Did I Ask For Your Opinion?
Yes, in fact I did. And you responded quickly, creatively and thoughtfully. Twenty five clients responded to my inquiry. They ranged in age from 20 something to 80’ish. Business owners, employees, teachers, retired bankers and engineers, you took the time to answer three very basic questions:
- How are you handling the social distancing challenge?
- What advice would you offer to others in this strange time?
- What do you see will emerge as a positive effect from this crisis?
Your annotated but unedited replies are below.
Social Distancing – Adjust & Zoom
Adjusting to socially distancing seems to be easy for some, more challenging for others. But overall, people are finding ways to manage:
- “Social distancing has been a joy. I get to do yardwork that usually waits until June. I get to cook more. While I acknowledge this is extremely hard for some, I choose to appreciate the positives this situation has brought me.”
- “It took a while to adjust. Keeping a routine has helped.”
- “Technology has an answer. I have zoom lunches, family meetings, and cocktail parties. We even had a 50 person zoom seder!”
- “Really, I'm fortunate that social distancing is "just a bummer" for us right now. We have half our normal income but enough to pay the mortgage. We have slow internet but it's enough. We have food, a warm and comfortable home, fresh air and sunshine, and our health.”
- “Zoom, zoom, zoom. And six-foot lawn parties.”
Your Good Advice – Stuff Your Mother Taught You
You offered so many astonishing ideas, it was fun reading all of them. Here are a few poignant suggestions:
- “Smokers are advised to stop smoking for this period since your lungs need to be strong to fight the virus in the unfortunate situation you get sick. A nicotine patch and other non lung related ways of 'getting your smoke on' are suggested. Regular pot smokers should consider switching to edibles.”
- “Stick with the plan because it can only get better.”
- “Use common sense and don’t complain. The rules are a small price to pay for avoiding the virus.”
- “Help your neighbors.”
- “Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t.”
- “What was the first thing your mother told you to do when you came into the house or sit down for a meal? Wash your hands! A tried and true method of killing off germs and the spread of disease! I hope more people learn this simple, yet effective method of dealing with this or any other matter, crisis or not, WASH YOUR HANDS!”
Wide Ranging Positive Effects – Both Big and Small
You offered straightforward, provocative and beautiful thoughts.
- “Appreciate the little things.”
- “Maybe we’ll learn to live together better.”
- “We will all realize how precious our world and life and family and friends really are.”
- “We have shown that it is possible for many positions/industries to work from home. I hope there is more flexibility for employees to take advantage of this in the future. I have also personally enjoyed not having to hide the fact that I am working from home and have kids around. I hope I don't have to go back to pretending like I'm in an office, hiding in my garage to take phone calls, and having to bribe or threaten my kids within an inch of their lives to not reveal their presence when I'm on a Zoom call that goes too long. I get results and do good work from home. I hope that this is a more respected choice in the future.”
- “I see so many possibilities for positive change in healthcare, education, community engagement and more.
- Urbanization will slow. If employees can get work done anywhere, there's no need to live in urban centers where the cost of living is high. Employees might travel 4-6 weeks a year to be with their teams in person, but be able to live and work anywhere.
- More, better digital healthcare options will emerge, improving the ability to track health outcomes through data. Covid could be a catalyst for tracking new data sources that lead to breakthrough preventions or treatments for common illnesses.
- My children will never know what a "snow day" is. They will only ever know of days where they go to virtual school because it snowed. And teachers finally get their whole summer vacation without having to plan around potential snow make-up days!”
- “I'm curious if we'll end up with a much broader social support net -- with potentially even steps towards a different, perhaps more nationalized healthcare system. Other good civic outcomes would be more bipartisan legislation or a more active voting base.”
- “A generation of kids will enjoy riding bikes.”
- “I think we will see a better work-life balance and broader perspectives emerge from this.”
- “Kids are getting more parent time. Parents are appreciating teachers more!”
- “Everyone is going to have the best garden ever this year be it vegetable or ornamental!”
- “The ONLY positive that can come from these events is an increased appreciation for family, friends, frontline workers and each precious day.”
- “My opinion is that we will value our first responders and health care workers for their everyday work. It also shows that all Americans can work to resolve a crisis regardless of inaccurate and misinformation reported by large national media and the squabbling of politicians playing the blame game rather than fixing the problem.”
- “I think we will rethink our suppliers and not rely on China as much. We hopefully will bring more work back to the USA and distribute our suppliers around the world to South America and Southeast Asia.”
- “I hope we see several tangential positives from this: realization of our human impacts on climate change, a better understanding of the common good, medical advancements occurring at a rapid pace and with unprecedented urgency and camaraderie, fixes to the broken American social systems (school funding, the healthcare system, social services), and an urgency to elect local and national leaders we trust to shepherd us through crises.”
Thank you friends and clients for offering up these great thoughts. Feel free to share them.
I look forward to seeing you in person again soon. Until then….be safe, be smart, be kind, and don’t forget to wash your hands!
Ralph McDevitt April 20, 2020
