You guys. The world is changing. COVID-19 has turned so many things on it’s head and I don’t think anyone anticipated what it has become. While staying home and staying safe are the new normal, I am constantly struggling to understand where I fit in.

In the beginning it felt strange, going to work when it feels like everyone else is staying home, and I struggled a bit knowing my job was “essential to healthcare” but not actually healthcare. I was given a glimmer of hope when my boss confided that she was trying to get us work from home status, but the reality sank in that we couldn’t truly work from home when I had to print 600 letters of essential worker status for our building.

For those of you who don’t know, I work in Human Resources at a Distribution Center. My company is in the MRO industry, which stands for Maintenance, Repair, and Operating materials. Basically, we supply other companies with products they need to operate; some major customers are in government and healthcare, thus, our “essential” status.

Being in HR, I handle any team members coming directly to the office. I also handle reports, confidential information, etc, but I need to be present mostly because so much of our jobs deal with paper documents still. I really couldn’t complete a few of my reports without paper handed to me from leaders, and someone needs to be here to review medical notes, answer team member questions and concerns, and, oh yeah, apparently conduct wellness checks on our team members who are calling out sick.

I enjoy my job, truly, and being in the office provides a sense of normalcy that I know my friends and family working from home don’t have. I have a routine and it’s very much similar to what it was before the quarantine began (aside from not seeing friends and family and going out for dinner, that is). The major differences are what happens when I arrive.

Pulling into the parking lot, I scan my badge to get through the gate. I pull into my normal parking spot, far enough away from the building that I get a small walk in but close enough that it’s not the back of the lot. I then put on my mask and gloves and head for the building where, starting very soon, I will get my temperature scanned before entering.

The first new normal was Social Distancing. Signs showed up around the building reminding us to stand 6-feet apart. Hand washing signs also went up and communications went out to all team members to abide by them all. Next, the extra conference rooms were locked, extra cleaning crew was brought in for extra building cleanings, and tables and chairs were removed from the break rooms to make space for social distancing. Oh, and they closed the gym, of course.

Next we were all given masks every day to wear during work. It was voluntary at first, but now is mandated by the governor. I had really been wanting to wear a mask but didn’t want to scare team members into thinking I might be sick so this mandate came at the perfect time. I decided to make my own. More on that in a bit.

This week, the new mandate was gloves. I wasn’t informed of it but my boss told me about halfway through the day that I needed to be wearing them and where I could find them. That has been a struggle since I spend a lot of time on the computer and gloves just don’t work with that too well. We’re getting by.

The next big move is going to be temperature screening. Today senior leaders were outside our window practicing scanning team members’ and deciding where to put the people who come up too high. It was beyond distracting but I think it will become the new normal by next week.

Anyway, if you’ve gotten this far, the real reason I’m talking about all of this is because my new normal has inspired a new style for ‘bounding. My foray into sewing a few years back was short-lived — mostly because I got pregnant and ran out of time for it — but I have a number of fabrics (and still do custom work) so it made making masks a natural choice. I started out with one mask, made it reversible, and washed it every night of the first week. That weekend I made myself three more (and a few more for others) and I plan on making one or two more this weekend. I have found a bit of joy in incorporating masks into my ‘bounding since I am still trying to ‘bound daily and have to wear a mask anyway. The first one was sort of inspired and from there I just kept going!

Follow the hastag #boundingwithmasks on instagram to see more! I’ve got much more fun on the way 🙂

Juli