There’s something deeply unsettling about being comfortable when you shouldn’t be.
During the early days of COVID, I watched as friends and colleagues were suddenly thrust into remote work, isolated in small apartments, struggling to balance work and childcare, while people around the world were dying in unprecedented numbers. The world felt like it was collapsing, and yet there I was—already working remotely for years, living in a spacious home, almost enjoying the kids’ remote schooling.
I should have been grateful, and I was. But I was also troubled.
The contrast was jarring. While others were experiencing genuine hardship and loss, my daily routine barely changed. I continued to sit at my desk, attend meetings, review designs, manage projects—all while the world outside was in crisis. It made work feel surreal, disconnected from the state of the world.
How do we balance our professional responsibilities with our awareness of global challenges? When does focusing on work feel like turning away from reality?
The Challenge of Context
Work became a study in compartmentalization. We’d log into Zoom, discuss quarterly goals, plan sprints, debate technical decisions—all while trying to maintain focus despite the weight of world events. The meetings felt increasingly like exercises in maintaining normalcy in abnormal times.
Fast Forward
If anything, the sense of unreality has only grown worse. The systems that have been stable for decades are dissolving. Wars and conflicts rage. Political discourse has become unrecognizable. The climate crisis accelerates. And then there is the specter of AI—with its great promises and simultaneous threats to change everything we’ve come to rely on.
Knowledge work, the economy, education, healthcare, governance—all of it is being transformed by forces we barely understand. And yet we continue to play our part.
The Discomfort of Comfort
The most challenging part is staying meaningfully connected to the world while maintaining our effectiveness at work. How do we keep our awareness of global events from paralyzing us, while also not letting our work completely insulate us from reality?
My commitment to my family and my teams requires maintaining stability, even when that work feels small against the backdrop of global events. The very comfort that troubles me is also what I’m obligated to maintain.
Perhaps what’s missing is more open dialogue about this tension. In our professional lives, we rarely discuss how to balance immediate responsibilities with broader awareness. Nobody forces this silence. It’s just an unspoken agreement to focus on the task at hand.
The Uncertainty
This isn’t a positive post. I don’t have answers. But I do have questions. And sometimes, in the midst of all this pretending, that feels like the most honest thing I can offer.
What makes it worse to me still, is that a great many people seem to either genuinely don’t see any of this—or worse, actively cheer it all on.
