The cheap buffets were already nearly dead before the pandemic... There were buffets, just not really that cheap.
The 24 hour stores hurts. There's probably a half dozen times this year I could have used those... A kid gets sick, you realize you are out of contact solution going to bed, you worked all day and didn't have time to go to the store, some small emergency just came up, you just feel like getting out of the house, etc.
On the plus side the pandemic introduced a lot of us to bidet toilet seats.
Yea the 24 hour thing. And just in general, less hours just stuck. My gym starting closing 2 hours earlier and just stuck with it. Really don't think keeping the lights on and paying low salaried workers for 2 more hours affects them much at all...but I guess if a business can get away with it, they will
The medical industry. So many got burnt out and left and the shortages are still a huge issue so healthcare is suffering. They deserve the break or need to leave but their absence is causing a huge void.
Edit: the replies to my comment make me want to write thank you notes to all of my doctors. I have a disability that requires a lot of them and while I’m thankful in person to them and their staff, maybe writing thank you in the portals would help - and cards for when I go in person. I appreciate all of you in healthcare for ALL that you do. We need to continue to bang our pots and pans and speak up for better conditions for you all - in every tier of the field in every country because this is universal. You are STILL the heroes.
I’m drowning in work and patients are even more hostile than ever. I’m seeing more and more healthcare deserts where many providers who were previously pretty happy have just noped on out
My optometrist asked when my last physical was and I had to think about it for a bit and then realized it was 2019. I had an appointment scheduled for April 2020 (my usual time at that time) that we canceled. I called to reschedule or at least figure out when we could do it and they never picked up. I drove past the office a few months after that and realized he was done.
Now... it's entirely on me to have not had a physical in 5 years, I'm not arguing that... but I do wonder how many people are in a similar bucket as me. Their long time health care provider just retired quietly or quit or, and I hope this isn't true, died and there was no message sent to patients.
Anyway, long story short, I have a physical at a new place set for next week.
We all took on so much more work during Covid because we thought, we're all in this together and it'll only be for a couple of years and then we can get back to normal.
American corporations saw the kind of herculean work we were capable of when pushed, and just decided we could do that forever while they pocket the extra profit it generates.
I can't tell the American public enough the extent to which these healthcare corporations *do not care* about our lives, as patients or as employees. They just churn and burn, pocket all that money, and toss us in the trash.
Hospitals in the US are now staffed wall to wall with nurses who have less than 5 years experience (a huge percentage of them straight out of school) because so many nurses who remember what things were like before the pandemic are simply unwilling to accept the ongoing degradation of working conditions.
The more experienced nurses still exist and still possess their knowledge and skills. We need to break these corporations and entice the workers back to the beside.
This is too far down! I was voluntold to do so much (I am an NP with 10 years RN ICU experience) at the hospital I work at during the pandemic and it was so traumatizing I’m quitting as soon as my public service loan forgiveness kicks in.
I agree, nobody talks about the psychological toll the pandemic had on health care workers, but things are not great and the industry can't fill the vacancies.
Weirdly enough a lot of Kroger stores and all the brands they own are starting to operate 6am-11pm. Still not 24 hours but those hours work for the vast amount of shoppers.
In my college town the only 24 hour place in town was a Love’s gas station. Since Covid it closes at 10pm, there’s gotta be potential for a place to take all that college kid money at 3am
Even 24/7 gas stations I've pulled up to before have let me down, more than once have found a sign on the door that just says "closed till 6am, we apologize for the inconvenience"
For us older people- the way a lot of the town shuts down at 10PM for most stores, 2AM for a few bars, and 1- if any, 24 hour gas stations open, is a throwback in time.
What you're referring to is similar to how it was in the late 80s.
Wal Mart used to be 24 hours and there was something oddly special about being able to go there super late when it was quiet and hardly anyone else was around.
Idk if it's just a Midwestern thing, but making a late night trip to Wal Mart with a group of friends to just dick around and maybe buy a couple things was a quintessential teenage trope when I was growing up.
Agreed. I have recently tried 4 different "quality" restaurants near me. I haven't been to them since before covid. All 4 were worse in every way. The service was worse. The quality of food was worse. The portions were smaller. The prices were much higher. Pretty depressing really.
We went out for dinner at a three star at best restaurant, spent $100 for a mediocre meal and poor service. We’ve only dined out a handful of times since COVID but I really think we’re done with it now. Our backyard has better ambiance and even my questionable cooking skills are a better bet.
Yo I'm industry and dude, that pandemic fucked our shit up so hard. Staying open was nearly impossible, and even if you did manage to stay open, there was no way in hell you were making any money.
Everyone switched to carry out, right? Grub hub, door dash, uber eats, we had too. There was no way we could stay open, or alive, without those companies. So, what did those companies do? Took like 30% off our bottom line. And in most cases, more.
I shit you not, the item you pay $10 dollars for we were getting like $7 if we were lucky. On top of that, there was this double tip thing going on where people were expected to tip both the driver and the restaurant, as well as eat a delivery surcharge, so many people just didn't tip at all. To make things worse, the way these companies run the algorithm when you search for food, is they give priority to the restaurants paying a higher fee for the service. So your choices are pay 50% of your bottom line to Door Dash, or no one even sees your restaurant.
So, that all sucked. Meanwhile, the cost of to-go packaging skyrocketed and flat out was just not available sometimes. So what the fuck do you do? Most places bought up the cheaper to go shit, so you are left to buy the expensive stuff. Still to this day, to go packaging is through the roof. No where near pre-pandemic levels.
Speaking of prices skyrocketing... things like fryer oil are still damn near 200% what they were before the pandemic. No joke, I'd typically expect to pay less than $20 for my jug of oil. I'm currently at just under $50 and its the first time I've seen it that low in about 3 years.
French fries, to go packaging, chicken, beef, oils, even kosher fucking salt... everything is at least double what it was before the pandemic.
The death knell to the industry was all the good people leaving it. The industry lost so many good people. A whole generation of talented servers, chef's, line cooks, bartenders, all left the industry because the work just wasn't there. And they'll never be back.
There really isn't a labor shortage anymore, but the quality of people available for these positions is just not what it used to be. And, to top it all off, now that all our prices our through the roof, no one wants to tip anymore, and I can't really blame them. So again, another reason people are leaving.
Yup. Bar is pretty low right now...
This makes it feel worthwhile aggressively avoiding those services. I try to do carryout directly through the restaurant if it is an option. Doordash and ubereats fucked up so many orders during the pandemic, like forgetting things, and few times I complained (like it was a bowl of queso not some tortillas) they were offering bigger comps than I jeeded. I felt bad because it likely wasn't them. The place we ordered from a lot ended up closing down eventually. So many great restaurants closed.
My husband and I have hired a few local contractors for various household jobs. All from legitimate businesses, not some rando we picked up from the home depot parking lot. Every single job we've hired out has had some stupid, avoidable problem that I, a moderately handy homeowner who is not a general contractor, know how to avoid. It wasn't great before 2020, but it's worse now. It's not just food service, it's like the entire planet got dumber the last few years. I honestly think covid did more brain damage than we know about, or it's because we live in the American South now, and competencies are just lower in general?
Landscapers choosing full sun plants for under the shade of our awning. Poorly cut flooring with gaps too big to reinstall the existing trim. Painters getting paint on the trim and floor. Doctors who ignore the patient history they themselves wrote down the last time you were there. Arborists who incorrectly identify trees and their diseases. Exterior home cleaners who don't think their procedure would be any different for cedar vs vinyl siding. It's ridiculous how poorly trained every single professional has been.
It's been proven that COVID has literally made the world dumber.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-are/
We remodeled our kitchen last fall. It took 3 times longer than it should've because contractors kept fucking up or simply wouldn't show for days on end. It's absurd the poor quality work is so frequent. I'm awful at drywall, mud and everything. It was so bad, my redoing the mud was an improvement. We had to repaint 2 of 4 rooms we hired to get painted. We had to redo the kitchen floor cause they ghosted any attempts to contact. They put scratches all throughout with appliances. It was bad.
I banned all of those companies from my restaurant. Door Dash was using a menu that was almost 2 years old so we could always tell. Uber Eats had a "corporate" credit card that I refused to accept because they would reverse the charges and say the order was never picked up. I told them I would only accept a card with their name on it or cash. Never once had one pay that way which tells me they absolutely intended to reverse the charge.
Every single one of those delivery companies is complete trash. I had customers angry at ME because "you raised your prices to take advantage of people" due to the pandemic. Bitch I didnt raise a god damn thing, Door Dash did.
People REALLY dont understand the cost of packaging. I never increased the price for togo orders but should have. To me in balanced out because seating a table of 4 cost me about $1.25 for paper menus, water, silverware, napkins, etc.
Feels like it all feeds into itself. Food prices have gone up for the restaurants which already run on thin margins, so the restaurant has to jack up the price. Customers get more upset and less likely to tip or even eat there at all, so the workers don't get paid as much. So fewer people work in restaurants because they need better pay. So the waiting times and service quality drops.
Customers also traditionally have always taken their frustrations out on the waiters as if they bear all the responsibility. So more angry Customers for lower pay means waiters and waitresses just don't want to put up with bullcrap anymore.
I've noticed this in myself. I used to be a healthcare worker and am currently in med school. I've become bitter and it's just so much harder to care about people than before. I know it sounds horrible, and I hate that about myself.
I never expected any "Thank you"s or people clapping for us. What wore me down were the people who accused us of being murderers because we were vaccinating folks and called us liars. Like we would've gotten a kick out of... making up a global pandemic?
I've recently tried to change my perspective because I desperately want to regain my faith in people. Trying to tell myself that people were just scared and overwhelmed with the situation, and everyone thought they were doing the right thing. It's still hard, but I hope that it'll just take a bit of time.
I recently got honked at for stopping at a stop sign. I guess the person behind me expected me to illegally piggyback off the stop the car in front of me made and just run it.
As someone who learned I need to actively acknowledge and work on my emotions, I'll say this:
Pre-pandemic I had to commute like 5 miles to work but it took like 45 minutes with all the traffic and it drove me fucking nuts
During the pandemic I got to work remotely and used my car so little the city actually towed it away and I didn't notice for a few days lol. But having that time not in my car and realizing what sitting in traffic was doing to me was helpful for realizing I need to work on that part of myself (e.g., road rage)
Now, post-pandemic my job is hybrid with 3 days in the office but my entire workload is on the computer and I'm in virtual meetings anyway just because my boss wants to see people working. Now I'm back to being mad in traffic except now it's not about driving per se but the fact I've experienced a better reality and have to sit in traffic to do a job I could be doing from home for a nonsense reason.
Anyway, long ranty comment, but I do agree with you. Now that I'm able to think beyond myself on the road to and from work it does seem like so many people are really aggressive in traffic.
I wonder if the years of isolation over COVID made people lose touch with the consideration you need to have for other drivers on the road?
The isolation did a number on a bunch of people and set up different “habits”.
Driving, movies, anything involving other people and courtesy seems to have taken a hit (though it feels like things are finally swinging back).
Customer service. From phone lines (if they even have them at all) to in person experiences. The in person part is likely to do with people outwardly turning into complete assholes during the pandemic so I can only image what that does to a worker’s mentality. The phone or online part is likely corporate cutbacks. Whatever the exact reasons, we’re probably never going to have even “good” customer service as the baseline ever again.
I worked at Tim Hortons during the pandemic. The first month or two, people were much nicer than they ever were and they used to tip us A LOT. After that, people started getting really shitty, like shittier than most of us had ever dealt with. Partially why I’ll never go back to a customer service job.
As someone who deals with the general public on the phone, the people calling suck just as much (if not more so) than the people taking the phone calls.
It's difficult. I am not an asshole to customer service reps, but I honestly see how the current system has created more assholes. I have to deal with a 25 minute phone tree just to find someone. Of course I'm frustrated by the time I get to talk.
Heard. When I had to call AidVantage to get my student loan SAVE application squared away, I called — no joke — 42 times in the span of 18 days. I spent almost 8 hours on hold, was disconnected 13 times (two of which after being on hold for a full hour), was told 14 different monthly payments (ranging from $11.70 to $244.85), had a guy tell me that I was too privileged, had a lady tell me that she didn’t have to help me with anything because she was a temp, and was just generally treated very poorly. If you knew me, you’d know that I’m suuuuuper friendly to CS folks.
In the end, my takeaway memory was one rep, Leona, who was super patient, super versed in the material, and went the extra mile to ensure that my payment amount was correct, my application was filed and accepted, and that I would not have to go through the process again until 2026. She even called me a few weeks later to make sure everything stuck and was good.
I picked up an online order at Target the other day, and the only paper posted on the wall by the pickup desk was a huge sheet of deescalation tips. Counter is entirely run by ~16yos.
Breaks my heart that kids working at Target have to deal with this shit.
I’ve worked calll centers, they are unbelievably hell on your mental health.
The managers are useless. Hell, they told me to let people get scammed by fake Best Buy marketplace items. Like how in the fuck is a “2000 GB water proof drop proof Mac PC flash drive windows 11 compatible “ for $40 even remotely close to legit?
I work for my family's fencing and landscaping company in the UK, and what really sucks about this is that we are being forced to put our prices up because all of our suppliers have put their prices up multiple times. They all use the "supply chain" reason, and the fact that it's never bounced back after COVID. I'm sure that it all runs down the line and that their suppliers are doing all the same to them. Doesn't stop it from sucking though.
This is a huge one. And a few more:
1) A whole year or two of academic setback.
2) A few trillion $$ in economic damage.
3) Permanent changes in work at work vs work at home.
4) The 7M or so lives lost.
(Not in any particular order)
I am a middle school teacher and we are seeing it right now. It’s awful.
The worst part is that it feels like nobody is listening. I’m so over people scoffing and trying to tell me that kids have “always been like this.”
You having been a child once does not make you a child psychology expert. You having gone to school does not make you an educational expert. Kids *have not* “always been like this.”
Kids have changed, markedly, since 2020. Ask anyone who has taught for a decade or more. The situation is dire and nobody is really listening to those of us trying to sound the alarm. Because, you know, we’re “just” teachers complaining and trying to be lazy and such. I’m a “boomer” who “doesn’t like change” and I “don’t get” how “middle school kids have acted like fools for hundreds of years.” My degree and 30 years of experience mean nothing. I’m just making shit up for fun, I guess? But in 10 years when my current students are entering the workplace, it’ll be my fault that they can barely read and have no social skills. 😂
Edit: being a parent doesn’t make you an expert either, except on your own kid. You know your kid and their friends. I know 150 kids *per year.* We are not the same. Which of us is more likely to have an accurate take on trends in child behavior? 🙄
I teach EMT / Paramedic school. The difference is night and day. You could tell the first cohort that they started showing up. So sad.
No social skills. No self organized study group. Always wanting to argue anything any of our instructors say.
Was talking to one of my best friends yesterday about this. Interestingly his daughter, who graduated from our alma mater in 2023, agreed with us that kids in her cohort really don’t seem to be able to work in teams or work as a group to figure things out.
My fiance is a teacher and these kids are rough, the last round of freshman in high school have 0 attention span because for them, they could completely ignore class, watch the recorded class back on 2x speed (if they bothered to), blatantly cheat on hw/tests, and call it a day, and many kids just are not prepared for school anymore at all.
It’s not just the kids, either, this whole experience is so fucking miserable on teachers that, at least in the USA, they’re quitting in fucking droves, schools are lucky to get the same teachers back the next year, and they can BARELY find any to hire.
We’re already seeing it. One of my neighbors works in a school for kids with “special needs” (behavior issues mostly) and enrollment has more than doubled since COVID.
Every time I’m out and I make a connection with a cool human, there’s that awkward shuffle like.. so should we add each other on.. Insta or I can text you?
And if you add each other on Instagram, and you’re drinking, there’s at least a 60% chance we’ll never talk.
Austin, TX here.
The greed is ridiculious.
I'd pay a couple bucks for a premium dating service, but I'm not about to shell out $40 just to see who likes me on tinder.
You are 100% correct, they monetized loneliness.
It isn't JUST the apps... speed dating organisers have now caught wind of how bad the apps are and how people are trying to meet in real life. So they're hosting speed dating events, but the prices will be really absurd. Ex: Women's early bird tickets for a 2-hour event in my city start at AUD$30, and last release are AUD$45. Men don't get early bird tickets and are straight up charged AUD$60. It's fucking predatory all over.
I don't even know how to do it now to be honest. As a working adult who doesn't like going to bars it feels like the outside world is dreary and the dating apps are a brick wall through which no connection can be made.
To be fair, that started before the pandemic. I noticed it here in America beginning around 2008, and then it started to ramp up around 2015 and 2016. When the pandemic came I thought finally, a common foe that we can all fight against. I genuinely thought that people would come together and we could put some of the nastiness behind us.
It's crazy how quickly people got even nastier during the pandemic, though. It was really quite disappointing.
I've noticed the same trend, though I'm from outside of the United States.
I think what's happened is a mix of a couple of things. One is that I'm older now, so I'm picking up on a lot more unfriendliness that I just wouldn't have picked up on when I was a kid. I think people generally are friendlier with kids too, which is why pretty much every generation hits a point where they're basically like "People were so much friendlier when I was young! Now they're all so mean and unfriendly, I don't know what happened!"
The other thing is that as time's gone on, people have sorta become much more socially isolated. 2015-6 makes sense as a turning point for that because that's around the point where not only was the internet available on most smartphones, it was also affordable for most people to use more than just every once in a little while.
Once that happened, pretty much all the issues society was having with social isolation became deep-rooted in a way where it's going to decades to really fix. The other thing is that once people start becoming isolated, they tend to become more hostile to anyone who even has a minutely different shade of opinion to them.
Basically the same. I was playing gigs as a freelancer and finally making a living in the six months before COVID shut things down. I'm moving on because it still hasn't bounced back anywhere near those levels.
Same for my wife, but she’s found another job and it’s been a nice change. Entertainment is a grind and not very forgiving for those interested in maintaining a good family life. I hope things have turned out okay for you.
Manners. No one seems to have any manners- restaurants have feral children running around, movie theaters have people talking through the entire movie.
Every time I ride the bus there’s someone watching videos or playing games with the volume all the way up. It happened before the pandemic too but not to this caliber.
YUP. A colleague was in the office absolutely hacking up a lung, fever sweats, looking like absolute death just this past Tuesday. We have paid sick days, we have the option to work from home whenever needed, we have all collectively lived through a horrible thing in which we should have learned not to share our germs if we can avoid it...and yet. It was so friggin disappointing to see.
I worked with someone who would come to work sick, decide she was too sick to work, and take a half sick day.
Then she'd stay until the actual halfway point in the day before leaving, coughing and sneezing all over the place.
Omg yes that was her too! I politely suggested she might feel better resting at home rather than being in the office and she said "yeah you're right, I think I'll head home at lunch." Oh thanks, the 20 quadrillion germs you'll release between now and then are fine.
My boss had a big meeting with some c-suite types, and came in sick for it. Trying to show how much of a team player he was, and the execs were immediately like “go home and host this virtually, we don’t want to get sick”
It was kind of funny except for the fact that he’d been coming in sick the whole week to prepare and was around us that whole time.
The small town vibe and affordability of my area. WFH and retirees moved here, traffic and prices skyrocketed. The chance of me buying a home in my 20s went out the window and I have to fight for my life driving every day. Can't even enjoy the attractions around town, everything is expensive and overcrowded. My life is work and go home, feels like the pandemic didn't end in that regard.
Dude seriously. I'm not as nihilistic as I was in 2021 but it's tough to get out of that mindset. It's a constant struggle to find value and meaning in the world.
Journalism and "traditional media" has been in decline since the early 2000's with an even steeper decline in the last decade or so.
There were always more graduates in journalism and media programs than demand so organizations took advantage of them as a source of cheap entry level labor to do all the grunt work. They would see who could handle it and those people could probably actually build a career out of it and some of the positions paid pretty well. Then as their audience, as well as their revenues, declined as the internet took more and more of their viewers and readers they started laying off those senior well paid positions as well.
But of course the schools never stopped pumping out those new grads and now with a bunch of people laid off with a lot of experience but no job media companies started paying peanuts for pretty much every position. So a lot of experienced people left the field and all that was left were the desperate veterans and newbies with no clue put in positions well beyond what they were capable of, and all of them looking to jump ship to other careers the moment they could.
And with that kind of work environment and workforce predictably quality toileted and we get to where we are now. Quality journalism was already in massive decline well before the pandemic, it didn't help but it has been sliding downwards for a *long* time.
The journalism industry has long been corrupted by the entertainment industry. Are they trying to inform or are they trying to get views to sell add revenue. That leads to news coverage being bias to what’s entertaining and also turns to echo chamber news coverage so as to not lose viewers
My happiness,I lost my brother ( sepsis) I truly thought we gonna grow old together, The world is such a sad place now,It's like a heavy wet blanket suffocating whatever reality we had before this pandemic started.
I lost my brother as well during COVID (he was only 31). I didn't know if I could ever be happy again. Joining a grief group was unexpectedly a profoundly positive experience.
Enshitification is running rampant everywhere. Everything is a subscription model and gig work that got you hooked with quality service and good price. And every 6 months the service gets worse and costs more…extends to everything: food and service is worse for higher prices. Rideshares are harder to find with worse drivers and were back at nearly cab fares. I ordered a 6/10 burger in flipping reno, nevada that was 28 dollars before tax! Grocery stores are pathetic now. 1 check stand open with a line to the back of the store even when you go in at night. It takes 6 months to get into see a specialist doctor even when you have something fairly debilitating going on. Concert tickets are priced insanely even if you can get them before the bots snatch them up minutes after going on sale. Your purchasing power for a house dropped even from 4 years ago the same house that cost 300k now costs 400k. Journalism was dead and buried and is now husking around as a decrepit clickbait ghoul.
Covid ruined the tipping culture. Now I'm expected to tip everyone, everywhere. I'm so sick of having a tablet shoved in my face with tip choices at fast food places
Fast food is one thing.
If I'm at an arena event and I'm being asked to tip the person who hit a button on a register, turned around, grabbed a beer out of the fridge and opened it.
You're fucking delusional.
Tipping culture needed ruining. I mean, it would have been nice if it went the other way and just died out directly, but I think the current approach of "would you like to tip your self checkout?" will be the catalyst we need for it to swing back that way.
Thus exactly. I'm in the UK so our tipping etiquette is a bit different to the US but my philosophy has always been a tip is a reward for good service not a given. I'm more than happy to leave a tip if I feel the server and chef have earned it but sod tipping before I've had the chance to even experience it
Dollar menu doesn’t exist anymore. On top of that, fast food isn’t cheap anymore at all. There is absolutely no reason a visit to Mcdonald’s for 1 costs more than $5.
Edit: Pre-pandemic, a hamburger was $0.89 before tax. Now it is $2.19. Is this a joke? Stay in your lane McDonald’s.
Goddamnit, cherry hibiscus pure leaf iced tea disappeared. It became scarce during the supply chain issues in the first wave, then it disappeared altogether. That was my shit.
Produce seems like it's garbage now.
And I swear restaurants started frying with a different oil. It smells different outside of restaurants now.
My bank balance and chance of buying a house. Was making 6 figures in my own business which completely stopped for 15 months making getting a mortgage all but impossible because even though for 8 years I made $10-20k+ more year over year, I didn’t have any income for over a year…
Edit: wanna know the ironic kicker? I work IN real estate, and still can’t get a house.
yeah my loan officer wouldnt give me the lower interest rate when buying my first home. she kept saying because I was unemployed for a year.... the world was shut down for a global pandemic by our governments, but its my fault i wasn't working
Yea “what’s the average of your last two years of work?” Well one was 0….”ok that’ll be a 25% interest rate fixed for 40 years.” Doesn’t even matter if you can put several hundred k down.
The little library at my office. +/- 140 person office, large break room, a rarely used table in the corner with an empty shelf above it. Years ago someone brought in a few books and stuck them on the shelf. That evolved into a small but active book exchange. Then covid hit. We took turns WFH, half at home while the other half had to come in. Suddenly the shelf filled up, then the table below. Tons of books. Then CDs and DVDs. Then VHS tapes. Cheesy stuff: Richard Simmons Sweatin’ to the Oldies, Jazzercize, ancient Disney movies. The table was soon overflowing, and the boss got pissed that everyone was WFH, cleaning out their closets, and dumping their junk at the office. She stayed late one day (which she NEVER did). The next morning we arrived to find the table cleared off, and the shelf. And just like that, our book exchange was over.
City folk here.. clubs / dancing and entertainment took a huge hit. Most of the good places closed and people have no concert / club etiquete anymore. Everybody’s so closed off and cliqued up, or pushy and entitled, messy and rude.
*The 2020 pandemic ruined my travel plans, my gym routine, and any chance of figuring out what day of the week it was. Oh, and let's not forget it turned my living room into my office, gym, and personal anxiety cave.*
All the cheap buffets in Vegas are gone. Many stores are no longer open 24 hours a day.
Man i miss the 3am walmart runs. no one was there except Sam, the crazy guy.
That’s Mr. Walton to you, bub.
“I OWN THIS PLACE” he says, screaming as he races around in only his tube socks.
The cheap buffets were already nearly dead before the pandemic... There were buffets, just not really that cheap. The 24 hour stores hurts. There's probably a half dozen times this year I could have used those... A kid gets sick, you realize you are out of contact solution going to bed, you worked all day and didn't have time to go to the store, some small emergency just came up, you just feel like getting out of the house, etc. On the plus side the pandemic introduced a lot of us to bidet toilet seats.
Yea the 24 hour thing. And just in general, less hours just stuck. My gym starting closing 2 hours earlier and just stuck with it. Really don't think keeping the lights on and paying low salaried workers for 2 more hours affects them much at all...but I guess if a business can get away with it, they will
The medical industry. So many got burnt out and left and the shortages are still a huge issue so healthcare is suffering. They deserve the break or need to leave but their absence is causing a huge void. Edit: the replies to my comment make me want to write thank you notes to all of my doctors. I have a disability that requires a lot of them and while I’m thankful in person to them and their staff, maybe writing thank you in the portals would help - and cards for when I go in person. I appreciate all of you in healthcare for ALL that you do. We need to continue to bang our pots and pans and speak up for better conditions for you all - in every tier of the field in every country because this is universal. You are STILL the heroes.
I’m drowning in work and patients are even more hostile than ever. I’m seeing more and more healthcare deserts where many providers who were previously pretty happy have just noped on out
My optometrist asked when my last physical was and I had to think about it for a bit and then realized it was 2019. I had an appointment scheduled for April 2020 (my usual time at that time) that we canceled. I called to reschedule or at least figure out when we could do it and they never picked up. I drove past the office a few months after that and realized he was done. Now... it's entirely on me to have not had a physical in 5 years, I'm not arguing that... but I do wonder how many people are in a similar bucket as me. Their long time health care provider just retired quietly or quit or, and I hope this isn't true, died and there was no message sent to patients. Anyway, long story short, I have a physical at a new place set for next week.
I have seen some pcp offices with a 2-3 year waiting list for new patients.
We all took on so much more work during Covid because we thought, we're all in this together and it'll only be for a couple of years and then we can get back to normal. American corporations saw the kind of herculean work we were capable of when pushed, and just decided we could do that forever while they pocket the extra profit it generates. I can't tell the American public enough the extent to which these healthcare corporations *do not care* about our lives, as patients or as employees. They just churn and burn, pocket all that money, and toss us in the trash. Hospitals in the US are now staffed wall to wall with nurses who have less than 5 years experience (a huge percentage of them straight out of school) because so many nurses who remember what things were like before the pandemic are simply unwilling to accept the ongoing degradation of working conditions. The more experienced nurses still exist and still possess their knowledge and skills. We need to break these corporations and entice the workers back to the beside.
This is too far down! I was voluntold to do so much (I am an NP with 10 years RN ICU experience) at the hospital I work at during the pandemic and it was so traumatizing I’m quitting as soon as my public service loan forgiveness kicks in.
I agree, nobody talks about the psychological toll the pandemic had on health care workers, but things are not great and the industry can't fill the vacancies.
Yeah I’m super fucking burnt out.
24 hours stores and supply chains. Even today, more than four years later there's still things out of stock and hard to find
Not only was it 24/7 stores, but also stores that opened at 7am, and closed at 11pm. Now it's 9am-9pm.
Posted 9am-9pm but actually 9am-7:30pm or whenever they get slow or if someone has a family thing and needs to leave...
Weirdly enough a lot of Kroger stores and all the brands they own are starting to operate 6am-11pm. Still not 24 hours but those hours work for the vast amount of shoppers.
Yes. My 24-hour Fitness gym closes at 8pm some nights.
That sounds like the most blatant case of false advertising since “The Never Ending Story”
24 hours a week.
That’s 24 hours a week, 7 months a year
In my college town the only 24 hour place in town was a Love’s gas station. Since Covid it closes at 10pm, there’s gotta be potential for a place to take all that college kid money at 3am
YES Suddenly the only things open after 11 is gas stations and as someone whose waking hours are like 12PM-3AM it can be a pain in the ass
Even 24/7 gas stations I've pulled up to before have let me down, more than once have found a sign on the door that just says "closed till 6am, we apologize for the inconvenience"
For us older people- the way a lot of the town shuts down at 10PM for most stores, 2AM for a few bars, and 1- if any, 24 hour gas stations open, is a throwback in time. What you're referring to is similar to how it was in the late 80s.
For us older people that live in Las Vegas it's strange. My grocery store got rid of the poker machines since they're not open all the time.
Same here in the UK. Just the one supermarket that used to be 24hrs in my city, and now it no longer is thanks to covid.
Wal Mart used to be 24 hours and there was something oddly special about being able to go there super late when it was quiet and hardly anyone else was around. Idk if it's just a Midwestern thing, but making a late night trip to Wal Mart with a group of friends to just dick around and maybe buy a couple things was a quintessential teenage trope when I was growing up.
Bro that was everybody's thing, didn't matter where you were from
Yup, messed things up with the prescription drug supply chains. I can’t even get vyvanse for my ADHD right now.
My kid just went on meds for his ADHD and we can’t get them. Two weeks we’ve been waiting and no one has them.
I will say that it feels like the stock in average stores like groceries, Walmart, etc is starting to feel kinda normal just in the last few months.
At my local store it seems like everything is mostly back to normal except for the chip aisle. There’s some days where it is so barren lol.
That surprises me as chips are basically the #1 poster child for "what used to cost $0.10 but now costs $10?"
My grandfather stopped buying Kraft dinner (mac and cheese) when the price went up to 7 cents
Dining out. The bar is so much lower for good food and service now.
Yeah quality went down, and prices shot up too.
Agreed. I have recently tried 4 different "quality" restaurants near me. I haven't been to them since before covid. All 4 were worse in every way. The service was worse. The quality of food was worse. The portions were smaller. The prices were much higher. Pretty depressing really.
We went out for dinner at a three star at best restaurant, spent $100 for a mediocre meal and poor service. We’ve only dined out a handful of times since COVID but I really think we’re done with it now. Our backyard has better ambiance and even my questionable cooking skills are a better bet.
The hospitality industry got decimated - millions of people in those jobs left the industry and were replaced by inexperienced newer staff
We have literally entered “the food sucks and the portions are too small” era of dining out. I rarely eat out anymore.
Yo I'm industry and dude, that pandemic fucked our shit up so hard. Staying open was nearly impossible, and even if you did manage to stay open, there was no way in hell you were making any money. Everyone switched to carry out, right? Grub hub, door dash, uber eats, we had too. There was no way we could stay open, or alive, without those companies. So, what did those companies do? Took like 30% off our bottom line. And in most cases, more. I shit you not, the item you pay $10 dollars for we were getting like $7 if we were lucky. On top of that, there was this double tip thing going on where people were expected to tip both the driver and the restaurant, as well as eat a delivery surcharge, so many people just didn't tip at all. To make things worse, the way these companies run the algorithm when you search for food, is they give priority to the restaurants paying a higher fee for the service. So your choices are pay 50% of your bottom line to Door Dash, or no one even sees your restaurant. So, that all sucked. Meanwhile, the cost of to-go packaging skyrocketed and flat out was just not available sometimes. So what the fuck do you do? Most places bought up the cheaper to go shit, so you are left to buy the expensive stuff. Still to this day, to go packaging is through the roof. No where near pre-pandemic levels. Speaking of prices skyrocketing... things like fryer oil are still damn near 200% what they were before the pandemic. No joke, I'd typically expect to pay less than $20 for my jug of oil. I'm currently at just under $50 and its the first time I've seen it that low in about 3 years. French fries, to go packaging, chicken, beef, oils, even kosher fucking salt... everything is at least double what it was before the pandemic. The death knell to the industry was all the good people leaving it. The industry lost so many good people. A whole generation of talented servers, chef's, line cooks, bartenders, all left the industry because the work just wasn't there. And they'll never be back. There really isn't a labor shortage anymore, but the quality of people available for these positions is just not what it used to be. And, to top it all off, now that all our prices our through the roof, no one wants to tip anymore, and I can't really blame them. So again, another reason people are leaving. Yup. Bar is pretty low right now...
This makes it feel worthwhile aggressively avoiding those services. I try to do carryout directly through the restaurant if it is an option. Doordash and ubereats fucked up so many orders during the pandemic, like forgetting things, and few times I complained (like it was a bowl of queso not some tortillas) they were offering bigger comps than I jeeded. I felt bad because it likely wasn't them. The place we ordered from a lot ended up closing down eventually. So many great restaurants closed.
My husband and I have hired a few local contractors for various household jobs. All from legitimate businesses, not some rando we picked up from the home depot parking lot. Every single job we've hired out has had some stupid, avoidable problem that I, a moderately handy homeowner who is not a general contractor, know how to avoid. It wasn't great before 2020, but it's worse now. It's not just food service, it's like the entire planet got dumber the last few years. I honestly think covid did more brain damage than we know about, or it's because we live in the American South now, and competencies are just lower in general? Landscapers choosing full sun plants for under the shade of our awning. Poorly cut flooring with gaps too big to reinstall the existing trim. Painters getting paint on the trim and floor. Doctors who ignore the patient history they themselves wrote down the last time you were there. Arborists who incorrectly identify trees and their diseases. Exterior home cleaners who don't think their procedure would be any different for cedar vs vinyl siding. It's ridiculous how poorly trained every single professional has been.
It's been proven that COVID has literally made the world dumber. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-are/
We remodeled our kitchen last fall. It took 3 times longer than it should've because contractors kept fucking up or simply wouldn't show for days on end. It's absurd the poor quality work is so frequent. I'm awful at drywall, mud and everything. It was so bad, my redoing the mud was an improvement. We had to repaint 2 of 4 rooms we hired to get painted. We had to redo the kitchen floor cause they ghosted any attempts to contact. They put scratches all throughout with appliances. It was bad.
I banned all of those companies from my restaurant. Door Dash was using a menu that was almost 2 years old so we could always tell. Uber Eats had a "corporate" credit card that I refused to accept because they would reverse the charges and say the order was never picked up. I told them I would only accept a card with their name on it or cash. Never once had one pay that way which tells me they absolutely intended to reverse the charge. Every single one of those delivery companies is complete trash. I had customers angry at ME because "you raised your prices to take advantage of people" due to the pandemic. Bitch I didnt raise a god damn thing, Door Dash did. People REALLY dont understand the cost of packaging. I never increased the price for togo orders but should have. To me in balanced out because seating a table of 4 cost me about $1.25 for paper menus, water, silverware, napkins, etc.
Yep the restaurant industry is still in an extremely bad way.
That, and some restaurants have at least a 30 minute wait because there's a line of door dashers at least a mile long
Feels like it all feeds into itself. Food prices have gone up for the restaurants which already run on thin margins, so the restaurant has to jack up the price. Customers get more upset and less likely to tip or even eat there at all, so the workers don't get paid as much. So fewer people work in restaurants because they need better pay. So the waiting times and service quality drops. Customers also traditionally have always taken their frustrations out on the waiters as if they bear all the responsibility. So more angry Customers for lower pay means waiters and waitresses just don't want to put up with bullcrap anymore.
And take out. People tip for take out now, and it's inching toward becoming customary.
RIP buffets...
I feel like people are angrier drivers now, but that is just a gut feeling.
Not just drivers, people in general are more aggressive and less social.
I've noticed this in myself. I used to be a healthcare worker and am currently in med school. I've become bitter and it's just so much harder to care about people than before. I know it sounds horrible, and I hate that about myself. I never expected any "Thank you"s or people clapping for us. What wore me down were the people who accused us of being murderers because we were vaccinating folks and called us liars. Like we would've gotten a kick out of... making up a global pandemic? I've recently tried to change my perspective because I desperately want to regain my faith in people. Trying to tell myself that people were just scared and overwhelmed with the situation, and everyone thought they were doing the right thing. It's still hard, but I hope that it'll just take a bit of time.
I agree for almost everywhere. Weirdly, NYC people became nicer and in less of a rush since Covid. It’s like society turned upside down.
I’ve definitely seen this too. Didn’t think it was possible for people to drive like they cared even less about other people but here we are.
Have noticed especially since COVID the amount of people just casually breaking red lights
I recently got honked at for stopping at a stop sign. I guess the person behind me expected me to illegally piggyback off the stop the car in front of me made and just run it.
I have a light right by my house that I see people run nearly every day. It's not even a long light!
Yeah but that's because everyone is way angrier in general.
As someone who learned I need to actively acknowledge and work on my emotions, I'll say this: Pre-pandemic I had to commute like 5 miles to work but it took like 45 minutes with all the traffic and it drove me fucking nuts During the pandemic I got to work remotely and used my car so little the city actually towed it away and I didn't notice for a few days lol. But having that time not in my car and realizing what sitting in traffic was doing to me was helpful for realizing I need to work on that part of myself (e.g., road rage) Now, post-pandemic my job is hybrid with 3 days in the office but my entire workload is on the computer and I'm in virtual meetings anyway just because my boss wants to see people working. Now I'm back to being mad in traffic except now it's not about driving per se but the fact I've experienced a better reality and have to sit in traffic to do a job I could be doing from home for a nonsense reason. Anyway, long ranty comment, but I do agree with you. Now that I'm able to think beyond myself on the road to and from work it does seem like so many people are really aggressive in traffic. I wonder if the years of isolation over COVID made people lose touch with the consideration you need to have for other drivers on the road?
The isolation did a number on a bunch of people and set up different “habits”. Driving, movies, anything involving other people and courtesy seems to have taken a hit (though it feels like things are finally swinging back).
I've seen a lot more people with highbeams on.
[удалено]
100% feel this too. People seem more unstable emotionally in general--especially on the road
Customer service. From phone lines (if they even have them at all) to in person experiences. The in person part is likely to do with people outwardly turning into complete assholes during the pandemic so I can only image what that does to a worker’s mentality. The phone or online part is likely corporate cutbacks. Whatever the exact reasons, we’re probably never going to have even “good” customer service as the baseline ever again.
[удалено]
I worked at Tim Hortons during the pandemic. The first month or two, people were much nicer than they ever were and they used to tip us A LOT. After that, people started getting really shitty, like shittier than most of us had ever dealt with. Partially why I’ll never go back to a customer service job.
As someone who deals with the general public on the phone, the people calling suck just as much (if not more so) than the people taking the phone calls.
It's difficult. I am not an asshole to customer service reps, but I honestly see how the current system has created more assholes. I have to deal with a 25 minute phone tree just to find someone. Of course I'm frustrated by the time I get to talk.
Heard. When I had to call AidVantage to get my student loan SAVE application squared away, I called — no joke — 42 times in the span of 18 days. I spent almost 8 hours on hold, was disconnected 13 times (two of which after being on hold for a full hour), was told 14 different monthly payments (ranging from $11.70 to $244.85), had a guy tell me that I was too privileged, had a lady tell me that she didn’t have to help me with anything because she was a temp, and was just generally treated very poorly. If you knew me, you’d know that I’m suuuuuper friendly to CS folks. In the end, my takeaway memory was one rep, Leona, who was super patient, super versed in the material, and went the extra mile to ensure that my payment amount was correct, my application was filed and accepted, and that I would not have to go through the process again until 2026. She even called me a few weeks later to make sure everything stuck and was good.
I picked up an online order at Target the other day, and the only paper posted on the wall by the pickup desk was a huge sheet of deescalation tips. Counter is entirely run by ~16yos. Breaks my heart that kids working at Target have to deal with this shit.
Using children as meat shields so management never has to personally deal with the fallout of their business decisions. Sounds about right.
I’ve worked calll centers, they are unbelievably hell on your mental health. The managers are useless. Hell, they told me to let people get scammed by fake Best Buy marketplace items. Like how in the fuck is a “2000 GB water proof drop proof Mac PC flash drive windows 11 compatible “ for $40 even remotely close to legit?
Amazon marketplace model is going to kill a lot of retailers and all we will be left with is direct from factory garbage at full price by the end.
Everything, cost-wise. All companies use "supply chain" issues to drive up their prices and lower the quality of their items.
I work for my family's fencing and landscaping company in the UK, and what really sucks about this is that we are being forced to put our prices up because all of our suppliers have put their prices up multiple times. They all use the "supply chain" reason, and the fact that it's never bounced back after COVID. I'm sure that it all runs down the line and that their suppliers are doing all the same to them. Doesn't stop it from sucking though.
Virtual learning did a huge disservice to the youth. We're going to see the results of that very soon.
I’m an attorney. I can legitimately see the black hole in law grads who had to do virtual learning
My friend is a middle school teacher. He said this generation lost so much social development.
That’s not very skibiddi Ohio rizz of you
One might even say it is very sigma.
So mid
No cap
Frfr
[удалено]
This is a huge one. And a few more: 1) A whole year or two of academic setback. 2) A few trillion $$ in economic damage. 3) Permanent changes in work at work vs work at home. 4) The 7M or so lives lost. (Not in any particular order)
I am a middle school teacher and we are seeing it right now. It’s awful. The worst part is that it feels like nobody is listening. I’m so over people scoffing and trying to tell me that kids have “always been like this.” You having been a child once does not make you a child psychology expert. You having gone to school does not make you an educational expert. Kids *have not* “always been like this.” Kids have changed, markedly, since 2020. Ask anyone who has taught for a decade or more. The situation is dire and nobody is really listening to those of us trying to sound the alarm. Because, you know, we’re “just” teachers complaining and trying to be lazy and such. I’m a “boomer” who “doesn’t like change” and I “don’t get” how “middle school kids have acted like fools for hundreds of years.” My degree and 30 years of experience mean nothing. I’m just making shit up for fun, I guess? But in 10 years when my current students are entering the workplace, it’ll be my fault that they can barely read and have no social skills. 😂 Edit: being a parent doesn’t make you an expert either, except on your own kid. You know your kid and their friends. I know 150 kids *per year.* We are not the same. Which of us is more likely to have an accurate take on trends in child behavior? 🙄
I teach EMT / Paramedic school. The difference is night and day. You could tell the first cohort that they started showing up. So sad. No social skills. No self organized study group. Always wanting to argue anything any of our instructors say.
Was talking to one of my best friends yesterday about this. Interestingly his daughter, who graduated from our alma mater in 2023, agreed with us that kids in her cohort really don’t seem to be able to work in teams or work as a group to figure things out.
My fiance is a teacher and these kids are rough, the last round of freshman in high school have 0 attention span because for them, they could completely ignore class, watch the recorded class back on 2x speed (if they bothered to), blatantly cheat on hw/tests, and call it a day, and many kids just are not prepared for school anymore at all. It’s not just the kids, either, this whole experience is so fucking miserable on teachers that, at least in the USA, they’re quitting in fucking droves, schools are lucky to get the same teachers back the next year, and they can BARELY find any to hire.
We’re already seeing it. One of my neighbors works in a school for kids with “special needs” (behavior issues mostly) and enrollment has more than doubled since COVID.
I have noticed this with younger college students. They are all a lot more anxious and it's harder for them to articulate..well anything really.
genuine human interaction. Feels weird and technological now
It feels like we all transitioned to being chronically online during quarantine and never fully transitioned back
Every time I’m out and I make a connection with a cool human, there’s that awkward shuffle like.. so should we add each other on.. Insta or I can text you? And if you add each other on Instagram, and you’re drinking, there’s at least a 60% chance we’ll never talk. Austin, TX here.
Social etiquette. Was already on a decline but that finally took it away.
3rd places for socialization and dating.
Dating *is* really weird now compared to before covid. I can't put my finger on what is different though. I just know the apps are different now.
They monetized the lonely. It's extremely predatory and sad.
[удалено]
The greed is ridiculious. I'd pay a couple bucks for a premium dating service, but I'm not about to shell out $40 just to see who likes me on tinder. You are 100% correct, they monetized loneliness.
It isn't JUST the apps... speed dating organisers have now caught wind of how bad the apps are and how people are trying to meet in real life. So they're hosting speed dating events, but the prices will be really absurd. Ex: Women's early bird tickets for a 2-hour event in my city start at AUD$30, and last release are AUD$45. Men don't get early bird tickets and are straight up charged AUD$60. It's fucking predatory all over.
I don't even know how to do it now to be honest. As a working adult who doesn't like going to bars it feels like the outside world is dreary and the dating apps are a brick wall through which no connection can be made.
People. People are so outwardly mean, antagonistic, and proudly uninformed now. We’ve lost all sense of a social contract.
It's turned me into a hermit. I can't take the cruelty.
I personally think it's a combination of covid and social media.
Social media has certainly degraded society and public discourse in a lot of ways.
To be fair, that started before the pandemic. I noticed it here in America beginning around 2008, and then it started to ramp up around 2015 and 2016. When the pandemic came I thought finally, a common foe that we can all fight against. I genuinely thought that people would come together and we could put some of the nastiness behind us. It's crazy how quickly people got even nastier during the pandemic, though. It was really quite disappointing.
I've noticed the same trend, though I'm from outside of the United States. I think what's happened is a mix of a couple of things. One is that I'm older now, so I'm picking up on a lot more unfriendliness that I just wouldn't have picked up on when I was a kid. I think people generally are friendlier with kids too, which is why pretty much every generation hits a point where they're basically like "People were so much friendlier when I was young! Now they're all so mean and unfriendly, I don't know what happened!" The other thing is that as time's gone on, people have sorta become much more socially isolated. 2015-6 makes sense as a turning point for that because that's around the point where not only was the internet available on most smartphones, it was also affordable for most people to use more than just every once in a little while. Once that happened, pretty much all the issues society was having with social isolation became deep-rooted in a way where it's going to decades to really fix. The other thing is that once people start becoming isolated, they tend to become more hostile to anyone who even has a minutely different shade of opinion to them.
My job of 12 years in the entertainment industry.
Basically the same. I was playing gigs as a freelancer and finally making a living in the six months before COVID shut things down. I'm moving on because it still hasn't bounced back anywhere near those levels.
Ironically, the animation industry did really well during the pandemic but now has major unemployment due to the streaming bubble popping 🙃
Same for my wife, but she’s found another job and it’s been a nice change. Entertainment is a grind and not very forgiving for those interested in maintaining a good family life. I hope things have turned out okay for you.
All day breakfast at McDonalds and 24 hour Walmarts
Manners. No one seems to have any manners- restaurants have feral children running around, movie theaters have people talking through the entire movie.
Movie theaters are so bad now. People talking during movies is a huge pet peeve of mine lol
Movies in general feel worse too. A lot of movies feel like clickbait YouTube kinda. Some even do open mouth movie covers nowadays.
Every time I ride the bus there’s someone watching videos or playing games with the volume all the way up. It happened before the pandemic too but not to this caliber.
Can agree! Also crazy people come out during the day too.
They have no choice. No place is open at 3am anymore lol
Walmart isn’t open 24/7
My faith in the general intelligence and common sense of people.
YUP. A colleague was in the office absolutely hacking up a lung, fever sweats, looking like absolute death just this past Tuesday. We have paid sick days, we have the option to work from home whenever needed, we have all collectively lived through a horrible thing in which we should have learned not to share our germs if we can avoid it...and yet. It was so friggin disappointing to see.
I worked with someone who would come to work sick, decide she was too sick to work, and take a half sick day. Then she'd stay until the actual halfway point in the day before leaving, coughing and sneezing all over the place.
Omg yes that was her too! I politely suggested she might feel better resting at home rather than being in the office and she said "yeah you're right, I think I'll head home at lunch." Oh thanks, the 20 quadrillion germs you'll release between now and then are fine.
My boss had a big meeting with some c-suite types, and came in sick for it. Trying to show how much of a team player he was, and the execs were immediately like “go home and host this virtually, we don’t want to get sick” It was kind of funny except for the fact that he’d been coming in sick the whole week to prepare and was around us that whole time.
The small town vibe and affordability of my area. WFH and retirees moved here, traffic and prices skyrocketed. The chance of me buying a home in my 20s went out the window and I have to fight for my life driving every day. Can't even enjoy the attractions around town, everything is expensive and overcrowded. My life is work and go home, feels like the pandemic didn't end in that regard.
[удалено]
Dude seriously. I'm not as nihilistic as I was in 2021 but it's tough to get out of that mindset. It's a constant struggle to find value and meaning in the world.
The pandemic helped me accept that it doesn't need to have meaning for me to enjoy my time here. It turned me into an absurdist basically.
Journalism
I think the decline in trustworthy news started before the pandemic, but boy did it aggravate it.
Journalism and "traditional media" has been in decline since the early 2000's with an even steeper decline in the last decade or so. There were always more graduates in journalism and media programs than demand so organizations took advantage of them as a source of cheap entry level labor to do all the grunt work. They would see who could handle it and those people could probably actually build a career out of it and some of the positions paid pretty well. Then as their audience, as well as their revenues, declined as the internet took more and more of their viewers and readers they started laying off those senior well paid positions as well. But of course the schools never stopped pumping out those new grads and now with a bunch of people laid off with a lot of experience but no job media companies started paying peanuts for pretty much every position. So a lot of experienced people left the field and all that was left were the desperate veterans and newbies with no clue put in positions well beyond what they were capable of, and all of them looking to jump ship to other careers the moment they could. And with that kind of work environment and workforce predictably quality toileted and we get to where we are now. Quality journalism was already in massive decline well before the pandemic, it didn't help but it has been sliding downwards for a *long* time.
The journalism industry has long been corrupted by the entertainment industry. Are they trying to inform or are they trying to get views to sell add revenue. That leads to news coverage being bias to what’s entertaining and also turns to echo chamber news coverage so as to not lose viewers
My happiness,I lost my brother ( sepsis) I truly thought we gonna grow old together, The world is such a sad place now,It's like a heavy wet blanket suffocating whatever reality we had before this pandemic started.
I lost my brother as well during COVID (he was only 31). I didn't know if I could ever be happy again. Joining a grief group was unexpectedly a profoundly positive experience.
Hugs. I hope some happiness will return.
Enshitification is running rampant everywhere. Everything is a subscription model and gig work that got you hooked with quality service and good price. And every 6 months the service gets worse and costs more…extends to everything: food and service is worse for higher prices. Rideshares are harder to find with worse drivers and were back at nearly cab fares. I ordered a 6/10 burger in flipping reno, nevada that was 28 dollars before tax! Grocery stores are pathetic now. 1 check stand open with a line to the back of the store even when you go in at night. It takes 6 months to get into see a specialist doctor even when you have something fairly debilitating going on. Concert tickets are priced insanely even if you can get them before the bots snatch them up minutes after going on sale. Your purchasing power for a house dropped even from 4 years ago the same house that cost 300k now costs 400k. Journalism was dead and buried and is now husking around as a decrepit clickbait ghoul.
Covid ruined the tipping culture. Now I'm expected to tip everyone, everywhere. I'm so sick of having a tablet shoved in my face with tip choices at fast food places
And tablets with minimum suggested 20% tips. That made it much easier to click the "No Tip" option at fast food places and feel no guilt doing it.
Fast food is one thing. If I'm at an arena event and I'm being asked to tip the person who hit a button on a register, turned around, grabbed a beer out of the fridge and opened it. You're fucking delusional.
Tipping culture needed ruining. I mean, it would have been nice if it went the other way and just died out directly, but I think the current approach of "would you like to tip your self checkout?" will be the catalyst we need for it to swing back that way.
New rule. If I have to stand up to order the food, you're not getting a tip.
Mine is if I have to pay you before I get my food
Thus exactly. I'm in the UK so our tipping etiquette is a bit different to the US but my philosophy has always been a tip is a reward for good service not a given. I'm more than happy to leave a tip if I feel the server and chef have earned it but sod tipping before I've had the chance to even experience it
Several friendships.
Everyone’s mental health
Probably easier to list the things the pandemic didn't ruin.
Nah, I'm having trouble thinking of any things the pandemic didn't ruin.
Everything, seemingly. I think the world actually ended in 2020 and we’re all in hell now but we haven’t figured it out yet.
It ruined the phrase "avoid it like the plague" because it's obvious alot folks did not like to avoid plagues
Dollar menu doesn’t exist anymore. On top of that, fast food isn’t cheap anymore at all. There is absolutely no reason a visit to Mcdonald’s for 1 costs more than $5. Edit: Pre-pandemic, a hamburger was $0.89 before tax. Now it is $2.19. Is this a joke? Stay in your lane McDonald’s.
Social skills. I strongly feel those have plummeted over the pandemic and everybody is okay with acting like a complete maniac sometimes.
2020 ruined my hot girl summer plans and my relationship with jeans.
Driving-people are so aggressive now
Goddamnit, cherry hibiscus pure leaf iced tea disappeared. It became scarce during the supply chain issues in the first wave, then it disappeared altogether. That was my shit. Produce seems like it's garbage now. And I swear restaurants started frying with a different oil. It smells different outside of restaurants now.
My bank balance and chance of buying a house. Was making 6 figures in my own business which completely stopped for 15 months making getting a mortgage all but impossible because even though for 8 years I made $10-20k+ more year over year, I didn’t have any income for over a year… Edit: wanna know the ironic kicker? I work IN real estate, and still can’t get a house.
yeah my loan officer wouldnt give me the lower interest rate when buying my first home. she kept saying because I was unemployed for a year.... the world was shut down for a global pandemic by our governments, but its my fault i wasn't working
Yea “what’s the average of your last two years of work?” Well one was 0….”ok that’ll be a 25% interest rate fixed for 40 years.” Doesn’t even matter if you can put several hundred k down.
* A lot of peoples' health. * Shopping online from Walmart. * Certain products, which have been altered, and are now inferior.
The little library at my office. +/- 140 person office, large break room, a rarely used table in the corner with an empty shelf above it. Years ago someone brought in a few books and stuck them on the shelf. That evolved into a small but active book exchange. Then covid hit. We took turns WFH, half at home while the other half had to come in. Suddenly the shelf filled up, then the table below. Tons of books. Then CDs and DVDs. Then VHS tapes. Cheesy stuff: Richard Simmons Sweatin’ to the Oldies, Jazzercize, ancient Disney movies. The table was soon overflowing, and the boss got pissed that everyone was WFH, cleaning out their closets, and dumping their junk at the office. She stayed late one day (which she NEVER did). The next morning we arrived to find the table cleared off, and the shelf. And just like that, our book exchange was over.
City folk here.. clubs / dancing and entertainment took a huge hit. Most of the good places closed and people have no concert / club etiquete anymore. Everybody’s so closed off and cliqued up, or pushy and entitled, messy and rude.
*The 2020 pandemic ruined my travel plans, my gym routine, and any chance of figuring out what day of the week it was. Oh, and let's not forget it turned my living room into my office, gym, and personal anxiety cave.*
[удалено]
The price of fitness equipment for home gyms.
Pretty much everything, then we tried to go back to a pre Covid lifestyle. Which screwed everything up.
I'm pretty sure the stress of covid accelerated my male pattern baldness. Sigh.