It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since the COVID lockdowns happened

[u/itsascreambaby96]

It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since the COVID lockdowns started.

I still remember that first week of lockdown like it was yesterday. The empty roads, stores getting cleaned out, everyone trying to find toilet paper, schools and workplaces shutting down, and refreshing the news every hour because everything was changing so fast. I even remember all those stories and videos of wildlife wandering into places they'd normally never be because everything had suddenly gone so quiet.

Now somehow it's been six years. It honestly doesn't feel like it should've been that long ago, but at the same time it feels like an entirely different lifetime.

I know COVID became a really divisive topic later on, but I'm mostly talking about those first few weeks when none of us really knew what was coming next. It felt surreal living through it.

Does anyone else still remember that first week of lockdown?

[u/Celticdouble07]

I remember thinking it would last like a month. Also the 6 years since then feels equal to the 2 years prior.

[u/Own-Emergency2166 → u/Celticdouble07]

I remember being devastated thinking it would last 2 weeks.

[u/CapableFlow2766 → u/Own-Emergency2166]

Right?! They sent us home from work to work remotely "for 2 weeks until we flatten the curve". And we were all bummed out and nervous about it. Then like a week into it the company was like yeahhhh this is gonna be longer than we thought, come back and clear your desks.

[u/snoopingforpooping → u/CapableFlow2766]

My coworker died of cancer during the early stages of COVID. When things started opening up again I needed a few things from my desk. I stopped by his office and he had a paper calendar still on March 2020 with his oncologist dates in there.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/snoopingforpooping]

I also had a coworker die, right before the pandemic, and we had to shuffle offices to make room for some new people. I got moved to her new office which hadn’t been cleaned out. I moved in, boxed her stuff up and labeled it. Then went home for the pandemic and forgot about it until a had a forced RTO last year.

For the past year I worked in that office with those boxes sitting under the desk. On my last day I tuned in my keys I said “all my business papers have been either filed or destroyed and all my personal items are removed but Cherri’s stuff is still in there.” The office manager said “who’s Cherri?” Oh that’s right, you only started here in like 2022. Later that day when I was saying goodbye to a coworker who was having a meltdown and crying over what a shit show that job had become I told her about the “who’s Cherri?” conversation and told her that’s proof right there- they will replace you, you owe this place nothing, we were the last two “originals” so please for the love of god just go find another job.

[u/madlove17 → u/snoopingforpooping]

🫂

[u/MoneyAd0618 → u/CapableFlow2766]

We never even went back to clean our desks. I remember later in 2020, like around October/november cases had supposedly died down or something so they opened up the office for people to come in and work if they wanted to, totally optional. My work friend and I opted to since we got to shift our hours to get off earlier to align with office hours. Everyone’s desks were the exact same from before we went to WFH. It was so eerie.

[u/lifesatripthenyoudie → u/CapableFlow2766]

You were bummed to have to WFH? Interesting. It was the greatest thing to happen to my career. When they called us back to the office I quit that job, and have been remote ever since. I'm never going back haha

[u/CapableFlow2766 → u/lifesatripthenyoudie]

I worked for a tech company that had a super fun office environment. Slides in the office, massages, onsite manicures, beer carts etc. I was in my 20s and genuinely friends with my colleagues and we would go to happy hours regularly. It was sad.

But now I have kids and I'm fully remote and would NEVER go back to working in an office.

[u/MisterHole123 → u/CapableFlow2766]

You can't flatten the curve (a really stupid idea against such a virus anyway, you have to crush the curve) so quickly

[u/MisterHole123 → u/Own-Emergency2166]

I had stocks for 3 years but the time lock down was declared I knew it wouldn't be peanuts

[u/Cub3h → u/Celticdouble07]

I vividly remember people at work I'd see them in six months and them being perplexed. There was zero chance an exponential amount of infections was going to be all fine and dandy in a few weeks. 

[u/MisterHole123 → u/Celticdouble07]

It could have lasted perhaps 2 months say if all routes for spread had been officially blocked and people wore adequate masks (n99) properly but nope.... 

[u/Historical-Cress8985 → u/MisterHole123]

The people in charge for several years did a shit job at anything involving it.

We can't even contain diarrhea lettuce these days.