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The statewide mask mandate is over, and it seems COVID vaccines will soon be available to everyone in the state who wants one. My question for this learned board is:

When do YOU think Mississippi will get back to "normal"? And what will that normal look like?

Outside of having to wear a stupid mask at work, and for the 10 yards it takes me to get from the door to a seat in a restaurant (among the dumbest things in all of history), my day to day never changed. Normal was normal with fewer choices for lunch. We only stopped working for a week, and half of that reasoning was because we were so far ahead of production needs it made sense to close and "clean of covid".

After flying yesterday for the first time since this started, I will say most of the rest of the country are still in full belief that this 99% survivable virus is the bane of universe. We are in Wyoming right now and people are walking around the streets with masks, driving in their cars alone with masks. Saw a guy yesterday with 3 masks on.

Personally, I am over it all. I usually have to be told to put on a mask at this point. And I am not getting a vacine that seems to be created as soon as the virus cam out. I had the virus (thanks Bill). I gave it to my family (thanks Bill) and we are all fine.

Pretty much what Teul said. All my crew has had it and I have to be told, sometimes several times, to wear a mask. It was real, and a very bad deal, but I think people and businesses should have been allowed to deal with it as they saw fit. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

Well, I DID sneak inline and got the vaccine early, thanks Baby. I probably had it back in February, 2020, before we knew what it was. (Doctor thought it was flu, even though I tested negative for flu and covid testing wasn't even developed yet.) And I still wear a mask as a courtesy to others.

That said, I am sooo looking forward to going to church after Easter.

Been over it a LOOOONGGGGG time!!!! Work in ER and if I didn’t end up in icu after all this well I’m good and like tuel...... passing on vaccine. Too many unknowns for me. It’s a money making business for pharmaceutical companies. Why don’t you get a flu shot that covers flu A and B?? But now I’m supposed to take something you created in a year??? I will wait. Now tuel had you just worn your mask like the west coast maybe bill would have spared you!!!!!!!From what I saw over a year it had zero rhyme or reason to who it hit hard. Some in a family would end up on vents while others in the family in the same age group were fine. It was sad to watch. They say it isn’t seasonal??? I don’t buy that. I Beleive we will see the same pattern next October. Especially if there is no major spike after this spring break to show another super spreader.

Joel, you are wrong. I gave the virus to Justin then Justin gave it to Jeff, then Jeff gave it to you.
Its not my fault. You need to be pissed at Jeff, not me!

No one is pissed off Bill. Just pissed on.

It was over for me 2 weeks after my second shot. All good, no more diving on the floor at the sound of somebody behind me coughing. All the Facebook predictions of my demise have been extremely exaggerated thus far.

^^^I'm with you on that one.^^^

Nowadays, I wear a mask only as a consideration to others. (I'm a nice guy.) Thankfully, I haven't seen folks freaking out whenever they see people sans mask in the stores.

Ok. By now, if you don't have a vaccine, it is your own d@mn fault. The reported numbers in Mississippi continue to drop, and drop quickly. My agency has made it clear that we will be returning to pre-covid operations as of June 1. And I for one cannot WAIT for normalcy to return!

Now, I don't think anyone who works for the state has missed a paycheck since this whole "work-from-home" pandemic plan started. But now that everyone is going to have to come into the office to work, there sure is a lot of griping going on.

Apparently, people like the idea of getting paid to:
- shop at Wal-Mart
- sleep in
- binge watch the ID network, Game of Thrones, or whatever else catches their fancy
- etc., etc., etc.

That said, I fully expect to have a lot of resignations come June 2. (I already have a couple of people who are threatening such actions. They will lose.)

How about you, oh learned ones of this board? What are your predictions for after the pandemic?

I don't have the vaccine, and it is my fault. Cause I don't want it.

Our facilities have, with small exceptions, never quit working in the office. So for us, I see no change in employees other than having to stop faking wearing their masks.

^^^ "...faking wearing their masks." I like that one.

Not getting vaccine myself. Not enough data to risk the ongoing complications I keep hearing/reading about.

Our offices are split. Many managers are going to keep status quo as productively increased and overall employee “happiness” increased. Then they’re are other managers that micromanage and want their “team” back. Depends on the managers as to whether ppl have to go back to their desk. Also depends on their employees and such. The ones that get the shaft are the ones that had 1 in the group that couldn’t hold their own during the times of the pandemic. Squeaky wheel scenario.

It’s been interesting hearing some managers of areas/offices outside our industry answer the question “why do I need to be back in the office if I never slowed a bit”. Goes back to the old “that’s the way it’s always been done”. Change ain’t such a bad thing if u can change for the better.

I've found this “why do I need to be back" scenario interesting too. Our corporate offices will continue to keep a lot of people remote, all through out the organization. Lots of our higher IT technical people are doing it daily. And with our growth rate it's a smart decision. Less 100 occupancy of offices, more "shared" or "collaborative" spaces where remote workers can come in, setup shop for a couple of days a week or month to be in the office. All that equals less real estate needed to house people.

The biggest thing missed in a mostly remote worker setting are the interpersonal relationships. While that sounds somewhat trivial, I find I get more done when a friend tells me stuff I wouldn't normally hear in the day to day meetings. I end up hearing about the "classified" projects before my managers do simply because I am in the office with these guys and they aren't.

Overall, the pandemic has proven to those that wouldn't normally look for it, that a remote workforce can be a perfectly viable solution in a lot of situations.

^^^Totally agree with this^^^

I have several on my team that really need to work remotely, simply because they perform field, a.k.a. - face to face and in remote location, tasks. When they are sitting in the office, they really aren't doing the actual 'work' we need them to perform. That is when they do their prep work for the field operations, or closing paperwork for tasks they have accomplished. So these people only need a place to 'light', as opposed to having some place to 'roost'.

However, I have some people whose primary duties are more administrative. And to have these people balking and whining about returning to the office has me seriously questioning their effectiveness in the workplace.