Is it “zoom fatigue” or is it academia’s insistence on chugging ahead with ordinary expectations of productivity as if people have “adapted” to pandemic life by now, despite the fact that many of us in the field have been completely cut off from family + friends for a full YEAR?

Senior researchers forget that many students are not also living at home with spouses/children, but instead live alone without much to do besides work.

As if being criminally overworked + underpaid wasn’t bad enough, now we have to do it during a global crisis sans leisure time.

Last spring we keep hearing the line “It’s ok if you’re not working at 100% right now” but a) I haven’t heard that messaging in months & b) that kind of talk is cheap when no deadlines have been extended, there aren’t fewer meetings, no milestones have been reconstructed, etc.

I’m all for collective resilience and “doing what we can” work-wise. But my field is about improving mental health...so something about the fact that, besides a virtual format, not a single thing about my experience as a grad student has changed since March is deeply concerning.