ExpatW

In Covid 19

Day 5: Extreme Boredom

March 21, 2020 No Comments

I have a low tolerance for boredom. The apartment is 65sqm. Netflix is playing up. I got out for a walk and to pick up a baguette. There is still a full range of cakes, pastries and patisserie at the bakery. Clearly these are considered items of primary necessity here. The fish shop was open as well as the butchery and delicatessen. All staff are dressed like surgeons – masks, gloves, the lot. There is tape on the floor marking out 1m distances at the checkouts. Fresh food has arrived back at the supermarket, still no bread though. Strangely, all the flour is gone but there is still loo paper. Not much cheese, again, considered a primary necessity.

Really wish I’d bought a thermometer before lockdown too – none left at the pharmacy and they can’t order any in. If the cough that I’ve developed gets worse tomorrow, I’ll head to the special clinic set up by the hospital.

This is the first day of proper isolation for me as I don’t have work to go to so no real excuse to go out. Police have been stopping people at the roundabout checking their papers. The fine is now 135 euros if you are outside without one of the five reasons.

Back at the apartment, well let’s see. I have a cat. A TV on the blink. A work whatsapp group to exchange memes on. A half-empty bottle of wine. Home-made chicken soup. That’s about it.

Oh and Alexa. Thank God I have Alexa. Alexa is great. She’ll tell me lame french jokes, play me motivational music, change my TV channel for me, switch on my room diffuser, tell me interesting facts about armadillos, and advise me on the best cleaning products to buy. Even tell me a bedtime story if I want it or help me meditate and tell me to do exercise.

Yessirreee boredom has set in. Bored Bored BORED. Time to make a list of things I’ve always wanted to do that I’ve put off because I didn’t have the time. Unfortunately it mostly involves travel. But there is the blog site to set up. I could keep writing my book. Learn german and luxembourgish. One person suggested I prepare all the documents for my tax return. That won’t be boring at all.

Thank God for memes! Here’s some boredom-easing inspirational ideas for all you self-isolators out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrWQOn-M28w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsE_nG9TxkQ

In Covid 19

Day 4: Wellbeing

March 20, 2020 No Comments

After a long week working long hours developing and putting in place safety plans, it was evident that the level of tension was palpable. After all, no one likes to be told what to do, no one likes having rules forced on them even if they‘re for their own good, and no one likes to think about why they are at work when others get to stay home. My boss summed it up nicely when she told us to stop working long hours. “It’s not a sprint. This will be like this till at least the end of April”

How could we expect people to keep coming in if what they were coming in to was tense and full of rules? Especially when we’d shut down some of their fun zone because we couldn’t stick to the 1m rule? Yes you need to take it seriously and put in place safety plans. But if you’re an industry where you’re delivering people’s basic essentials, you want people to keep coming in and realise the service they’re delivering to people in isolation.

So once people are reassured and feel safe , I would say it’s really important to lighten the mood, ease the tension, create an environment of wellbeing to reduce anxiety. Otherwise people are surrounded by a sense of doom and panic. This just does not help.

Other than the usual get-enough-sleep, do some exercise, eat your (frozen) greens advice, I’d say the next best is encouragement and have some fun. No virus is gonna beat us. We’re gonna nail this sucker. My team is still coming in and I want to keep it that way. Other sites aren’t so lucky. I started thanking people for coming in. Handing out little morale boosters (chocolate). Keeping communication lines open, having a good ol’ laugh.

There are about a 1000 coronavirus memes going around, and daft as they are, they are seriously helping. So remember to add laughter to your list of things to stock up on.

Don’t spread the virus, spread the memes.

In Covid 19

Day 3: The One-Metre Rule

March 19, 2020 No Comments

Are you a hugger? Not any more. I spend a lot of my day motivating people to respect the one metre rule, dealing with issues related to the one metre rule, trying to read other people‘s computer screens from one metre away, and generally trying to remember the one metre rule myself. One mistimed cough sends people gasping and scurrying.

Plus, I‘m a hugger. It‘s hard. The french are kissers and hand-shakers. In fact, french workplaces have quite formal protocols about how one is supposed to greet people at work. I would be very wealthy if I had a euro for every time I got interrupted because someone arrived at work and needed to “bonjour” me and shake my hand or kiss me depending on how well they felt they knew me. Not any more.

This is the shattering of a cultural norm. People don’t know what to do with themselves except complain about le nouvel ordre. It’s a surreal feeling of being distant and disconnected despite being surrounded by 500 people each day at work. Having part of my day spent forcing people to move apart from each other. I should have been a nun at a convent school dance back in the day.

Try it. Try for a day to keep one metre away from the people around you. No hugging, no shaking hands, not even a backslap or a high five.