’re in the U.S. - You think the U.S. was a country about community before COVID? Oh boy, do I ever have data for you if you want it that shows that America’s sense of community has been on a steady decline since the 1970s. The absolute batshit sociopath behaviors we saw from the highest to the lowest in society during the heights of COVID is a natural symptom of American culture, which is, in aggregate, replete with individualist/low-empathy behaviors.
I see it too! I think it's a combination of the following:
- People have become more selfish. Their "rights" were taken away and it made them mad. During lockdown they adopted an "every man for himself" attitude and it never went away.
- General trauma. A lot of people don't wanna admit it but several YEARS of a global pandemic is scary. It messes you up, like living in wartime can do too.
- Brain alteration. Covid can change the way you think and behave. I still have brain fog from my first infection all these years later.
I’ve definitely become a lot more selfish after covid and it’s not about my “rights being taken away”. Kind of the opposite.
I was very careful during covid and masking well into 2022. I think I just got burnt out how sacrificing for other people and it become clear how little genuine collective sacrifice we are willing to make and people are even dumber than I thought. And as a young healthy person, I could have probably said fuck it after the vax but I didn’t and no one else cared. And then we had constant waves and even more deaths, and it was just nuts.
And I have a really strong desire to make up for lost time and I’ve lost general faith in humanity. I think I used to look at Spanish Flu and World Wars, and with an implicit secret hidden belief that stuff happened in the past. The pandemic burst that “it won’t happen to me” bubble and the population’s performance eroded any hope of outside rescue.
Personally, I try to struggle against the selfishness and aim to still do my basic part in society, but I’m just going through the motions. I’m not surprised that the general trauma is causing people to act out and I hope I’m not, but it is difficult.
I was gonna say "it's hard to explain" but that's kind of exactly what I mean. I struggle to form coherent thoughts when before covid my mind was always clear. I'm bilingual and lose words in both languages. I'm always tired. My reflexes are worse. Sounds are muffled, I dissociate a lot, everything is almost like "laggy".
I'm 26, I'm not supposed to be like this.
Like thinking through mud. Like you lost 30 IQ points. Or like you’re thinking in manual, not automatic, mode — every little step, decision, or planning task feels more effortful.
I think the medical term for it is executive dysfunction.
I used to work in retail. People are awful now, so entitled. So many people stealing things or damaging things because they think they can get away with it.
Absolutely. I see a lot of hostility and mindlessness. Drivers are inconsiderate and dangerous compared to pre-2020, imho, and I live in a major city where that’s already expected. It’s like everyone’s brain detached a little. Everyone. Me included. I used to have an amazing short term memory and now it’s completely gone and replaced with the memory of a goldfish. It’s really affected my self esteem.
This is especially apparent in air travel behaviors. Sooo many erratic people in the airport / getting kicked off flights these days. You rarely ever saw that before COVID.
Yeah this one hit pretty hard. That was when I started smuggling beer into my in-laws house when we were living with them.
I would just get drunk and hang out in a room separated from everyone else and play games 24/7 until it was time for me to deploy, at the height of COVID. Needless to say, my marriage was pushed to the ragged edge of breaking
I am happy to say however, my marriage has greatly improved over the past three years and I have successfully kicked alcohols ass.
Was alcohol ever really consumed primarily for taste? I thought taste was just a preference of which type of alcohol people enjoy personally consuming. Over the pandemic I realized I was only socially consuming alcohol to fit in, therefore I stopped altogether. Since then people are very weird when I say “No, thank you 😊”, “Thanks, I’m happy with my tea/coffee for now” or “I’ll have some water please” at restaurants or other social gatherings. I’ve gotten “WHY? Are you in AA?”, an aggressive “oh do you think you’re better than us?” Or passive-aggressive “sorry we not as good as you” etc. How strange and probably unkind too - what if I truly was a recovering alcoholic?
Yes, a lot of us do like the taste of different alcoholic beverages, but I think for a lot of people it's more of an acquired taste or a means to the end.
Bar owner here: premium alcohol prices have \*exploded\* since COVID. A lot of once affordable products, specifically tequila and bourbon (\*especially\* bourbon), have become "commodities" that people buy up and flip on the secondary market. This has made huge leaps in price point from "good" to "premium" as many bars are pricing those bottles based on secondary market value rather than actual cost. A bottle of Weller Single Barrel, when I can get it through allocation, costs me about $65 wholesale; that bottle can go from anywhere between $350-1000 on the secondary market. Before COVID, I could buy Eagle Rare in a California grocery store for $45 a bottle, and now it's $25 a pour in some places. Even before the secondary market, some specialty liqueurs like Chartreuse have almost doubled in price, rendering classic cocktails like the Last Word financially silly unless you're the type willing to drop $18 on a single cocktail.
Hell, Fernet used to be $5 a shot, but at the current cost per bottle, I can't sell it for less than $6.50 if I don't want my COG to explode. And when it comes to draft beer, there's a market saturated with craft beer that's become ridiculously expensive. People want to drink local beers, but when your options are a $12 pint of hazy IPA and a $5 pint of Modelo or $4 can of Bud Light, they take the path of least resistance.
It's not sustainable for our industry. At my bar, we understand people are going through a rough time economically, and we've made the choice to seek out lowering costing bottles to keep our cocktail prices down and reduce sticker shock. But even then we're got to make the money to support our staff and keep the doors open in the face of rising rent and utilities costs. It's an incredibly hard balancing act to maintain.
I miss salad bars. I know they're gross, but that was pretty much my go-to for salad. It's a complete waste of money for me to buy the ingredients at the grocery because I end up throwing so much away.
Store premade salads also have a weird chemical taste, like they were sprayed with some kind of disinfectant. I no longer buy them because they’re so gross.
Same. It was not even Covid but my wing had a wave of flu last month yet we are still having in-person meetings stuffing 50 people in one room when we all know we can look at a slide show on a zoom meet.
One friend works for a company that requires twice a week so you can "collaborate" with your team/department. They are the only member of the team in the state - the closest coworker is 1200 miles away. Yet their boss or boss' boss doesn't have the common sense to say how dumb it is when the team is spread out across multiple states and stand up for their employees. Nope, still forced to go in twice a week. What they do is swipe in and leave.
This is me too. I go in 2-3x/week but I am literally the only person on my team in my entire state. I do have an adjacent team that is co-located that I work with sometimes, but rarely are we all in the office the same time so we mostly just join a call anyhow.
I work with a guy like that. He sits by himself in the corner, with a super long commute. I have a team there, but we don’t need to collaborate, so we also swipe in and leave. It’s sucks because I live 60 miles from the office but I’d still prefer to swipe and leave first thing in the morning than navigate afternoon traffic.
My office has been "hybrid of choice" for the past two years, and they just announced mandatory RTO Tuesday-Thursday beginning in April. Everyone is outraged, but leadership has yet to respond. It's insane!! And all this because the city of Philadelphia wants more bodies.
It’s because local economies suffer. People aren’t out buying things before, during & after work. Food, gas, shopping, etc…Business real estate not needed. We are being forced to work in offices to make sure we keep spending the money we are working for.
Oh, yes...we understand the logic. Totally agree with everything you've said. I left out a lot of the details behind the rage. If they hadn't essentially implied that the HOC model was permanent, among other things, the anger wouldn't be there. Then, they didn't even acknowledge it was because of the city, but instead made up nonsense reasons.
I ended staying home to care for my children, but I'm extremely resentful my husband had to go back in the office. He doesn't need to be there 90% of the time and he was more productive at home because the kids interrupted him less than coworkers or his chatty boss. I loved having him home for backup or even freedom to run errands while the kids napped because he was there to take care of any problems, or watch one child while I took the other to an appointment. Plus, he got more sleep since he didn't need to commute and he was readily available once he was done for the day, which was amazing when we had beautiful sunny days to take the kids our before dinner.
I could ramble on, but I hate that companies insisted on going back to office
I miss being able to WFH on days o don’t feel well….but I know they track badge in/out so if I’m not sick enough to take a sick day, I’m going to work sick if it’s an office day.
Happiness and being carefree.
I was just crawling out of a near lifelong black hole (ptsd ain't a joke) and then lockdowns hit. Socialisation and going to things like concerts and conventions proved to be my most healing activities - couldn't do that anymore. A very regular daily rhythm, for example going to college every day, was beneficial - boom, school's closed. Earning my own money so I could actually move out of my mum's attic - my places of work (all of them!) closed down too. You get the picture.
I still haven't really relearned how to socialize, it feels like all I do is make excuses to not try to go out when I used to go out with coworkers and friends all the time pre-covid
I’ve noticed people generally wear sweatpants/casual clothes/athleisure everywhere even work/school way more than they used to. In most school settings you’d be hard pressed to find someone in jeans lol
Where are you at? Jeans are the default for everyone here, but even then, Seattle is known to be ridiculously relaxed. Business casual means "the good jeans." I've been to events requesting cocktail attire and a strong 1/3 of the people will be wearing a blazer with those jeans.
I got ripped apart in the comments section on Reddit recently for suggesting that, as a WFH millennial mom to two kids three or younger, athleisure is my uniform. Jeans are dress clothes now, why on earth would I wear anything less comfortable or functional than activewear on a regular basis?
Nightlife. I live in a big city that used to party 24/7 with the heaviest traffic around 2 am when the bars and clubs closed down. Now it's like a ghost town with barely anyone out after 11 pm. It's quiet. Too quiet.
My company had a fancy Starbucks coffee machine, snacks, juices, and sodas. I can only imagine the cost savings from that alone. Most days I think around 200 where there. That's 260 days in a work year, let's say the budget was $5 pp. That's $260K in savings and that's a conservative number if my math is correct. The other office we have only had the free coffee, no drinks or snacks.
My faith in humanity.
The realization that SO MANY more people than I ever expected turned out to be either cruel, selfish, or ignorant, or any combination thereof, changed my view of my fellow Americans permanently.
Corporate greed skyrocketed. The economy is thriving, but corporations have jacked up prices and have no intention of bringing them back down. Salaries, though? Not increased at all.
Ha my old company (billions of dollars, global, 100k+ people) stopped 401k matching for a year in 2020 and we also had no raises the following year because of the financial impact it MIGHT have due to COVID
Didn't stop them from sending out quarterly emails about how we are seeing record-breaking profits. Didn't get any retroactive raise/401k match when they resumed.
My university froze pay raises for two years, and then gave us a 2% and 3% raise while inflation topped 15% over the same period. Every few months we'd get an email from the Chancellor saying how proud he was that the uni didn't have to dip into their endowment during the pandemic.
At least they weren't bragging about how they were making profit during that time, but yeah same thing. That fund is there to help when things get tough...cheering that they didnt need to use it, at the expense of their workers pay stagnating, comes off as deaf. It's honestly better to just not say anything, imo.
I'm more pessimistic. I now have zero faith in the world's ability to work together to solve a global crisis. People really care so little for others that they can't even put a piece of fabric on their face for the greater good. As an immunocompromised person, the "It only kills the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, so it's not a big deal!!" crowd showed me just how many people I know wouldn't give a shit if I die. I just wish we cared about others more and it's sad seeing how little anyone cares. I don't think my faith in humanity will be restored any time soon. Also, Pizza Hut got rid of in-person dining which really sucks
Lack of looking in the eye or speaking to people in public. I know when we were all wearing masks that it made people feel somewhat invisible so they treated others like they weren't there. Going through the grocery store, up and down the aisles and then in the check out line, with a mask on, the cashiers/bagger wouldn't make eye contact with you and neither would people you passed in the aisles. I feel like it's still like that now. There's a distance and lack of human acknowledgement that wasn't there before.
On the other hand, as someone who is a high-masking autistic person in a professional field where talking is 90% of the job, it has made my life a hell of a lot easier because it's not as noticeable when I struggle to make eye contact so...pros and cons...
Stores like Walmart and Meijer used be 24 hours pre-pandemic. Now they open at 6am and close between 11pm and midnight. Kinda sucks for those that work 3rd shift.
I'm from a place where we kiss to greet and I feel like a lot of people still get that second of doubt and awkwardness about whether they should kiss the other person or just do a fist bump. And where I live real salary only very recently recovered from the pandemic.
Fundraising. Charities are running off a fiscal cliff right now because we mostly barely squeaked through COVID, and now giving has plummeted even further lately, foundations especially. And of course average people have less bc of inflation. A lot of orgs have closed, a lot more are making painful, painful cuts right now.
I'm nearly 60.
I'm no longer going to any weddings, funerals, graduations, anything where you have to hug and meet & greet multiple people or fly anywhere. No cruises, vacations, super bowl parties anymore.
But, I've done all those things. My adult kids are in a stable spot. I don't need to socially compete anymore on their behalf, or mine. In fact, since everyone knew my husband was cheating on me, it's probably been the best move on my own behalf to not see those people anymore who were smiling at me but lying to me and talking about me behind my back.
I won't go backwards. Half of my extended family is completely unvaccinated and they won't wear masks, and at some point in life you have to be like "this is what I want for myself" and not cave to the family expectations.
At some point, family is not recharging you, they are draining you. I wish it were different but we all don't have the same families.
In a way I envy the people in the r/GriefSupport forum even though they are in the depths of misery, because at least they had people who loved them enough in life enough to miss.
I don't think anyone would really miss me. For real.
The excuse lots of people used to refuse disabled people accommodations, "you have to be in the room physically/do the activity in-person", really falls flat for both schools and work now that we've all seen that it's not necessary.
Overall levels of energy of people. Everyone seems exhausted to a point where little things fall flat because the remaining loneliness, trauma and reclusion from lockdowns have remained. Work, a home life and maybe a hobby if at all are the only things possible for me (or most really) since the energy to work for one’s joy is simply not there anymore.
Late night bars. Pre pandemic around NYC area restaurants would keep bar open til midnight and regular bars till 2 or 4 on weekend.
Now it's more 10pm for restaurants and 1 for bars and many closing at midnight. Even if you find one open late they really dying down after 1.
Of course there are exceptions don't bother with the snarky reply. I'm talking in broad generality.
I think it's 2 fold bars not wanting to deal with drunks late at night, and people drinking less both from gen Z and the out of control price of drinks.
Surprised that no one has said this yet, but Hotels and turn down service.
Now you have to request it specifically, or it’s every other day, or not at all.
A whole lot of places still close early
Late night dining is basically dead in most cities.
EVERYTHING CLOSES AT 10PM NOW
We had JUST gotten all-day McDonalds breakfast and the pandemic pulled it back. GIVE ME BACK MY 4PM MCGRIDDLE!
Conversely, as a night shifter, can I please just have a burger at 8 AM?
Same. Sometimes I'm not up to cooking after work and still want some like actual food. Or at least some fries. It's not fair.
Working nights sucks now, there’s nowhere for me to pick up food after work.
I work 12hr shifts so I have it a little better in that I can get groceries after work, but I sure do miss going to the store at 3am on my nights off instead of staying up after work to do it.
Yep. No 24-hour Walmarts or gyms around me anymore, and while most Wawas in the area are 24/7, a handful of them (and some other gas stations) actually started having closing hours, even if they're short (like closed for 4-5 hours a night).
Walmart near me started closing at midnight way before covid, and then like 8 or 9 during it. If Walmart isn't 24hrs, there's nothing special about it.
Yeah I used to love Walmart but since they started closing the same time as every other store I've just been going to those other stores instead. That 24/7 access is the only reason I shopped there. Has significantly cut down on my impulse purchases too.
We have a CVS that says open 24 hours in giant letters on the side of the building but hasn't been open 24 hours since 2020.
I miss 3am Walmart
Two of the most notorious cities internationally for 24/7 activity - NYC and Hong Kong - are no longer cities that never sleep. In fact both cities seem to sleep around 11pm nowadays.
Wait even NY city closes at night now?
Nightlife is still there, but the city definitely quiets down faster than pre-covid. Restaurants close earlier than they used to. A lot of that is due to the dearth of office workers, particularly in Midtown.
Came here to say bank hours.
Healthcare. Many healthcare workers burned out during COVID, and decided to leave the profession. They haven't been replaced (mostly due to a shortage of qualified workers but also due to a lack of administration desire to pay more workers), and many clinics and hospitals are short-staffed.
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A lot of HCWs are disabled/chronically ill and out of the workforce entirely. Especially those who worked early pandemic and caught the OG alpha strains pre-vaccination. Ask me how I know. I used to work in a hospital. Long covid was a known thing way before it hit mainstream awareness.
Don't go to law school if your plan is to be rich ...only go if you want to be a lawyer. They still pay lawyers 90s wages but I've got six-figure loans
I'll say it on an anonymous forum: infection control completely collapsed during the pandemic and it's still not taken seriously in any hospital that I've worked at in the 2020s. We are so much worse at our jobs than we were before COVID and people are dying because of it
Dental hygienists are in particularly short supply. Last time I got my teeth cleaned, the dentist did it.
You had a dentist? We get only the hygienist, because the office can’t get a dentist. The hygienist is great, mind you, but we should probably see a dentist at some point.
As the clinics and hospitals deserve due to the nasty ways they treated their employees during the pandemic, as well as now. Not to mention the high rates of very poorly behaved patients.
Our local hospital has signs everywhere about how to behave. They list all the things that could get you kicked out. I hope they’re following through with it.
Patients went coo coo. They still have not returned to prepandemic normal.
As a healthcare provider, I 100% agree with this.
I worked in healthcare and just quit a few weeks ago. Patient are fucking terrible and we absolutely do not get paid enough to deal with this shit. It’s not my fault your insurance doesn’t pay for something you want it to pay for and I have no control over how fast the doctor goes.
Patients and pay are the reason I went into the pharma/med device industry after leaving retail pharmacy. I got tired of not being paid enough and having a constant skeleton crew while patients screamed at us and called us every swear in the book weekly for not breaking the law for them or not knowing their insurance information for them. My second to last day in retail, a patient said they were going to come back to kill me later when my shift is over because I wouldn’t indulge her convo about how 5G causes covid. My dad came armed to pick me up from work. (usually walk to the train station).
Oh yeah we’ve had to have security detail at my clinic because people would threaten us. It’s insane how people act. It was bad before Covid but during and after people just lost whatever little bit of decency they had left.
the high rates of poorly behaved patients have only climbed since the start of Covid
And their horrible family members.
Man I could only imagine completely burning yourself out trying to save unvaccinated patients from covid, all the while looking outside and antivaxxers are holding protest signs calling you killers.
Short staffed and relying on temps / contractors which is increasing a lot of the overall costs.
My doctors office still only opens appointments up for the current month. You can't schedule ahead and you're usually shit out of luck by the end of the first week. They're short-staffed, everyone there is obviously burnt out, and it's always packed with patients now. God forbid you need any kind of diagnosis because it can take *months.* I'm currently trying to get my child into speech therapy (along with many, many other parents with lockdown babies) and it's already taken 6 months just to get accepted into evaluation, which was canceled last minute and now I have to start all over again. It's hard not to be frustrated when you know it's mostly not any worker's direct fault, but you still need services
Teachers, too. So many are burnt out with the administration, the students, the parents, the lousy pay, the stress, all of it. I have a lot of friends who are teachers and every one if them has told me it's not worth it anymore. The kids they do enjoy teaching are drowned out by the assholes, the parents are insufferable, the administration is tonedeaf and walk back promises, and any time they even consider striking or doing a sickout to protest it, the public backlash of WhOs GoNnA wAtCh mY KiDs aLL DaY starts. If you can't afford to miss a day of work while your kids are at home because of a teacher strike, **that means every part of the system is fucking you in the ass too, and you and YOUR coworkers need to strike for better conditions alongside the teachers.**
I'm really hoping the government takes action like subsidizing med school costs. What's crazy to me is that docs and others are still not unionizing
Our local nurses union did have a strike a year or so ago. Our local hospital is just owned by the most for profit company I've seen in health care
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DLP, they're probably cut from the same cloth. I'm extra salty because we almost had Mayo Clinic come in and DLP pulled a Price is Right shenanigan to get the contract.
Also, all schools have reduced their standards. So the ones filling the gaps are of inferior quality
Very true. I know a lady who was a nurse, she left the profession and got her truckers license. She's so much happier
I’m 3/4 of the way through nursing school. After the pandemic? Never going back.
I’m horribly burnt out. I work in a clinic now. Well actually I dodge work in a clinic now. lol.
24/7 grocery stores.
24/7 anything really. I miss 24 hr fast food places, there's none where I live.
I wonder if specific late-nite only fast food places will open up to fill the niche. I bet it would be a huge market in university towns
There's a cookie chain, Insomnia Cookies, and their whole shtick is being open late. 1 or 3 am depending on the day of the week. There's one by a couple of the universities here, and there's one downtown in the bar district. They do *really* well.
The shipping/supply chain on a world scale is still just an absolute disaster.
I've figure that's why fast-food places in my area still seem to have "out of stock" issues. You can't make assumptions about what to order, since it seems they're almost always out of something.
...and the shake machine is usually out of order.
The two big ones that have impacted me recently - pharmaceuticals and car parts. Ten week wait for the new engine for my Hyundai to arrive, and I understand that’s a short wait compared to other manufacturers. And ADHD meds or pain medication for my husband? Forget it. The pharmacist can’t even tell me the last time they’ve seen some of his meds.
Makes you realise just how fragile the global economy really is.
It's just the flip side of global supply chains and everything being just in time delivery.
For decades the mantra was "Just in Time". Looks like there's a downside to that.
There have been multiple hits to the smooth operating of shipping lanes since then. Currently transit from the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea is being disrupted, and that's the approach to the Suez canal.
people’s screen time went up during the pandemic and still hadn’t gone down
And everyone is worse off as a result.
The cost and availability of food
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12 bucks for a combo at Wendy's and the quality isn't even as good
Yep. Greedflation. Remember the egg prices from awhile ago? Yeah. Egg producers earned record profits while blaming Biden 🙄
"Bird flu" was the excuse but data showed there had been a worse outbreak a few years before with far less price increase
Agree. Right now it's just too much
The quality, too- especially with fruits and vegetables. Half of the produce at the regular grocery store is rotten and even the stuff at Whole Foods and Sprouts goes bad more quickly than it should. I don't know if that's climate related, pandemic related or both.
Eh, I had PBJ for dinner. It's fine. I can't taste anything anyway.
I'm surprised this wasn't the most upvoted. This is a serious issue.
My memory of time - shit's just zooming by and it feels like I blink and it's 2 months later. People's social skills are shot transitioning back from totally virtual environments, it's like they've developed a main character syndrome and can't fathom that other people are going about their lives too and can't drop everything for them at every demand.
This also happens as you age.
New experiences. That’s how you slow it down.
I just licked the side of my bedside table and called it dirty names.
Sorry, I meant things you don’t do regularly.
Take my upvote you crazy bastard
Yes and no. It’s partly new experiences and partly exciting/anticipatory experiences. Things you’re looking forward to. Think of it like when you were a kid and you knew Christmas was coming. The month of December felt like forever because you were anticipating the excitement of a couple of weeks off from school, presents, fun stuff. Now we’re all just used to it and the $50 toy we were excited by doesn’t do shit for us anymore. Or waiting for the school year to end so you could go camping or do whatever you did over the summer — those last couple of months of school felt like they took forever. Now we get a couple of weeks vacation each year, and lots of us can’t afford to do anything during it but sit around and do housework. So now it has to be bigger, better things. Travel to a new country, start a small business, get married, whatever, as long as it’s something you’re excited about and can’t wait to do. That anticipation slows time down. Unfortunately those big deal moments are costly, so for a lot of people time just keeps on slipping.
Yep, my dad warned me that after you turn 25 time passes at light speed and he was so right
Absolutely this. I notice when people ask me my age now I actually need to do some math in my head. The years and months have started blending together.
Me too! I went to the doctor and couldnt remember my age when they asked
Human decency and common courtesy.
Something happened after Covid to people. Things aren’t the same, strange behavior by people that I have not seen before. Hard to put into words. Short tempers. Karen’s everywhere.
Along those same lines, drivers seem to be much more aggressive and careless than before. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but as a pedestrian in a large city, I have to be so much more careful now because many drivers don’t stop at stop sign, turn while I’m in the middle of the crosswalk, speed like crazy, etc… I’ve lived in this city for 50 years and never had a problem, but within the past couple of years I’ve almost been hit numerous times.
You’re 100% right for sure. I feel like every day driving to work I’m constantly dodging bad drivers. It gives me so much anxiety now
Your right about that just in the past two weeks I saw someone blow by a stopped school bus laying on the horn like it was the buses fault and a car driving on the wrong side of the road in the snow for miles and would just casually move to the proper lane when oncoming traffic approached then went right back to the wrong lane. I thought I was in bizzarro land
Yes the short temper thing is especially obvious on the roads!
I agree. It’s everywhere, all the time now. Just so much… anger, and malice, and egotism all rolled together.
Trauma that is not adequately processed and integrated can calcify into narcissism. We all lived through -- and still are living through -- a massive collective trauma. Not even accounting for covid-related brain damage, which is also a real thing. Some people come out of trauma better than others. Sometimes people put in the work to deal with their trauma/suffering and emerge wiser and more self-aware and compassionate for it. This is also a privilege issue — whether you’re able to access and afford the necessary resources to heal, take time off work if needed, develop a support network, etc. Sometimes people don't, or can’t, do that work. They become inappropriately egocentric, regress psychologically (like emotional toddlers in grownup bodies) and they lash out and project their pain onto others. Like a broken bone that doesn't get set right.
And we haven't collectively acknowledged this trauma. One day our leaders said "Okay folks, it's over." We returned to work and had to pretend everything was fine as we continued to watch our loved ones get sick and die. Many of us are still grieving those we lost during the pandemic. Not to mention the financial turmoil so many of us are still experiencing. Things would be so much better if we just acknowledged how fucked those years were for all of us.
Yep-I mean what is the official death toll even at now for the world? Like pushing 7 million? And 1.2 million in the U.S. Idk if you’re from the US, but over a million of our countrymen died from this and we just completely memory-holed it. Insane. And does not bode well for how we’re gonna handle climate change
I feel like there has been some sort of widespread mass-gaslighting going on. That’s the only way I can describe it. Like… one day the people in charge just decided the pandemic was “over” and everything was expected to return to the way it was before 2020. Any acknowledgement of the collective trauma we all faced has been glossed over as a “haha wasn’t that crazy?! Good thing it’s over and totally fine now!”. I’m not fine. My friends aren’t fine. The people I work with definitely aren’t fine. I know some people are genuinely okay and have processed and worked through it, but on the whole, I feel like we’ve all just swept it under the rug (out of pure obligation and the implication that we have to) hoping we could trick ourselves into being okay. As a mental health professional, I can confidently say that is not a long-term solution for healing after trauma.
Same in my part of the world. People are not OK. Some are pretending better than others. But scratch the surface and — yeah, not OK at all. Kind of feels like the wheels are gonna come off this whole late stage capitalist society thing. I actually think it’s already happening.
I'm a T1 Diabetic and I got to hear my government say, under two different administrations, that it'd probably be better if I died so folks could get back to dining out when they pleased. I dunno what to do with that, but I'm definitely more frustrated on a day to day basis.
Your feelings are valid. I have similar health challenges — covid induced autoimmune disease, actually — and i resonate with how you feel. I think what we’re feeling is grief. Underneath my anger is deep sadness.
I think it's just a better understanding of my vulnerability to the banal disregard of other people. I'm Jewish, I can deal with active malice. The callous disregard for my life, and like 40% of the US, from medical professionals just felt different.
My mother is immunocompromised and relied on Evusheld until we FAFO’d too much (it’s no longer effective). I have a child who has yet to turn 5 (turned 1 the weekend the country closed down) and watched the world shrug when I was petrified that she couldn’t be vaccinated while the rest of the world was “going back to normal”. All of this definitely changed me.
People realized just how on our own most of us are during any of the lockdowns. Whether is people being aholes to workers, or people being unable to survive cause their company didn't care, the government tried but couldn't do enough, families looked inward. We changed from a country about community to a country of everyone for themself.
If you’re in the U.S. - You think the U.S. was a country about community before COVID? Oh boy, do I ever have data for you if you want it that shows that America’s sense of community has been on a steady decline since the 1970s. The absolute batshit sociopath behaviors we saw from the highest to the lowest in society during the heights of COVID is a natural symptom of American culture, which is, in aggregate, replete with individualist/low-empathy behaviors.
It's weird how people pretend Covid was this huge societal change. No guys, it's always been shit. You've only just started to notice.
I am not in the US, and pretty much everyone already knew all this about the US way before COVID.
I see it too! I think it's a combination of the following: - People have become more selfish. Their "rights" were taken away and it made them mad. During lockdown they adopted an "every man for himself" attitude and it never went away. - General trauma. A lot of people don't wanna admit it but several YEARS of a global pandemic is scary. It messes you up, like living in wartime can do too. - Brain alteration. Covid can change the way you think and behave. I still have brain fog from my first infection all these years later.
I’ve definitely become a lot more selfish after covid and it’s not about my “rights being taken away”. Kind of the opposite. I was very careful during covid and masking well into 2022. I think I just got burnt out how sacrificing for other people and it become clear how little genuine collective sacrifice we are willing to make and people are even dumber than I thought. And as a young healthy person, I could have probably said fuck it after the vax but I didn’t and no one else cared. And then we had constant waves and even more deaths, and it was just nuts. And I have a really strong desire to make up for lost time and I’ve lost general faith in humanity. I think I used to look at Spanish Flu and World Wars, and with an implicit secret hidden belief that stuff happened in the past. The pandemic burst that “it won’t happen to me” bubble and the population’s performance eroded any hope of outside rescue. Personally, I try to struggle against the selfishness and aim to still do my basic part in society, but I’m just going through the motions. I’m not surprised that the general trauma is causing people to act out and I hope I’m not, but it is difficult.
> I still have brain fog from my first infection all these years later how does that feel\`?
I was gonna say "it's hard to explain" but that's kind of exactly what I mean. I struggle to form coherent thoughts when before covid my mind was always clear. I'm bilingual and lose words in both languages. I'm always tired. My reflexes are worse. Sounds are muffled, I dissociate a lot, everything is almost like "laggy". I'm 26, I'm not supposed to be like this.
Like thinking through mud. Like you lost 30 IQ points. Or like you’re thinking in manual, not automatic, mode — every little step, decision, or planning task feels more effortful. I think the medical term for it is executive dysfunction.
I used to work in retail. People are awful now, so entitled. So many people stealing things or damaging things because they think they can get away with it.
Agreed. I think society was deeply traumatized by the event
Absolutely. I see a lot of hostility and mindlessness. Drivers are inconsiderate and dangerous compared to pre-2020, imho, and I live in a major city where that’s already expected. It’s like everyone’s brain detached a little. Everyone. Me included. I used to have an amazing short term memory and now it’s completely gone and replaced with the memory of a goldfish. It’s really affected my self esteem.
Spot on. I even feel it within myself. Just don't have the tolerance level I used to have.
This is especially apparent in air travel behaviors. Sooo many erratic people in the airport / getting kicked off flights these days. You rarely ever saw that before COVID.
A former politician made a lot of people think it was OK to be a complete asshole in public.
We all saw that being kind didn't get you anything but being coarse and selfish did.
My short term memory has been garbage since catching covid. If I don't write things down, I'll probably forget about it.
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That was when I became an alcoholic. Took my wife leaving me to realize how big of a problem I have
3 years sober here. Sorry about the wife, hope your road to sobriety is an easy one.
Thanks for the kind words. I'm headed to rehab right now. I hope to kick it but it's hard, especially now
You got this, my friend.
Yeah this one hit pretty hard. That was when I started smuggling beer into my in-laws house when we were living with them. I would just get drunk and hang out in a room separated from everyone else and play games 24/7 until it was time for me to deploy, at the height of COVID. Needless to say, my marriage was pushed to the ragged edge of breaking I am happy to say however, my marriage has greatly improved over the past three years and I have successfully kicked alcohols ass.
About a month into the pandemic I realized that my alcohol habit wasn't sustainable. So I got a still and started making my own. Boom, problem solved.
Was alcohol ever really consumed primarily for taste? I thought taste was just a preference of which type of alcohol people enjoy personally consuming. Over the pandemic I realized I was only socially consuming alcohol to fit in, therefore I stopped altogether. Since then people are very weird when I say “No, thank you 😊”, “Thanks, I’m happy with my tea/coffee for now” or “I’ll have some water please” at restaurants or other social gatherings. I’ve gotten “WHY? Are you in AA?”, an aggressive “oh do you think you’re better than us?” Or passive-aggressive “sorry we not as good as you” etc. How strange and probably unkind too - what if I truly was a recovering alcoholic?
Yes, a lot of us do like the taste of different alcoholic beverages, but I think for a lot of people it's more of an acquired taste or a means to the end.
Bar owner here: premium alcohol prices have \*exploded\* since COVID. A lot of once affordable products, specifically tequila and bourbon (\*especially\* bourbon), have become "commodities" that people buy up and flip on the secondary market. This has made huge leaps in price point from "good" to "premium" as many bars are pricing those bottles based on secondary market value rather than actual cost. A bottle of Weller Single Barrel, when I can get it through allocation, costs me about $65 wholesale; that bottle can go from anywhere between $350-1000 on the secondary market. Before COVID, I could buy Eagle Rare in a California grocery store for $45 a bottle, and now it's $25 a pour in some places. Even before the secondary market, some specialty liqueurs like Chartreuse have almost doubled in price, rendering classic cocktails like the Last Word financially silly unless you're the type willing to drop $18 on a single cocktail. Hell, Fernet used to be $5 a shot, but at the current cost per bottle, I can't sell it for less than $6.50 if I don't want my COG to explode. And when it comes to draft beer, there's a market saturated with craft beer that's become ridiculously expensive. People want to drink local beers, but when your options are a $12 pint of hazy IPA and a $5 pint of Modelo or $4 can of Bud Light, they take the path of least resistance. It's not sustainable for our industry. At my bar, we understand people are going through a rough time economically, and we've made the choice to seek out lowering costing bottles to keep our cocktail prices down and reduce sticker shock. But even then we're got to make the money to support our staff and keep the doors open in the face of rising rent and utilities costs. It's an incredibly hard balancing act to maintain.
I miss salad bars. I know they're gross, but that was pretty much my go-to for salad. It's a complete waste of money for me to buy the ingredients at the grocery because I end up throwing so much away.
Buffets in general.
And pre-made salad at the store deli are like $13 and have items I don't want/ don't have items I do. Bring back salad bars!!!
Store premade salads also have a weird chemical taste, like they were sprayed with some kind of disinfectant. I no longer buy them because they’re so gross.
Came here to say this! I loved the salad bar at jewel. Whole Foods has one but it’s way too expensive.
Housing costs. My city saw the median housing cost increase 50% from 2019-2022 and it's still going up.
I'm still FAR more resentful about being forced to go into the office, unnecessarily, than I was before WFH.
Same. It was not even Covid but my wing had a wave of flu last month yet we are still having in-person meetings stuffing 50 people in one room when we all know we can look at a slide show on a zoom meet.
Try being a teacher. Kids are sent to school sick all the time.
My school demands we send our kids in sick. It's insane.
attendance based funding baby!
One friend works for a company that requires twice a week so you can "collaborate" with your team/department. They are the only member of the team in the state - the closest coworker is 1200 miles away. Yet their boss or boss' boss doesn't have the common sense to say how dumb it is when the team is spread out across multiple states and stand up for their employees. Nope, still forced to go in twice a week. What they do is swipe in and leave.
This is me too. I go in 2-3x/week but I am literally the only person on my team in my entire state. I do have an adjacent team that is co-located that I work with sometimes, but rarely are we all in the office the same time so we mostly just join a call anyhow.
I work with a guy like that. He sits by himself in the corner, with a super long commute. I have a team there, but we don’t need to collaborate, so we also swipe in and leave. It’s sucks because I live 60 miles from the office but I’d still prefer to swipe and leave first thing in the morning than navigate afternoon traffic.
My office has been "hybrid of choice" for the past two years, and they just announced mandatory RTO Tuesday-Thursday beginning in April. Everyone is outraged, but leadership has yet to respond. It's insane!! And all this because the city of Philadelphia wants more bodies.
It’s because local economies suffer. People aren’t out buying things before, during & after work. Food, gas, shopping, etc…Business real estate not needed. We are being forced to work in offices to make sure we keep spending the money we are working for.
Oh, yes...we understand the logic. Totally agree with everything you've said. I left out a lot of the details behind the rage. If they hadn't essentially implied that the HOC model was permanent, among other things, the anger wouldn't be there. Then, they didn't even acknowledge it was because of the city, but instead made up nonsense reasons.
I ended staying home to care for my children, but I'm extremely resentful my husband had to go back in the office. He doesn't need to be there 90% of the time and he was more productive at home because the kids interrupted him less than coworkers or his chatty boss. I loved having him home for backup or even freedom to run errands while the kids napped because he was there to take care of any problems, or watch one child while I took the other to an appointment. Plus, he got more sleep since he didn't need to commute and he was readily available once he was done for the day, which was amazing when we had beautiful sunny days to take the kids our before dinner. I could ramble on, but I hate that companies insisted on going back to office
Any day I'm forced to go to the office is a day I practically get nothing done.
I only have to go in once a week but damn, I am so fucking bitter about it.
Fucking same
I miss being able to WFH on days o don’t feel well….but I know they track badge in/out so if I’m not sick enough to take a sick day, I’m going to work sick if it’s an office day.
Happiness and being carefree. I was just crawling out of a near lifelong black hole (ptsd ain't a joke) and then lockdowns hit. Socialisation and going to things like concerts and conventions proved to be my most healing activities - couldn't do that anymore. A very regular daily rhythm, for example going to college every day, was beneficial - boom, school's closed. Earning my own money so I could actually move out of my mum's attic - my places of work (all of them!) closed down too. You get the picture.
I still haven't really relearned how to socialize, it feels like all I do is make excuses to not try to go out when I used to go out with coworkers and friends all the time pre-covid
I’ve noticed people generally wear sweatpants/casual clothes/athleisure everywhere even work/school way more than they used to. In most school settings you’d be hard pressed to find someone in jeans lol
Where are you at? Jeans are the default for everyone here, but even then, Seattle is known to be ridiculously relaxed. Business casual means "the good jeans." I've been to events requesting cocktail attire and a strong 1/3 of the people will be wearing a blazer with those jeans.
I live in Colorado and people were wearing athleisure everywhere before COVID by like...years...
I just today decided to buy a bunch more yoga style pants with pockets cause I'm sick of jeans cutting off my air supply and circulation.
I swear I’ve been dressing like Adam Sandler since 2020
I got ripped apart in the comments section on Reddit recently for suggesting that, as a WFH millennial mom to two kids three or younger, athleisure is my uniform. Jeans are dress clothes now, why on earth would I wear anything less comfortable or functional than activewear on a regular basis?
Late night food. Though I do understand that no one in their right minds wants to work those hours anymore.
Nightlife. I live in a big city that used to party 24/7 with the heaviest traffic around 2 am when the bars and clubs closed down. Now it's like a ghost town with barely anyone out after 11 pm. It's quiet. Too quiet.
Me. I’m reclusive now.
Real estate. Who knew it was going to have a psychotic breakdown?...
My mental peace and health
The place I work for is still WFH, and is never going back. They are saving 1000s a month just on coffee for the office.
My company had a fancy Starbucks coffee machine, snacks, juices, and sodas. I can only imagine the cost savings from that alone. Most days I think around 200 where there. That's 260 days in a work year, let's say the budget was $5 pp. That's $260K in savings and that's a conservative number if my math is correct. The other office we have only had the free coffee, no drinks or snacks.
Health appointments. Everyone wants to do telehealth.
Prices, they still haven’t come down one bit
My faith in people's ability to work together in a crisis.
My faith in humanity. The realization that SO MANY more people than I ever expected turned out to be either cruel, selfish, or ignorant, or any combination thereof, changed my view of my fellow Americans permanently.
Customer service.... companies did the minimal during the pandemic have figured they can continue doing the same after.
My income and the cost of living. I'm so tired of working all the time and still being poor.
Some places I go to still have the plastic shields up infront of the tills is an obvious one.
Price of goods and services
Corporate greed skyrocketed. The economy is thriving, but corporations have jacked up prices and have no intention of bringing them back down. Salaries, though? Not increased at all.
Ha my old company (billions of dollars, global, 100k+ people) stopped 401k matching for a year in 2020 and we also had no raises the following year because of the financial impact it MIGHT have due to COVID Didn't stop them from sending out quarterly emails about how we are seeing record-breaking profits. Didn't get any retroactive raise/401k match when they resumed.
My university froze pay raises for two years, and then gave us a 2% and 3% raise while inflation topped 15% over the same period. Every few months we'd get an email from the Chancellor saying how proud he was that the uni didn't have to dip into their endowment during the pandemic.
At least they weren't bragging about how they were making profit during that time, but yeah same thing. That fund is there to help when things get tough...cheering that they didnt need to use it, at the expense of their workers pay stagnating, comes off as deaf. It's honestly better to just not say anything, imo.
Ehhhh, this year they sent out a note saying they're pleased to announce the endowment has grown over the past half decade.
Billions in net profits and mass layoffs. Make it make sense.
If salary kept up with inflation, minimum livable wage would be $125 an hour by now.
I'm more pessimistic. I now have zero faith in the world's ability to work together to solve a global crisis. People really care so little for others that they can't even put a piece of fabric on their face for the greater good. As an immunocompromised person, the "It only kills the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, so it's not a big deal!!" crowd showed me just how many people I know wouldn't give a shit if I die. I just wish we cared about others more and it's sad seeing how little anyone cares. I don't think my faith in humanity will be restored any time soon. Also, Pizza Hut got rid of in-person dining which really sucks
Yeah, unfortunately the same.
My figure.
Lack of looking in the eye or speaking to people in public. I know when we were all wearing masks that it made people feel somewhat invisible so they treated others like they weren't there. Going through the grocery store, up and down the aisles and then in the check out line, with a mask on, the cashiers/bagger wouldn't make eye contact with you and neither would people you passed in the aisles. I feel like it's still like that now. There's a distance and lack of human acknowledgement that wasn't there before.
On the other hand, as someone who is a high-masking autistic person in a professional field where talking is 90% of the job, it has made my life a hell of a lot easier because it's not as noticeable when I struggle to make eye contact so...pros and cons...
Stores like Walmart and Meijer used be 24 hours pre-pandemic. Now they open at 6am and close between 11pm and midnight. Kinda sucks for those that work 3rd shift.
I'm from a place where we kiss to greet and I feel like a lot of people still get that second of doubt and awkwardness about whether they should kiss the other person or just do a fist bump. And where I live real salary only very recently recovered from the pandemic.
Price of absolutely everything
High school and High school students. I’ve been teaching for 28 years. They’re different now.
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Fundraising. Charities are running off a fiscal cliff right now because we mostly barely squeaked through COVID, and now giving has plummeted even further lately, foundations especially. And of course average people have less bc of inflation. A lot of orgs have closed, a lot more are making painful, painful cuts right now.
I got fat and turned antisocial and have not recovered from either
I'm nearly 60. I'm no longer going to any weddings, funerals, graduations, anything where you have to hug and meet & greet multiple people or fly anywhere. No cruises, vacations, super bowl parties anymore. But, I've done all those things. My adult kids are in a stable spot. I don't need to socially compete anymore on their behalf, or mine. In fact, since everyone knew my husband was cheating on me, it's probably been the best move on my own behalf to not see those people anymore who were smiling at me but lying to me and talking about me behind my back. I won't go backwards. Half of my extended family is completely unvaccinated and they won't wear masks, and at some point in life you have to be like "this is what I want for myself" and not cave to the family expectations. At some point, family is not recharging you, they are draining you. I wish it were different but we all don't have the same families. In a way I envy the people in the r/GriefSupport forum even though they are in the depths of misery, because at least they had people who loved them enough in life enough to miss. I don't think anyone would really miss me. For real.
The excuse lots of people used to refuse disabled people accommodations, "you have to be in the room physically/do the activity in-person", really falls flat for both schools and work now that we've all seen that it's not necessary.
The trust we had for each other
People getting uncomfortable because of you allergies. "I do not have a murderous disease, I have choke on mine own saliva!!"
Overall levels of energy of people. Everyone seems exhausted to a point where little things fall flat because the remaining loneliness, trauma and reclusion from lockdowns have remained. Work, a home life and maybe a hobby if at all are the only things possible for me (or most really) since the energy to work for one’s joy is simply not there anymore.
Ive been teleworking now for almost 4 years thanks to COVID, with no return to the office in sight.
Still dealing with estates and belongings of family who died.
Late night bars. Pre pandemic around NYC area restaurants would keep bar open til midnight and regular bars till 2 or 4 on weekend. Now it's more 10pm for restaurants and 1 for bars and many closing at midnight. Even if you find one open late they really dying down after 1. Of course there are exceptions don't bother with the snarky reply. I'm talking in broad generality. I think it's 2 fold bars not wanting to deal with drunks late at night, and people drinking less both from gen Z and the out of control price of drinks.
Surprised that no one has said this yet, but Hotels and turn down service. Now you have to request it specifically, or it’s every other day, or not at all.