Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's back to work we go

[spindizzy]

On the job front, it seems like the library I work at is skipping the click+collect stage and going straight to opening to customers again!

+ There is an explicit no mask no entry policy, and only 500 people can be in the building at once! And there's going to be a one-way system to route the customers in and out of specific doors!
- These are going to be enforced by staff, so that's going to be fun. Especially at the times when our library is effectively a corridor.
+ Staff are going to be working their normal hours, but students are only going to be allowed in during office hours, which gives us collectively about six hours a day with no customers.
+ We are specifically taking out furniture so that customers have to maintain social distancing.
- lol like the students aren't going to completely rearrange the furniture as soon as they get the chance.
+ Masks, hand sanitisers and gloves will be provided for staff and students!
- My manager's manager had to spend her own money to get them, rather than the university providing them.
~ We are "gently encouraged" to leave the building whenever we have a break, but we're not allowed to go off campus and we're not allowed to work shifts at other libraries, because management want us to "bubble." ... I don't think that it's really bubbling if we're seeing 500+ people every day, but the fuck do I know.

So my current concerns right now are very boring practical ones. I don't know how I'm going to stay hydrated while I'm at work, because the idea of taking my mask off to drink and snack sounds nightmarish right now. I get out of work at rush hour, so I need to figure out how I'm getting home in a way that isn't going to give me a spiralling meltdown on a tram. (Lex could drop me off at work, but he couldn't pick me up because the timings don't line up.) The only person I know who's been working with the general public all pandemic takes her work clothes off and leaves them outside to minimise exposure for the vulnerable people in her house; is that the level of precaution I should take or would I be over-reacting? Is it even POSSIBLE for me to do that? ... Do I even have work clothes anymore, considering I've spent five months wearing cute dresses and leggings, none of which are appropriate for work?

My first day back is Friday because management want people to help them put up signs and physically remove chairs and tables from where the students can get at them, and I figured a couple of hours of moving furniture in a mostly-empty building would be a good way to ease myself back into work. Because I've spent five months staying the fuck indoors so I feel like I need to work up to seeing 8-12 of my coworkers and an unknown number of students.

The thing that's weirding me out the most is that I KNOW THE PANDEMIC IS STILL HAPPENING, and yet I keep catching myself going "Okay, well, if I'm going into work anyway, I can do x, y, and z while I'm out!" It's not even "But the pandemic has to be over because I'm bored" (as sithe puts it when we're talking about ratlickers)! It's just my brain simultaneously screeching about the apocalypse and going "Oh yeah, could absolutely nip into the comic shop on my way home." ... I probably shouldn't reward myself with a cheap ebook whenever I manage to get home without any detours, but consider this: what if I did though?