Looking up the term “rat race” yields many definitions. Safe to say all them describe a PURSUIT and non-reflective REPETITION. For me it’s always been a negative term, in that I don’t ever recall hearing someone say they’re enjoying the rat race.

A light bulb has recently come on for me that the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the “rat race” and significant numbers (of people) have gotten off their prior treadmill, either by choice or involuntarily. This seems particularly true among the rank-and-file workers (those scraping by), but not exclusively. Individuals in higher positions and/or high-wage jobs also had the pandemic serve as a self-mirror on their “rat race” condition and that mirror picture was a wake-up call. In terms of the former, rank-and-file, restaurants and lodging (travel) seem to be really struggling to hire workers after the pre-pandemic ones they employed said that’s no longer a treadmill for me.

No question there will be an adjustment period in America, where the workforce industry churn (leave one for another) is high. Net-net it would be my hope, and I’m sure most would concur, that a smaller percent of workers characterize themselves as “in the rat race by mid-2022” (viz-a-viz mid-2020). This hope goes against the cynical warning that the grass is always greener on the other side. Here’s hoping it actually is greener, that work become less a chore and more rewarding.

Note: If I implied rank-and-file workers were less important than those higher-up, nothing could be further from the truth. Strictly a term I chose to use for categorization.