Covid-19 Fatigue is Home Fatigue

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Online stock pic.

Pandemic fatigue or exhaustion is trending. Maybe it has always been there. I just never noticed. What is missing from the malady is ‘home’.

Loosely defined, COVID-19 fatigue comes from being at home and not outside, in places that give us joy and peer validation. It’s easier to blame the virus for the frustration but we know the truth.

Home is not fulfilling, despite the corner house with a pond or penthouse condominium, expensive furniture, German automobiles,  gadgets for every vegetable and electronics.

Home is just an airport where we refuel while waiting for the next flight out of Toronto Pearson International Airport, Berlin Tegel Airport, LAX, John F. Kennedy, London Heathrow, Ministro Pistarini International in Argentina, or Cairo International.

The pandemic has exposed us like the frog’s butt, to use a Zulu proverb. Staying at home dismantles the fallacy that it’s a warm place, with people we love and who love us back.

One year of Covid-19 is a stark reminder that we are powerless at home, the main reason why we miss the office or the shop floor. We command respect at work, not because the staff loves us, but because of our capability to promote, demote and remove.

We are somebody at work because there’s structure. We have titles, we wear white or gray lab coats which denote our rank. Indeed, we have parking reserved for Chief Financial Officer or Chief Medical Supervisor, all others will be towed away at your expense.

The traditional office with four walls is a thing of the past as more workplaces opt for open space, but still, where we sit in that open space denotes our importance.

What we cannot forgive the pandemic for, is robbing us of choice. Working 9-5 gave us the choice to take a sabbatical from home most days. Not anymore. We’re marooned here and it gnaws us to such an extent that we call it pandemic fatigue.

This is another ‘written podcast’ from Nonqaba waka Msimang.

 

 

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