Paranoia, polarisation and newness: 8 themes of Covid 2020
Almost the end of the year! Just before I sign off, here are eight big themes from 2020 to inform us for our adventures into 2021…
Surprising successes 1/8
Two weeks before lockdown I saw a memo from a law firm partner saying that WFH was not encouraged and emergency use only.
Can you imagine what banks and law firms and big companies would have said if the government proposed working from home for all with six months of planning? And yet—as Alaric Mostyn reminded me—bank systems did not crash, supermarkets only ran out of food because we went looney-tunes, and planes didn’t fall out of the sky. Sure, they didn't take off much either, but…
Polarised experiences 2/8
Some organisations and individuals have revelled in this moment: those currently paying back furlough schemes, and anyone with a big house, a secure job, and labradors.
Meanwhile, anyone:
in a hard-hit industry
wrangling a collapsing business with small children
already overextended financially
wholly alone and/or
who fell through the cracks of government support
…has had a brutal time.
Audrey Wiggin told us about Lockdown Trauma in one of the best-watched vlogs this year. And we know that women were hit worse than men, making the legendary work of Joeli Brearly and Pregnant Then Screwed ever more important.
Productivity & efficiency are not the same 3/8
Quietly a lot of businesses have been doing better than they might have expected. Their numbers look OK, things are still working. And yet, dig a little deeper, and you find their teams are broken from unrelenting working hours.
Any conceit we had about boundaries has been blown up—if there is one thing we need to sort in 2021 it is where work ends, and home time begins. Something I’ll be looking into more.
Weaker ties to firms 4/8
A lot of headhunters have spotted that people are far easier to move between jobs when they are not locked in by having a great friend on the next desk, a convenient commute, and a great canteen.
Not to mention that you don’t even have to sneak off for a ‘doctor’s appointment’ in your best suit. Dick Tyler has particularly noticed this in law firms. I suspect we’ll see a rise in loyalty programmes in 2021 for key teams… perhaps along the lines Chris Mitchell and Lunch³ have been exploring.
Paranoia as normal 5/8
Lack of face-to-face meetings left a lot of us a bit paranoid.
The WhatsApp chats we’re not on, the jokes we don’t get, the throwaway remark that was either a poison dart or a random moment.
Who knows?
But without a quiet smile, a hand on the shoulder, or a follow up chat in the lift, too many of us were left wondering. It was a year in which manners mattered more than usual, as Alex Gordon Shute reminded us.
Screen dazzle 6/8
What you convey through the box on your web call matters. Whether it's hiding with your camera off and on mute, or you’re well lit with at least a dressed top half and some space behind, you will change how others respond.
And you need at least 20% more energy to make it work. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang reminded us about the technical side and Ilka Dunn shared her tips for showing up on Zoom not looking like you just fell out of the bed and tumbled down the stairs.
Time for newness 7/8
We discovered space for new things: couch to 2k, jigsaw puzzles, open swimming, airfix modelling, veg patches, puppies, and even new babies. Lots of us found—or rediscovered—new things that brought us surprising joy.
Now is not the time to talk about the downsides of our COVID-cliché pup Monty whose toilet training is, in the language of school reports, “emerging”.
This is not the end 8/8
But we do know what matters. As Bill Mitchell reminded us, working to keep our resilience high is essential right now. To which end it is definitely time for a break.
Thank you for watching the vlog and for all your feedback: do let me know what I missed. And get in touch if you want me to come to your workplace and share what I’ve learnt.
2021, we’re coming, and we hope to see you all in person!
-Christine x
