Be brave, new world
We will adapt and survive.
“We all need to support our friends, family and community, and we are indeed all doing just that. If anything good has come from this it’s the genuine care we see every day. ”
First things absolutely first – the APC team and I send our hopes that you are faring as well as can be in this unbelievable, surreal, barely comprehensible crisis. The national statistics would unfortunately indicate that many of you reading this will have lost your jobs, or seen your income drop. Maybe by a whole lot. The unremitting numbers also mean that there may well be readers holding this issue that have been infected, and are feeling pretty awful right now. If that’s you, we all sincerely wish you a safe and speedy recovery.
We all need to support our friends, family and the community, and we are indeed all doing just that. If anything good has come from this it’s the genuine care we see every day. I’ve experienced it many times recently. As well as the bad. But this situation seems to be a great leveller, and apart from the occasional toilet paper idiot, everyone is being awesome to each other.
The world has changed, and will stay changed in some key ways. In terms of how we go about our daily activities working from home is a huge one. IT departments across the globe have been scrambling to set staff up with the gear, software and support they need to get the job done. We know many of APCs readers are IT professionals, and we’re all proud of your undoubtedly intense and stressful work.
From sheer necessity companies have been forced to rapidly adapt, and move to operations with remote workers. Besides the massive logistical challenges, there’s the big old issue of trust. A lot of managers at all levels have trouble believing their workers are working unless they can see them at their desks for eight hours a day. It’s an old-school carryover that is vanishing rapidly before our eyes. Workers now placed at home are not about to bludge off and put their livelihood at risk. We’re all living in fear of the companies that employ us collapsing, or being forced into painful layoffs. We all need to row the damn boat to survive.
The trust issue is being blown away as we speak. When things get better I have no doubt that many companies will embrace remote working as the new way forward. The infrastructure cost savings are potentially immense for companies. The productivity gains for home workers equally huge. We have the IT infrastructure coming together rapidly, and by the time this is over it will be finely honed and ready for the long term.
Phew. What a time. A hell of a lot of it completely sucks, but there’s a silver lining waiting for us. I hope. Take care all.
ps. On a brighter topic, next issue will be APC’s 40th birthday! Issue one went onsale way back in May 1980. Another time, another world! We’ll see you next month for a bit of a well earned celebration in these pages.