The upside of living through a pandemic

I was filming a school Principal who was asked if she was looking forward to things going ‘back to normal’ after the pandemic. She quickly responded, “Absolutely not. We have evolved so much in such a short period of time.”

So here’s my list of the positives of our evolution over the last 20 months or so.

The world is closer online

For those of us who have friends and family interstate and overseas, it is normal to catch up with them more often online. The tyranny of distance has been conquered as we adapted to Zoom and all of its opportunities.

Access to leading experts has become easier as they are able to join us to share their wisdom from the comfort of their homes. The prohibitive cost of business class travel, accommodation and matching speaking fees has been significantly reduced.

Upskilling in tech

Imagine two years ago how many people knew how to use Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts compared to now. Everyone has adopted new technology and adapted to the opportunities it provides.

Schools now seamlessly flow between offline and online classes. My son’s school had to shut down for a couple of days because of COVID and school continued throughout.

Live streaming has also become normalised as schools make their activities more accessible for busy parents and the broader community.

Flexible workplaces

It turns out we can be more productive at home than at the office. Sure there are distractions at home but there are more at the office and we have learnt how to combine work and family. The shorter commute to the kitchen table or the spare room has allowed more time with family and improved work life balance.

Many businesses are reviewing their workplace requirements and considering hybrid home/office conditions in the future. The improved productivity and more time has, it turns out, reduced some of the stress that we were expecting to have to confront.

We are more agile

Although we are often living in a heightened state of anxiety, not knowing if we can travel, or hold an event and bring people onto campus, we have learnt to deal with it. We have learnt to accept what we have control of and when to have back up plans.

As updating plans has become the norm, what would have been highly distressing before has become part of the working week. Plans change; people understand; and life goes on.

We are lucky

In Australia and New Zealand we are fortunate to have excellent healthcare. Tragically people have died but the numbers in our two countries are significantly less than they could have been.

Amongst the conflicting madness of  COVID information I find some sanity in the Walkley Award Winning podcast – Coronacast. Each morning, in about 10 minutes, Dr Norman Swan and Tegan Taylor break down the latest COVID news in a clear and no spin manner.

All the best for a great 2022.

Geoff Anderson
Sonic Sight