So here we are again in lockdown 2 but this time we’re old hands at incarceration. As we adapt, it is easier to see the silver linings to our new way of living. JOMO is the new FOMO. While nobody would have wished for another lockdown, there are undeniably some benefits in winter. Here are my own personal reasons to celebrate the joy of missing out on office life during lockdown 2.
1) Getting up in the dark: this is the first time in twenty years of office life that I can wake up in daylight during the winter. And what a difference that makes.
2) Waiting for the train that never comes – who could forget the joy of witnessing your breath hang in the air while peering forlornly into the distant track for the non-existent train to appear.
3) Leaving my umbrella on the train – without fail, every time it rains, I put my soggy umbrella under my seat only to depart without it every time I descend at Moorgate.
4) Getting soaked from tube to office – as a consequence of leaving my umbrella behind, I regularly turn up at the office resembling a drowned rat. Not a great look to start the day.
5) Queuing for a cup of tea – once ensconced in the office, my first destination is the staff kitchen to make that all important first brew of the day. Only to find that the rest of the department have got there first.
6) Enduring wonky heating – if you work in an older building, you may well be familiar with cantankerous heating. Mondays are a test of endurance as the system slowly cranks into action. After numerous complaints to Facilities, the heating wreaks its revenge by transforming the office into a Swedish sauna by Wednesday.
7) Queues for the toilets – while I’ll miss the festive fun of Christmas pub outings, I won’t miss the endless queues for the toilets. Or what you might find when you finally secure a cubicle.
8) Office revelers on the tube home – hell is other people they say. Never is this saying more apt than when travelling home on the tube surrounded by screeching, can swinging, vomiting office party revellers.
9) Travelling home in the dark – we end our days as they began shrouded in darkness on the commute home. How lucky we are to be at home sipping Earl Grey tea and drawing the curtains on it all.
Are you experiencing the joy of missing out in lockdown 2? Let me know below what you are grateful to be missing out on.
Captures the essence of moments we’ve all experienced “..the joy of witnessing your breath hang in the air while peering forlornly into the distant track for the non-existent train..” and “..wreaks revenge by transforming the office into a Swedish sauna by Wednesday..”, ha, ha! I’m reminded of my scribbling from February 2016 describing the daily commute to work in London…
– Make lunch night before
– Alarm goes off at 6am
– Ablutions, breakfast, etc
– Leave home at 7:20am and walk 20 mins to station
– Stand in particular spot for train doors to optimise best chance of getting a seat
– Wait 10 mins for train
– Train delayed by 15 mins
– Avoid sitting at seat next to window due to lack of foot room caused by floor trunking
– Sit next to large person & be squashed or stand with others for entire 40 min journey
– Endure tinny music playing on white earphones from person nearby
– Listen to loud mobile phone conversation by person nearby
– Be amazed at woman doing her makeup
– Wonder if the train will run slowly for the whole journey while waiting for driver announcement
– Arrive at destination station 25 mins late
– Walk along platform & dodge people getting off train while looking at mobile phones
– Fumble to find ticket
– Funnel slowly through cramped ticket barriers whilst juggling bag, gloves, umbrella, ticket, etc
– Fumble to put ticket away
– Dodge people on concourse going in all directions
– Walk up steps to exit station out of breath and immediately inhale cigarette smoke from people smoking at entrance
– It’s raining, put up umbrella as quickly as possible
– Dodge free newspaper vendors
– Wait for pedestrian lights to change at busy road crossing while breathing car fumes & more cigarette smoke
– Deal with noise from cars, busses, trucks, etc
– Dodge cyclists that don’t stop when traffic lights do eventually change in our favour
– Repeat road crossing antics during 30 min walk to workplace
– Repeatedly dodge zombie army; predominantly young women wearing white earphones, texting while walking holding mobile phone in their right hand and cardboard coffee cup in the left
– Arrive at workplace 1 hour and 50 mins later requiring toilet and in need of a cup of tea
– Start work
Mostly repeat when work finishes 9 hours later to go home!