First day back to work…in the COVID era

Returned back to the office.  It was surreal and quite the comedy of errors. 

I needed to get organized for returning back to working in the office; just when I was starting to get into the groove of working from home

In anticipation of returning to work. I spent the week-end putting away my winter coats, boats and refreshing my closet with my summer and spring attire. Hey – we had snow in May, so it was not laziness motivating this decision, but just being cautious. And the last time I was at the office, I was wearing winter attire. However, when the temperate spiked at 30 degrees Celsius, mid May, that would have been the better time to put away the boots. But again – where was I going? I digress.

To reward myself for my Spring/Summer wardrobe update, I cleaned the house from top to bottom (as I do every week-end), so that this would reduce the guilt I would be experiencing throughout the week for leaving my husband to navigate working from home and taking care of the kids, on his own!

The drive in was easy. I decided to only bring half of the things I had brought home to work from home, back to the office. But there was still quite a lot to bring in.

When I arrived, I realized that the entrance leading to my office had the arrows on the ground walking away from my office. Our new social distancing measures.   As I arrived early, and had a load of stuff, I ignored the arrows and quickly walked to my office without getting caught or running into anyone.  Then I saw an enormous bottle of hand sanitizer on my desk ( a gift to everyone at the office), which I elected to use.  First off, it was not foamy or gel like, but pure liquid in a pump.  And so my outfit got drenched in sanitizer.  And because it had a high alcohol component, I smelled like a gin distillery.   OK  – my punishment for not following the arrows! Note to self; don’t use hand sanitizer before getting into the vehicle – the smell of alcohol is that strong!

The last time I was in my office was at the beginning of April. Since that time, I guess whoever else was in the office and needed a snack, knew that I kept a lot of snack foods at the office.  To put it simply; my snacks had been pilfered.  And the best part were that the empty boxes were left for me (my Costco purchase of Sesame Snacks – just the box, my Celebration chocolates from England – just the container).  OK – another punishment for not following the arrows.  How much punishment did that warrant? 

And then I settled in and have been helping our Summer Students who started yesterday, get oriented. I also experienced working at a desk with a proper chair and support- Ahh Bliss!  

Still doing most of my meetings via Zoom (even internal meetings), and speaking to colleagues with them standing in the doorway. I have been wearing my mask and gloves to navigate the stairs and elevator and have been very careful in my dealings with everyone.

There have been some positives, especially in law, as a result of the pandemic. Our ability to conduct hearings and motion before the Court, remotely, has been a positive. The ability to conduct examinations for discovery remotely has been a positive. However, I think that we are all Zoomed out! But we have to adapt. My kids never used laptops to do school work before the pandemic hit and now, are on them every week day. It is not ideal, but they are adapting.

We are missing just feeling an ease, seeing loved ones and friends and I am looking forward to the slow and steady steps, to transition into our new normal…..until the next wave hits.

But that’s just one Diva’s view.