40 Interesting Answers To What Will Never Be The Same Once The Pandemic Is Over, As Said By People On Reddit

My marriage.

My wife and I had to work from home together (separate jobs) from March until September when she had to go back to the office. I am still working from home. During this time, we became increasingly closer. I have heard so many stories of marital problems being caused by Covid. I literally miss my wife everyday she has to go to work.

I meet her at the door like a fucking puppy. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Sometimes forced proximity does too.

Hopefully your boss will finally admit that all his dumb meetings actually could have been emails all along.

The phrase "avoid it like the plague" - turns out people don't do that.

Time spent with my kids.

Pre-pandemic I would leave the house 5 days a week at 6:15am to commute to the office, usually before anyone else in my house is awake. And I'd get home most evenings just in time to put them to bed. I'll never go back to that. The past 8 months I've actually seen my boys grow up in front of my eyes and I get lots of quality time with them every day, even with work from home.

I know now what i was missing.

A massive amount of people now know they can work from home.

I will not take hugs for granted.

Anytime you're sick, you'll wear a mask. I'm amazed at all the times I flew before when I had a cold, and didn't wear a mask.

Most of the mom and pop stores in my town are gone forever. Some of these stores I grew up with, the nickle arcade, the tiny French bakery my aunt took us to when we got good grades, the only ramen shop open after 10PM, my favorite donut shop, the fancy British tea shop I never had a good date in but many London Fogs that were utterly perfect, the only dim sum place, the handmade mochi and tea shop, the only cigar shop in town to get fancy cigars...

I lament the death of all these tiny businesses I took for granted. I always thought they'd be around. Now my community is left with just brand named box stores, no more originality and flavor. Just closed skyrise buildings surrounded by a garishly lit Denny's, Olive Garden, and Target.

Office life. My company has already announced that once we are allowed to go back, we'd only be going once or twice a week. It seems many realized how feasible working from home is.

My dogs have expected me to basically be around all the time and rub their belly’s 24/7

Blowing out the candles on your birthday cake

Working in an office, particularly in Japan.

I live in Japan. Going to the office and spending all day here is a deep cultural tradition. So many companies here, even in the early COVID days, flat out publicly said "Hah, no, we will NEVER be doing that 'work from home' thing, sorry. That's laughably naïve."

Then, the country issued a "Declaration of National Urgency" (not an actual Emergency, as that would entitle the govt to be actually accountable to the livelihoods of the people, just a very strong arm public stance and shaming businesses into following suit).

And those traditional Japanese businesses saw what happened to their bottom lines when they no longer had to pay for electricity, heating/AC, cleaning, office equipment and maintenance, subsidized travel expenses to/from work, soft items like coffee and snacks, etc... and so many of them now are singing the praises of a "sensible work from home policy" and planning for even long-term work-from-home options.

People coming into work sick to show how dedicated to work they are or saving those days for 'mental health days' meant ironically.

No Justin! Don't come over to my desk with your coughing and runny nose telling me how bad you're 'roughing it' at work to get some sympathy. "If you're looking for sympathy, look under the dictionary between shit and syphilis"!

I’m hoping that this convinces the (American, pretty much everyone else has this figured out already) masses that healthcare is a human right and should not be tied to employment. The pandemic has shown that plenty of people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, despite their best efforts and that should not condemn them to either going without healthcare or accumulating crippling debt when they lose their health insurance coverage.

As a current college student, I am in favor of keeping recorded lectures. It's way more helpful than just having notes or slides.

My definition of “personal space.”

Shopping will continue to be mostly online and malls will likely die out faster than they were already going to.

Health care workers going to work without a mask on. Definitely took for granted seeing my co workers smiling faces during my long shifts

Obliviousness to how many things I touched between hand washings

Literally this morning, our local paper reported that the government is aiming to achieve full internet coverage throughout Indonesia, reaching even the remote villages by 2024. We had a local meme as our boomer minister said a few years back something in the line of "Why do we need strong internet access?" It took the poor stealing smartphones for the sole purpose of letting their kids attend online classes to convince them. So the answer to the question is: some boomers' view on the value of internet accessability.