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plague journaling
Mar. 31st, 2020 06:00 pmI'm starting to hear other people at work pointing out that we're still expected to work in close quarters on the production floor, even as we're aggressively forbidden from getting near each other in the break room. This does nothing, except give me the satisfaction of knowing other people have noticed the foolishness and disregard for our safety.
Mum is looking through fabric face mask patterns to make some for us. Because we need to get food and supplies this weekend. So that's a thing that's happening.
In a marginally better universe (very marginally), we would just hole ourselves up at home for a month or so. Dad and I would stop going to work. I would have made one deluxe shopping run to stock up on nonperishables--beyond what we normally have on hand anyway. We wouldn't need to go out for a long time. We can last quite nicely on our own.
But neither of us is allowed to stop working. I mean, we could. But because we work in essential industries, our employers have no intention of giving us any kind of support. He doesn't even have any paid leave of any sort; I have about a week's work saved up. Because they are still running, we are expected to keep showing up. If we don't, it's treated as some kind of voluntary decision. A vacation!
Dim bastards.
So because we're both expected to continue working, with relatively few protections put in place for us, the shelter at home order feels sort of...pointless. If we're going to be exposed, if we're going to serve as disease vectors, it's already happening. We can't even keep mum safe, because here we are, in all our potentially-exposed glory, living in the same house. So why the fuck not? Why not go out to get groceries when we need them? It's not like we're going out for fun, or more often than we absolutely must. But making life more difficult and austere feels like an exercise is self-torment and futility both.
We're not being careless. But is that actually doing us any good?
You know what, though? Thanks to all the people who ARE just holed up, staying the fuck away from me and mine. You're doing more than our damn bosses are to keep us safe.
Mum is looking through fabric face mask patterns to make some for us. Because we need to get food and supplies this weekend. So that's a thing that's happening.
In a marginally better universe (very marginally), we would just hole ourselves up at home for a month or so. Dad and I would stop going to work. I would have made one deluxe shopping run to stock up on nonperishables--beyond what we normally have on hand anyway. We wouldn't need to go out for a long time. We can last quite nicely on our own.
But neither of us is allowed to stop working. I mean, we could. But because we work in essential industries, our employers have no intention of giving us any kind of support. He doesn't even have any paid leave of any sort; I have about a week's work saved up. Because they are still running, we are expected to keep showing up. If we don't, it's treated as some kind of voluntary decision. A vacation!
Dim bastards.
So because we're both expected to continue working, with relatively few protections put in place for us, the shelter at home order feels sort of...pointless. If we're going to be exposed, if we're going to serve as disease vectors, it's already happening. We can't even keep mum safe, because here we are, in all our potentially-exposed glory, living in the same house. So why the fuck not? Why not go out to get groceries when we need them? It's not like we're going out for fun, or more often than we absolutely must. But making life more difficult and austere feels like an exercise is self-torment and futility both.
We're not being careless. But is that actually doing us any good?
You know what, though? Thanks to all the people who ARE just holed up, staying the fuck away from me and mine. You're doing more than our damn bosses are to keep us safe.
