One 2020 lesson we shouldn’t forget

Can you imagine if Covid19 happened in the 90s? Without socialmedia, would there have been less conspiracy theory chatter or — inthe absence ofmultiple trusted information sources— more?

Wouldcodral have pulled its poorly ageing 90s “soldier on” adverts of the time off the telly, giving those ‘she’ll be right’-inclined Kiwis one less reason to take their viral germs into public spaces just to avoid being seen as slackers?

It’s hard to imagine one viable vaccine would have been whipped upand distributed in under a year, let alongmultiples.

Certainly, the impact on work would have been different.

The technology tools that allowed somany of us deskjockeys to keep working throughout the lockdowns and levels of 2020 did not exist.

Awork-from-anywhere revolution that had been happening at evolution pace for many years suddenly accelerated to creationismspeed: done and dusted in seven days.

Andit seems to be largely holding up. Aswereported recently, more Bay of Plenty companies have adopted working fromhome policies post-covid, allowing staff to choose where they are based.

It’s great newsthatmore employers are seeing workplace flexibility can work for themand formany of their staff.

Youcould argue fewer people travelling to work will be good for cities as awhole, too.

There’s always that fresh start feeling coming back to work after a break. Perhaps you’ve thought about what you can do differently or better, howto chase another stepupthe career ladder, ormaybe you’re considering changing jobs or scaling back on working hours.

Aswelook to what’s next, however, weneed to be careful not to lose sight of the progressmade last year and slip back towards old habits. Hanging on to an openminded attitude to workplace flexibility isn’t themost important lesson of 2020weneed to keep heeding, however.

That title belongs to staying at homewhenyou’re sick— especiallywhenyou’re viral— and being able to do that without pressure fromyour employer to “soldier on”. Same goes for if your child is sick, those sweet little petri dishes.

Wedon’tknowhowlong Covid will be with us, orhowvaccine development and protocols will keepup withnewstrains.

But Covid is only as relevant in this argument as anynumber of easily-spread illnesses best kept isolated at home to prevent them spreading through workplaces and hitting productivity or, worse, spreading to vulnerable populations. That’s one lesson from2020weshouldn’t forget.