25 Pre-Pandemic Activities That Nobody Wants to Return to

1. Not having curbside pickup. With kids, it has been great to not have to get them out/in the car for a quick pickup at a store. I assume this has been a blessing for those with disabilities who can drive but still struggle getting out and into a car.

2. Not getting overtime on salary. Pay me or f*ck off.

3. Bras with wires in them

4. Fake cough in public to hide the sound of passing gas. Now we just pass gas to hide the cough

5. Treat my job title like it's my family name.

Nah, I give you labor and you give me money, that's the extent of our relationship and much like anyone trading time for money, others will pay me for my time.

Not a chance I will ever again bleed, sweat, or cry for a f**king employer. Never ever again.

6. As a teacher, have kids turn in physical copies of work.

Every student has a laptop or Chromebook now due to remote learning and it's gonna stay that way, so everything is turned in digitally. It's so nice being able to just upload the work I want them to do without having to bother making copies and hope that the machines aren't down, and I just grade everything on the computer. No more having kids tell me they handed me an assignment and accusing me of losing it, I can just check to see if they submitted it or not. It makes my life so much easier and it saves a ton of paper.

7. I really REALLY love the accessibility of doing Doctor visits over the phone or Zoom.

8. Just delivery of my groceries in general instead of going to the supermarket is something I plan to keep. It's f*cking convenient as hell. Some people can't pick produce for their life but if that's all I have to go pick up myself that's fine by me.

9. Standing ass to d*cks in line, I love how everyone, at least in my area, just kept up with the social distancing when standing in line at the cashier.

10. Taking a job that's not mostly/fully remote.

11. Punish students for having an illness. Once my university started talking about how there would no longer be penalties for being sick, it started the discussion about why there were ever penalties to begin with.

12. Wear a full face of makeup to work. I used to take at least an hour to get ready for work, now I take like 30 min (high school teacher)

13. Restaurants not doing carry out. My 2 favorite local places outright refused to do carry out until the pandemic hit. I really hope they don’t end it. I love getting the food my wife and I enjoy but being able to go home and eat it without a bunch of randos around.

14. Live in a city for my job.

I absolutely hated going remote for the first year. emails were so much slower than just asking the guy sitting next to me, I missed making small talk, or going out for lunch, company-sponsored events. I still don’t like zoom meetings but I can tolerate it now. Now that I’m farther removed I realized a lot of that was just something I was “used to” instead of something I enjoyed. My rent is almost 50% lower now and I’m only 10 miles from where I used to live downtown. I still have access to the city and if they need us in quarterly I can do a longer commute here and there. I’m not paying $200 a month for a parking spot. I get to live a quieter life in a quieter area, and when my significant other and I are ready, We’ll be able to purchase a house pretty much anywhere we want.

15. I certainly am very careful about what I touch and the people I'm around. When I'm in public I try and stay spaced out and not touch anything if not necessary.

16. Birthday cake/candles

“Here, I exhaled heavily on this, please eat it.”

17. Feeling bad about calling in

18. The "Night Life". This pandemic has made me love staying home on a Friday night and not doing anything. No obligations to hang out with friends. No more FOMO. Just me alone gaming all night and waking up the next day with no hangover.

19. Accepting people's invitations just because they invite me, not because I actually want to see them.

20. Daily commute. Our company is committed to 3 days a week max in the office. I’ve been in twice since the pandemic and the colossal amount of wasted time really stunned me.

21. Work in open offices. They were waking nightmares for me even before, what with no privacy, routinely being a dull roar and requiring noise-canceling headphones to be able to think clearly, and I f**king hate bosses watching me like buzzards eyeing a dying water buffalo. Now that I've worked remotely for years, including now for an absurdly well-known company, I ain't coming back to your dogsh*t open offices. I'll come back if you give me my own office. Oh, you won't give me one? And you want me in the office at least two days a week in Manhattan for your opportunity?

Hard pass.

22. Having a non-stop out all day go, go, go schedule. I understand now why I was constantly feeling frustrated. I was completely burnt out and had no me time. Now I don’t make so many commitments to social events, work things, extra stuff and I can’t imagine ever stretching myself so thin again.

23. Even if COVID disappeared overnight, I'd still want strangers and casual acquaintances to stay at least 6 feet away from me whenever possible.

24. It's going to take a lot of money to convince me not to work from home anymore.

25. Going to work sick