"We have to go back"

[dorchadas]

They finally released the return-to-work plan and it's...well. While surveys indicated that 40% of the workforce wanted to remain at home full-time, that's nowhere in the plan at all. Currently from July to September, people are allowed to return to the office if they want and are vaccinated, from September to December people are encouraged to return to the office, and from January every has to come back. People can come either every day or a hybrid three days in, two days at home model, where Monday and Wednesday have to be two of the days in the office. That's certain a way to completely ignore your workforce's expressed preferences!

On the announcement, someone asked 1) Considering the increased transmissability of the Delta variant, will we still not be requiring masks at work as currently indicated in the plan and 2) A bunch of people moved out of state to care for relatives or save money, will they have to move again to one of the listed allowed remote-work states? It's been a few days and there's still not answer to those questions, and considering I have an infant at home and WHO suggested re-masking even for the vaccinated, I'm very curious about the answer to 1. I've talked to people in meetings that moved far away as well, like to Hawaii or Oregon, so 2 doesn't apply to me but I do want to know the answer. Further updates as I receive them.

Laila continues to grow, as babies do. She hasn't fully mastered smiling in response to happy stimuli yet but she's starting to smile at us She's also started to make noise other than breathing and screaming! Nothing more distinct than "wawawawawawa" or "ba ba ba" yet, but that will come. The cooing stage has begun!

She also had her first diaper overflow a few days ago. Babies develop in many ways.

Beetroot casarecce from Empoli topped with ground chicken from Green Fire Farms; summer squash, rainbow carrots, and spring onions from Nichols Farm and Orchard, topped with aglio, olio, e peperoncino sauce also from Empoli.

So this was, uh,

When I prepared it, sashagee warned me that it was likely to be pretty spicy and I shouldn't overdo it. I had a bigger bowl than she did, though, so I put two spoonfuls on it. It was very spicy, in that time-delay way that convinces you that you're okay until you've already taken a few bites and the heat is locked in, much like global warming. sashagee couldn't finish hers but I ate all of mine and half of hers and then when I went to put the leftovers away, I put half of the remaining sauce on it. I don't want to end up like the curry I made years ago where my father gave me a handful of small hot peppers and I thought "I'll put on four, how bad can it be?"

It was good but honestly the heat was the most memorable thing. I didn't taste a lot of beetroot in the pasta, but the heat added flavor to the ground chicken which otherwise might have been bulk filler, so I can't complain. I might put some of the leftovers on rice, though.

Half of a raspberry tart from Letizia's Natural Bakery topped with store-bought ice cream and crushed blueberries from Hillside Orchards.

Hillside Orchards is finally back! It's where we got all of our fruit last year and sashagee really looked forward to the peaches. This was their first visit and they didn't have anything other than blueberries and cherries, so I picked blueberries. Originally I was going to make a blueberry compote and just have that over ice cream, but sashagee offered me half of the pie she got, so I ate it. It was delicious.


This is a long weekend! Tomorrow we're going to sit outside with arsduo and friends, and on the 4th we're going to the beach to watch the fireworks. Going to spend some time with my family otherwise since I haven't gotten to do as much of that since I went back to work. They're both asleep right now after Laila (meaning sashagee) had a rough night and sashagee has her second vaccine appointment today. It might be a rough day as well, so they'll need the rest.

Comments

[moonreviews]

My previous company wanted everyone to work in the office, even last year and the beginning of this year, when no-one was vaccinated. My current company (yes, I switched jobs last year while working from home) is actually re-arranging the office so LESS people can be in the office at the same time. They expect people to work at the office for a maximum of about 3 days on average.
So if your company wants everyone back and you don't want to...
1) switch companies
2) alert the government institution that checks companies (like https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeitsinspektion ) if your country has one
3) go through HR and get an exception
and/or...
4) wait for the new variant to cause another lock-down...

Hopefully 4 won't happen, but I kind-of expect that with all restrictions gone and people traveling for holidays, while not everyone has been vaccinated... :(

The food looks really good, though :D

[helvetica]

I'm seeing a lot of people quitting their jobs because they don't want to return to the office. Like obviously you and your team have been functioning successfully all this time, they should be more understanding. If anything it's an opportunity!! I hope they change their mind on it before people start quitting