Employers think the pandemic was a time for earnest self-improvement. Screw that | Jessa Crispin

America loves adversity porn about thriving' from hardship - and even a deadly global pandemic is apparently no exception

Early in the pandemic there was a moment when it started to become clear that the lockdowns that had been proposed as a temporary measure were, in fact, going to go on for a while. Society was understandably anxious. What are we going to do, people wondered, without restaurants, bars, dating, face-to-face human contact, sex with strangers, museums, opera, movie theaters?

Some of the worst people in the world swept in with suggestions. Don't think of this as lost time, self-help moguls and lifestyle influencers and creative professionals told us. Think of this as an opportunity. Dutifully, some Americans made big plans to utilize and optimize this year of mass death and instability - to perfect sourdough; to learn Italian from an app; to do a lot of squats; to write King Lear.