So, we are still hanging out at home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Things have changed only a little for me during this time, I am still working jsut now at home more often. I was used to traveling to clients sites almost every other week, and now I am doing everything remotely for the most part.

Having meetings via Teams, Webex, and even Zoom has been interesting, especially with all the people who are not used to working remotely. With people demanding everyone use their webcams in meetings we get to see some interesting things, like people’s homes, their family members, and even their pets. This was not a normal thing that would happen several weeks ago on a virtual meeting. Several of the platforms are now allowing for virtual backgrounds, which gives people something to show other than their homes (messy or not).

Been reading some articles from several people (not sure what makes them an expert on this subject) twitter and news articles who want to tell me how to work from home and how I should act in my virtual meetings. I think that giving people a list of things that work well for you in your remote job is stupid, as not everyone is the same or wants to do the same things as you. I have no problems with listing out things to try, and let the person decided what works best for them, but stop telling people how to work remotely. Also, telling people to not mute their microphones during meetings so they can have better interactions with their team is ridiculous as no one would ever get anything accomplished. All you would probably hear is people breathing, eating, typing and other background noises. Making the meeting useless and take for ever to get to what the meeting was intended to cover. People will figure out the flow, just let them work on it, as every meeting has a different focus and drive based on the purpose. Plus half of the people are chatting with each other in the background about most of the topics being discussed.

Not everyone is geared to do remote work, and many people like to have that little interaction with an actual person in their work day. Some may even take a little more time to find their groove in this process and it will be a trial for several weeks to get it to their grove. Some people need a routine to get through their day, while others will just wing it everyday. Which scenario works for you just keep dealing with it and keep at it. For the people who are like “see now they (their employer) have no reason to not let us work remote going forward”, you may have to keep dreaming, as it is not that easy for every company to make that an easy decision. Be happy you have an option to work remote, not everyone has that as an option.

We have the people who were terminated or furloughed as the business could not continue making payroll. Then there are the people who are currently identified as essential (Medical staff, grocery store staff and food service staff) and then there is everyone else either working remote or sitting idle collecting some paycheck (either a full or partial payment) waiting for things to start moving again.

Will everything go back to normal? Well you need to define what normal is to start that discussion. I do not believe everything will go back to the way it was before the pandemic, I do see some changes that will last for several years if not permanent. People may get to work remote for some time before getting asked to come back into the office. I do not see that everyone will be required to come back all at once, it will be the people who want to or are able to come into the office to work. Some may not want to come back at first but want the comfort of working at the office with their colleagues. Others will stay remote for as long as they are allowed to, some may be told to come back to the office, while others may be allowed to make that a choice to stay a remote worker. Some peoples positions will be eliminated as there will not be a need for them due to less work overall, less money coming in to support the staff, and possibly the business not getting back to pre-pandemic operations.

Traveling will take a while to get back to any type of normalcy and some airlines may not continue with or may limit some flights to certain cities (less profitable locations). Business travel will change for many, as it will not be justified to fly out to do those meetings onsite. Sales people may not be able to get into meet the people they are trying to sell products to. For many if it can be done remote, then that would be the preferred option, instead of the expense of traveling and the possibility of someone getting sick.

Vacation travel may take a big hit, some will be due to fear of traveling again, and some will be due to financial limitations from layoffs and people having less money. People may just do more driving to nearby areas that are less crowded, and less people flying on crowded planes to large populated areas. Cruising may have some less crowded ships, but not sure if that will be just older people and some families with kids, or if it will be across the board for people. Have read that cruise lines have seen an uptick in people booking trips for 2021, but I think it is people playing the game, and are hoping for a cancellation to get an extra credit fees to book a future trip or are taking the current credits they got for canceled trips to hold their place on the next ship.

Who know what the future will bring, I guess we will find out in the next coming months. One thing I can say is I hope people stop being stupid about this whole situation. Yes it sucks, and maybe could have been handled a lot better by the people in government. But if we all work together we will get through this sooner than later.