key: cord-0762834-a69wv18m
authors: Plakhotnik, Maria S.
title: Feverish productivity: An unanticipated response to the COVID‐19 pandemic
date: 2021-11-08
journal: New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development
DOI: 10.1002/nha3.20343
sha: 3d37c4f0a55614642645e739f9e4f27bb637e075
doc_id: 762834
cord_uid: a69wv18m

nan

responded to the pandemic in the way it did-I was sharp and focused. As a result, I learned new IT tools, got aquatinted with new people and re-aquatinted with some colleagues, and added lines to my CV. I even gained financially: In my university, faculty salary greatly depends on a KPI-type system. Since mid-spring, 2019, I've scored so many "points" that I almost doubled my salary for the next 3 years.

With all these gains, I look into my future with caution. I have escaped the evil monster, at least for now. But what is next? I doubt my response to the pandemic was entirely healthy and rational. Grenier (2021) describes cabin fever learning as an escape route from boredom and isolation during the pandemic. People surf the web to occupy themselves by learning various, often random, facts or skills. As in cabin fever learning, my behavior was reactionary and new to me; I was not selective of the projects either. If in cabin fever learning people passively hop from one learning opportunity to another, I actively and even pro-actively searched for more work and grabbed onto everything I could.

However, what to make of this "feverish" productivity remains unclear. Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2009) make a distinction between escape and coping mechanisms. The former is simply about distracting oneself from a stressor and the latter is about taking control over the stressor. Therefore, did I wish and search for more work to distract myself from the reality or to take control over the reality? I certainly hope my feverish productivity was a coping mechanism. And if a new wave of another COVID variant surfaces in the upcoming fall semester, I will be able to use this mechanism in a more selective, calm, and rational way, if it is even possible.

But what if my feverish productivity was simply an escape from reality? How far can I run? In my country, we say that life is like a zebra where ups and downs, gains and losses always alternate with each other. Then what is waiting for me in the upcoming academic year? Am I close to a burn out? And if the global vaccination effort helps in fighting the virus, how can I maintain this level of productivity postpandemic? Should I feel guilty if I do not or cannot maintain this level of productivity?

Every year in May, I accompany my mom to a cemetery where all her relatives rest. I can remember those who passed fairly recently, but the majority I never met and I have to rely on my mom's recollections of their life stories. One of those great aunts who I never met defended the country during the 4 years of World War II, from the beginning to the end. She was a young woman who, like millions of other citizens, was taken away from the safely and security of her civilian life and thrown into the ugly war. She experienced all the atrocities of war, including starvation, pain, bombardments, and death. However, along with the death and destruction, she experienced many positive emotions and events, including romance, friendships, childbirth, hope, and victory. The breadth, depth, and intensity of all these emotions and events made those 4 years unforgettable, of course, but with an unexpected twist: Later, after the war, she would secretly share with close relatives at family gatherings, "Those were the best four years of my life."

In some strange way, the story of this great aunt comes to my mind more often these days. Will I too talk about the pandemic as the best time of my academic productivity?

Department of Management, HSE University, Moscow, Russia Email: mplakhotnik@hse.ru 

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