Oakvillian

on masks, my offspring have reported that - despite the mandate being dropped from yesterday in Ontario schools - more than half the kids in the upper grades of elementary school (so roughly 10-13 years old) were masked in the corridors but not in the classrooms "because the hallways are crowded and nobody wants to breathe in each other's germs." I wonder how gradually that proportion will decrease. Teachers were almost universally still masked in the classroom, we heard. Fewer masks in high school, but they spend less time in the common areas.

I started a new job in January, fully WFH with the expectation that we'd move to some kind of hybrid model at some unspecified future point. There's a vague plan that the few of us in my team who are based in Toronto will head into the office on Thursday, so that we can meet each other in person and do our bit of a team meeting in a shared space, while a bunch of other people in the Montreal office do the same. The one or two in each of the other locations around the country (I think there are people in Halifax, Quebec, Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria) won't be bothering as there's no point in joining the same Teams meeting from the office that you could join from home. My boss is very much of the opinion that there's no point in going in to the office for the sake of being in the office, but when there's a specific opportunity to collaborate in person then the office is available and we should consider using it. I haven't met any of my colleagues in person, nor do I yet have an access pass for the office. I think I may end up going in on average one day a week, but it'll depend on what I'm up to on that day and whether people I need to talk to will also be in the office. IMO there's something to be gained from in-person discussions, but it's not always worth the hassle of getting to the same physical location as the person you're having that discussion with.

dbd33

I went to the dentist and a grocery store in Guelph this morning. Everyone I saw was wearing a mask. The dental hygienist said that, at her child's school in Mississauga mask wearing is still at around 80%

An email arrived asking if, in light of hybrid working, a subsidized parking space at $300/month with an implied taxable benefit of $100 would be wanted. Not very much, thank you.

Oakvillian's post prompts me to think that very few of our team have access passes for the office. I'll let that sit for the time being. Also that, before covid, my boss who lives in Oakville, almost never came to the building in Guelph, instead she usually went to an office in Burlington. I suppose that arrangement will resume with hybrid working making the whole thing slightly more bonkers.

Paul_Shepherd

On the mask front, the only mandates remaining are the ones I agree with.... hospitals, long term care homes, public transport etc. or any other place where you have a gathering of elderly or vunerable people.

Everywhere else, I think the virus has come to a stage now where everyone should be free to make their own decision... and importantly we should respect each others decision, it should not be judged either way.

BristolUK

Does that include an at risk person making a choice to use a cattle prod on you if you get too close?

bats

i wish! people seem to have given up on the 2m distance thing.
At the hygienist this morning everyone was masked then off to meet a friend for lunch in a bistro/caff type place. Servers weren't masked so i wanted that cattle prod then. Everyone else came in masked. a couple of shops later and everyone was masked. I wonder how long this will last.

Obviously i can be retired just as easily from home as out in the wild and my previous occupation just can't be done at home. However I once had a mostly office based job and everyone now and then we could work from home, it was really useful for getting a report finished on time with no distractions - part from minesweeper, I played a lot of minesweeper. This was in the 90s so video calls and slow webthingy so waste away the hours.

dbd33

This was enough scraping of the screen to get me rolling this morning. Return to office means five months per year of driving like this (at least for the first ten miles). Ugh!

BEVS

I wish. We have an unvaxxed neighbour I would like to cattle prod. No thought for anyone but herself.

Paul_Shepherd

Well we all have our own opinions, and this is what is important respect for each other's opinions. My opinion is that there comes a time when we have to get out there move on and try and live a normal life again, we can't live like this for eternity, if not now, when is the right time?

As I have mentioned before I have done everything thats been asked of me for the last two years, triple vaccinated, even isolated for over a week when I had covid, had to rely on my freezer supplies for food! To the majority of average people with an average bill of health, covid is now nothing more than a cold. that is all I and a friend experienced who caught it at the same time, I am sure my vaccinations helped, which is what we were encouraged to get them for.

So now I want to be back at work, take a flight if need be, and not have the worry about getting back into the country, enjoy going to a restaurant or pub and go to music concerts without having to worry about a mask, the two don't go hand in hand!. .... just a normal life again, I think we all need that



.

dbd33

That's a point. I know of people who are unvaxxed and have not been fired because they've been working remotely. I suppose the return to office will entail forgiving them. That'll be a can of worms if those who were disengaged find out.

BristolUK

Personally I feel respect for each other's well-being is more important and while I appreciate there is a mental well-being involved too, everyone can be accommodated with the single measure of mask wearing in given situations.
All perfectly reasonable desires. But whereas you want to board a plane without a mask, others would want to board a plane without getting covid that would be worse for them than you. So I would hope you'd be willing to mask up for the flight. Ditto for a concert, library, museum or whatever.

Anywhere that makes distancing difficult, confined space and so on, masks could be required. That's all. One simple measure.

In the big supermarkets, distancing is easy. You could probably even not bother with a mask there, provided nobody leans over your shoulder to reach something and they have a single distanced line for the tills that you don't go to until electronically called. And you can guarantee there are no selfish jerks. Maybe there might be time slots for vulnerable and/or masked shopping.

But how about all those people normally able to do their shopping locally, popping in and out of the butcher, greengrocer and so on. Those premises are small and potentially busy with people very close to each other. A haven for spreading covid. Just that one measure of wearing a mask would make a huge difference allowing everyone to shop there.

How about bus rides? People will ride the bus to help get on with their lives but if they're at risk and people are not masked up it's a big problem.

Vulnerable people have also done all that's been asked of them. They need (not want) to get on the bus and/or go local shopping in small shops.

sharkus

Went to the pub last night, thought it might feel a little odd walking in without a mask, but it didn't, had the usual enjoyable evening. Was nice to actually see the full faces of the staff, some of which we'd never met pre-pandemic so we didn't actually know what they really looked like.

ArthurBrit

Not to be too antagonistic but I find this is an amusing comparison with an alternate scenario.

During COVID times my works health and safety team decided to remove Air freshener from the toilets. One particular day someone went into the toilets and gagged from the smell (the toilet was truly sans air freshener). So obviously we all had some laughs over the scenario but eventually I said to the guy who's the face of the H+S department "why can we be subjected to smell crap, but we're not allowed to smell air freshener. His response was "One is completely natural and the other is not.

If I used his logic to the COVID debate surely the companies policy regarding vaccinations is completely flawed?

Paul_Shepherd

I think there is a compromise for both sides in our current scenario. As i said in my initial post, I still have no problem with masks in long term care settings, hospital, retirement home, public transit, these are all close quarters settings and/or essential services that vunerable people cannot avoid.

But there are many other places that are not classed as essential activities, like pubs, restaurants music concerts, how can you wear a mask at a music concert? it ruins the whole experience. I don't agree with ,masks in these environments, if you don't feel safe don't go, its not an essential service to go to a pub restaurant or music concert. There are risks in everyday life, we take a risk by stepping outside the door, getting in our cars, crossing the road, we can't continually wrap ourselves in cotton wool forever.

bats

Masks make it difficult for me to hear as I often need to supplement my electronic ears with lipreading others. It's been a difficult two years because of that so i can see that as a very good reason not to be masked. On the other hand part way through this pandemic I was diagnosed with a serious genetic cardiac condition which places me firmly in the vulnerable category and because of that I avoid the maskless. I probably did have the lurgy and couple of months back, mild but still unpleasant. and I really don't want to risk getting it again. I'm wearing an N95 and hoping that it protects me. I appreciate it when others are considerate enough to wear a mask

dbd33

You can do it if you listen with your ears and not your mouth or nose.