New Normal

I will be returning to work starting July 6th. I mean, I've been working from home since before the stay at home order started. But, we are hoping our county will move to green soon (we just moved to yellow this past Friday) and therefore it will be time to physically return to work. In the beginning I was very anxious to get back to work. Now, somehow I flipped and do not want to return to work at all. I don't know at what point this happened, but here we are now. Regardless, I will need to return to work, if I like to keep eating and paying for all the stuff I keep buying online. Unfortunately, the powers that be, who had been cooking up a plan to change our working hours prior to the whole pandemic quarantine thing, have used this as an opportunity to push their agenda. For 10 years I have worked from 8:30 - 4:30 Monday through Friday. Now, we are being asked to extend our hours to be open from 8 am to 8 pm Monday through Thursday and Friday from 8 am to 4 pm. Oh, and Saturday from 9 am to 11 am. What the actual fuck? I understand the need to be open later hours for folks who work second shift (although, you would think 20 years ago when they created the job centers nationally, they could have considered this?), but this makes things harder. We have been home, working and doing the best we can, trying to make it through all of this and now, as we are figuring out how to open things up, we get slammed with some big new change. As I contemplated how to make this work for my family, it made me more and more angry. I need my job, but I did not sign up for this and these hours were going to be hell on my family. At one point my supervisor mentioned my coworker (who is the lowest in seniority and by union rules, should have the last choice on new hours) had custody of her kids 60% of the time and therefore couldn't work Monday evenings. I lost my shit. I didn't yell, but I emphatically told my supervisor, "I completely understand. I have custody of my children 100% of the time. So, I am not trying to be unsympathetic to the needs of the team, but these extended hours are a real hardship for me and my family. And, if this is going to be an indefinite change, I need to brush up my resume and consider other options. I need to do what is best for my family." My coworker friend will be taking a promotion to another job when we return to work, so I know it scared my supervisor, to think of losing two of the career advisors who know their jobs and do them well. Eventually, it was worked out that I would work from home on Monday's and work from 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday. This schedule works until the kids go back to school. And then I will need to either see if the daycare can take them to school in the morning or hope and pray the powers that be revert back to our normal hours. My supervisor promised the board would "take a look" at the data to see if the extended hours are needed. I don't know if I believe they will actually consider the data, since it was already on their agenda. Thus far, I am not enjoying this "new normal."

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