I remember the beginning of the Beer Cough, and this "New Normal" most of us are living right now. It was late January in 2020 and I was heading back on a flight from Tampa to Chicago after traveling down for a few days of vacation and to do some house shopping for a new home down in Tampa. I had maybe vaguely heard about an illness circulating in China, but we hadn't heard much about it and people in the US weren't really concerned. On my arrival back to O'Hare Airport I noticed a number of people wearing masks, and not Asian people. I say this because in many countries in Asia wearing masks is something they've done for a while, but prior to Covid you wouldn't find many White Americans walking around in facemasks, how much things have changed that today that's not only the norm, but in some areas of the country the law. After landing and taking an Uber back to my girlfriends parents house I began seeing stories about Covid on the news. Fast forward a few months and right around St Patricks Day we began hearing about the possibility of lockdowns and eventually all non-essential businesses were closed. At the time we were told it was just two weeks to stop the spread. Well here we are almost two years later and not much has changed and in many ways things have gotten worse.
Throughout this entire pandemic we kept getting dates for when things would "get back to normal" but those dates would come and go either without any relaxing of policies, or in many cases more freedoms restricted and more policies enacted. We also saw a couple times over this past two years companies giving return to work dates, only to back peddle on those dates as they came closer. Recently news came out that Google among other companies are scratching their January 2022 return to work dates.
Now Remote Work is something many workers have been pushing for, for a long time. Today we have the technology to hold meetings online, sign contracts online, access work folders and servers online, and it's been that way for years, this isn't really anything new. Covid however forced many if not most workplaces to adopt this new style of work. We see conflicting information on whether this is the greatest thing to ever happen to workplaces or the worst thing. Some companies and some articles discuss how much more productive things are and how happy workers are, while we also hear that recent grads and new hires struggle onboarding, people miss the social aspects of work and potential mentorships, and that some businesses are losing a sense of comradery and company culture.
At this point I think it's high time that companies decide why exactly they're working remotely and what the future holds for the company and it's workers. So we've known for quite a while now that the death rate of the Beer Cough is well under 1%, many would argue what we've done is a huge overreaction and the consequences of many of our actions have caused worse results than what the disease itself would have done. This is evident when you loo at things like rates of drug abuse, domestic violence, suicide, and what we've done to the economy. It's also clear at this point that Covid is here to stay, it's not going anywhere, and if it behaves like viruses typically do, overtime it's going to get more transmittable, but less deadly.
It's of my opinion that Covid is no longer a valid excuse to work remotely. Now if working remotely has worked out well for your company or your business, you should keep it. There's plenty of benefits to remote work. But if you are going to adopt a remote work policy, do it for the right reasons, state that it's a better way of doing things, employee productivity and happiness is higher, employees have more time to work and have to spend less time getting dressed, commuting and packing lunches. Give remote work its credit and stop putting things off claiming you're working remotely due to covid
While there are plenty of people who are concerned about covid, that's evident from reading posts on Reddit or Twitter, the vast majority of Americans seem to be over it and not that concerned about it. Look at events like Lollapalooza in Chicago, you had 400,000 people packed into a small park drinking and partying, listening to music and making out. It's contradictory to say it's too dangerous to return to work, while at the same time holding an event like that, which is attended by many of the same workers who are out of work because "it's too dangerous".
As we approach two full years of this "new normal" many people are changing where and how they live. People are getting rid of daycares and preschools and keeping kids at home. People are moving out of city centers to the suburbs for more space or rural areas for more privacy and better views. I've seen a couple stories of people who purchased property and moved away counting on remote work being the future, only to be called back into the office realizing they now either have a 4 hour daily commute or have to sell the home they bought in the country and move back to the city.
It's high time companies get honest with themselves about the future of their company and their employees. If remote work is a better option than by all means adopt it and stop pussyfooting around saying "we're going to be remote at least until first quarter of 2022". Just say remote is better and it's what you're doing.
The reality is Covid isn't going away, we waited for vaccines to come out which was the promise of a better future, and while they do a good job at preventing hospitalization and death, the reality is they don't deliver what was promised and it's a leaky vaccine. The situation regarding covid isn't going to be much different a month from now, next quarter, or a year from now, so it's time for everyone to accept this reality and make some decisions on what the future is going to look like moving forward as opposed to throwing out ever changing guidelines and goal posts.
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