A New Way of Life. Part 2: Riding the ‘Coronacoaster’

So we are 6 weeks in and it’s pretty clear that we will be in the same situation for at least a further 3 weeks. By that point I might have started to become part of my sofa, a kind of evolution if you will, in fact, I think I watched a Family Guy episode where the sofa welded to Peter Griffin’s back once. I don’t know about you but weeks are very weird right now. I find I start the week on a Monday generally grumpy, ready for my commute where I can relax and read the paper to prepare, but I just find I don’t get the time on my current commute of 30 seconds down the stairs. At what point in this madness did I start to crave being sat on a packed train lost in my own thoughts?!

As the week goes by, I get more excited about what is ahead, I have our work run to complete (up to 12km now) and a number of webinars to both be part of and listen to. This week at Elliott Scott HR we ran a session in the UK on ‘Resilience in Turbulent Times’ with Thierry Moschetti, Partner at The Resilience Institute and the second part of a series with Arcadia Consulting in the US looking at ‘Virtual Rituals: Creating Certainty in Uncertain Times’. Please do follow us on LinkedIn to know about any future webinars we are running.

I have found that recently I’ve been learning a lot more about the world of memes, GIF’s or just of new Covid-19 related phrases. Before this crisis I barely knew what these were but now I’m starting to receive them from my 69 year old Dad and I know 100% he had no idea what they were. Who starts them? Does someone have a library of these things? No one else seems to care but I feel like we need to know.

On top of this I keep seeing words and phrases that are all surely going to appear in the dictionary before long. A few of my favourites this week:

Coronacoaster The ups and downs of your mood during the pandemic. You’re loving lockdown one minute but suddenly weepy with anxiety the next. It truly is “an emotional coronacoaster”.

Le Creuset wrist It’s the new “avocado hand” - an aching arm after taking one’s best saucepan outside to bang during the weekly ‘Clap For Carers.’ It might be heavy but you’re keen to impress the neighbours with your high-quality kitchenware.

The elephant in the Zoom The glaring issue during a videoconferencing call that nobody feels able to mention. E.g. one participant has dramatically put on weight, suddenly sprouted terrible facial hair or has a worryingly messy house visible in the background.

Covidiot One who ignores public health advice or behaves with reckless disregard for the safety of others can be said to display “covidiocy” or be “covidiotic”. Space invader Someone who routinely comes closer to you than the recommended two metres and who you’d like to zap like in an arcade game.

Quaranteam The people and/or pets you’re in lockdown with are your “quaranteam”. This era’s equivalent of #squadgoals. Doom ’n’ Zoom The feeling spread by the most miserable or pessimistic participant in a videoconference, aka the “Zoommonger” or “lockdowner”.

Covid-10 The 10lbs in weight that we’re all gaining from comfort-eating and comfort-drinking. Also known as “fattening the curve”. Don’t worry, I have at least another 3 weeks to find out where on earth these things come from, part of me hopes that it might send me on some Indiana Jones style hunt around my garden, but I have a feeling I’ll be told to stop being a Covidiot and all Doom “n” Zoom, deal with the Coronacoaster that is life right now and focus on removing my Covid-10.