… Back to reality
Almost every aspect of society will change after the pandemic, and some of the positive changes we’ve built into our reality over the last year, you may want to carry with you as we look forward.
What does reality look like for you? Have you found new ways of working? Are there things in the pandemic that you will adopt as restrictions ease and life returns?
It’s been nearly 18 months now since the pandemic began in March 2020. No-one could foresee what laid ahead for the next 18 months. The challenges, restrictions and guidelines that awaited. The new mental checklist when leaving the house; masks and hand sanitiser, as important as your car keys and wallet.
The discovery of new landmarks around places you’ve lived for so many years, due to daily lockdown walks. The awkward first date type “nod, smile, elbow” when meeting people, in replace of the traditional handshake and the awkward wave as you finish up on your video call.
But perhaps you have enjoyed the new pace of life, less commuting, more time at home with the family. Parents have been more visible, able to spend more quality time with children and family, time which previously was
spent commuting. Mealtimes have perhaps become
earlier, together, rather than staggered times. There’s been more virtual interaction with distant family members through new-age technology, video call catch-ups and (now tireless) quizzes.
The home work balance has altered, if you’ve needed a plumber or you’re waiting for a parcel it hasn’t been such an ordeal as previous times. Employees are now more understanding of home and family situations.
Has home life and work blurred into one? Is working from home a positive or negative?
Perhaps now work has blurred into home life too much? The working day now blurred into evenings? Or bedrooms and living rooms have become offices? Longing for covid safe days?
Whatever your experience of lockdown and this last 18 months have been, there feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel. A sense of reality and normality resuming with social gatherings and human interaction returning, leisure and entertainment industries opening their doors, restrictions relaxing. Of course, we must still be vigilant, but ascertain a level of normality and sense of reality.
We can break out of our bubbles (with caution) and resume the human interactive nature, but perhaps carry with us some positive changes from what we have learnt and experienced during the pandemic.