Sunday night blues (185/365)

[white_hart]

Current state of the me: very much wishing I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm not sure I actually feel appreciably less tired than I did a week and a bit ago (not helped by being woken up at 6am by a peculiar flapping noise and having to get out of bed to check whether a pigeon had somehow got trapped inside the window, though I think it was just flapping very loudly outside), and none of the things that were difficult and stressful the week before last will be any less difficult or stressful now.

I'm also feeling very apprehensive about the suggestion that, despite rapidly rising case numbers (cases in central Oxford rose by nearly 1000% in the week to 29 June) the government will go ahead and lift all restrictions in two weeks' time, leaving it up to people's common sense whether they continue to wear face coverings, maintain social distancing etc. Apart from the fact that I have very little faith in people's common sense, that ignores the whole point that wearing a mask primarily protects other people from any germs the wearer might be carrying, so essentially non-mask-wearers will be able to completely exclude people who are still worried about the virus from public spaces. I really hope the university will continue to require face coverings indoors, or I'm going to feel a lot less comfortable about being in the office, and I'm also wondering whether my plan to start using the bus again soon is really a sensible one.

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

The Oxford rates seem to rocket up every time I open it, it's very concerning. Especially Javid going on that of course rates will get lots higher as we reopen, as if this is just something that's fine.

[white_hart]

It took me over an hour this morning to go through and log the positive cases from last week. (C was doing immediate response, but I must have forgotten to brief her on the log.)

[anna_wing]

You have my full sympathy.

Keeping your mask on, regardless of what other people are doing, and keeping your distance is probably the safest thing for you to do. A well-fitting, washable, double-layer cloth mask, with a nose-wire and a filter pocket for an additional filter sheet isn't bad at keeping you uninfected. Get enough to rotate them daily, washing in hot water.

I wish you good luck and continued good health.

[white_hart]

Thank you.

[callmemadam]

Bournemouth, a few miles away, is now a hotspot for new cases. Much as I hate it, I'll continue to wear a mask. I don't trust people's common sense, either.

[white_hart]

I don't think anyone who's ever actually met a person would trust in people's common sense!

[perennialanna]

We cannot even rely on parents to keep a coughing and feverish child out of the classroom and book them a test. My faith in common sense is non-existent.

And I can't work from home. We tried it.

[white_hart]

Given the number of students at a world-leading university who appear to be incapable of reading the bit of the email that says "thank you for logging your positive LFD test, please book a PCR test" or say they haven't been on university premises and then when you email them to confirm that they say "well, I was only in the library", I also seriously doubt the existence of common sense.

I can work from home, at least, but I am utterly fed up with having my personal space taken up with work.

[alithea]

I am really furious that the UK Gov are talking about not requiring masks or distancing indoors - it seems like an easy and obvious measure to keep in place even if they're determined to let all venues reopen at increased capacity. I am going to buy some more protective masks and will be using a proper full protection dust mask in the service station when we go on holiday if things are bad in early Sept.

[white_hart]

Everyone I have spoken to is horrified. One of my staff asked whether I had the power to enforce mask-wearing in our offices at least...

[alithea]

Also, I'm really sorry to hear you're not rested after your break. But yeah, family visits aren't the same as a holiday.

[white_hart]

They aren't. Also, I think my ADs may have been making me tired - I remember that happened when I took them before, and am experimenting with dropping back down to 20mg a day on the grounds that the extra 10mg I was prescribed hasn't really made any difference, mostly because ADs can't actually fix burnout.

[alithea]

I hope dropping back down again helps with the tiredness at least, I don't like the increased side effects from taking mine at a higher dose either and have cut right back again since we got settled in the cottage.

Burnout is a bugger, I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that most of my MH issues after Dad died were actually burnout. I hope your personnel wrangles help your workload soon.