N.B. I started writing this blog post in early April musing on what the return to “normal” would look like, and I’m pretty smug about how I accurately I predicted it.
And so a new academic year begins as we are all being told to return to work as normal, but WTF is normal now? It is important to note that most peoples normal is a healthy pendulum swing between hard and shite. I am very lucky that I love my job, but daily life is hard going: rarely in my house, either in work or in the car, constantly rushing, always late, always hungry, always tired, etc. This is true for most people but why should this be the norm?
The lockdown forced everything to be slower. We couldn’t get anything or anywhere fast, FOMO was on hold and if you were/are lucky enough to still have a wage/decent furlough, the time to fanny about had arrived. For a time, this was the new normal. Now we’re being forced to board a fast train back to mediocrity, with politicians guilting us back onto public transport and into shared offices and workspaces in order to save a fucking Pret, whilst selling us this faux fairtale of how boss communal work spaces are.
I get a 30 minute dinner “hour”. If I finish my teaching on time, it takes approx 3 mins to walk down the stairs to canteen or front entrance (equidistant) with another 5 min swift stride to the nearest decent buttie shop (which closed pre-lockdown). Another 5 min walk back, 3 mins to ascend the stairs to the Music office (we don’t have a staff room - it’s not allowed) where I sit at a desk wolfing my food down whilst answering emails for approx 8 mins. This leaves me 6 mins in which to go the loo, fill my water bottle and get back to my teaching space in order to begin teaching on time. This my friends, is a bullshit dinner hour.
Teaching during lockdown meant that it was exactly 30 seconds from my office to my kitchen, in which I could cook myself some eggs, brew a nice coffee, chat to my kid, pee in my own toilet as opposed to a shared one and generally allow my shoulders drop a bit more.
As I type all of this lets all remember that the answer is very much non-binary: working from home is a privilege and works well for me currently, but I wouldn’t like to do it forever as the solitude would get to me and nothing can replace face-to-face teaching and interactions with people. Even the people I don’t like. In fact, especially the ones I don’t like (😈). Working in offices does provide community and structure, but can also be stifling and toxic depending on the environment and the people you work with and for. Its all about balance babes, but it is a balance that should be interrogated at every level and on an individual basis. So yeah, Utopia….
As Vivian sagely states in Pretty Woman “Now everything is different and you changed that, and you can’t change it back”. Lets see what the new academic term brings...
Recommends
Song: “In Your Own Sweet Way” Wes Montgomery.
TV: “Selling Sunset”. They are all vile with no redeeming features whatsoever, but I can’t stop watching it.
Book: “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House” by Audre Lorde.
Other shit: The High Low Podcast is back and I’m gassed. Thoroughly missed these posh funny bright women.