The Distance Between Us

Welcome to 2020. The Surreal world.

It feels like we’re somewhere in the third or fourth month of non-essential shutdown but the reality is that it has only been two weeks for me. It definitely feels like that hazy timeless week between Christmas and New Years where you don’t know the day, can’t remember if you should be at work, day drinking is normal and you debate whether anyone would care if you wore pants or not.

I’m thankfully still employed for the time being, but I’m not really working as I normally would. At most I go into work every couple of days to check on the store for insurance purposes and hang out with my co-managers for a couple of hours trying to “make plans” for when we do come back. The reality is we’re all in shock and can’t quite focus.

My company made the decision to pay all it’s part time staff globally through until the 4th of April which was unprecedented. Last week we were expecting they’d start the layoffs but were again surprised that they extended the pay for one more week. Again, everyone was grateful but we knew it wasn’t going to last forever — there’s only so much a company can do when they don’t have a revenue stream coming in.

The call came down yesterday. All part-timers were getting temporarily laid off. We had to go through and call our whole team and give them the bad news. Now like I said, we were all expecting it and everyone was very understanding when we told them but it was still one of the most emotionally draining moments I’ve had to deal with as a manager.

Sadly it’s not even the first time I’ve done it either…. Blockbuster…. Target… Hey, at least this time it’s only a temporary layoff.

I’ve spent the day today in a daze. I’m worn out. Mentally exhausted and I just want it to be over. This too shall pass… well, yeah. I suppose it will but it needs to hurry up and do so.