1. Remote-first working
Okay so this one’s probably rather obvious by now, but yeah — remote first is here to stay. And that’s a good thing.
Sure, it’s not as easy as doing the same thing but from home. You need to take a whole bunch of explicit, intentional actions just to get the same effect as just… well being there. But once you do that, once you take those explicit steps, you’ll realize that in fact PEP20 is right: explicit is better than implicit.
And I say remote working, not work-from-home. The two are quite different. Other than being able to focus better, having my own tech setup and the odd lunch with my wife, working from home is not much different than working from the office. Working from anywhere, however is a whole new ball game. Anywhere can be the coffee shop around the corner or half way around the world, as long as you don’t mind being “slightly” off on your circadian rhythm.
Anyway, there’s a whole internet of information on how to remote so let’s move on. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock or you’re David Solomon, GitLab have pretty much written the book how now to remote.
2. Face masks when we need them
I love Asia. It’s my favorite continent and I try to spend as much time as I can there. Masks were commonplace in Asia way before COVID. And it’s a habit I picked up and brought home. I always wear a mask if I have a cold and can’t stay home. But good God, the looks I got on the subway (or even in the office).
While we’re waiting for some Europe-wide statistics, let’s just say that there have been 0 (yeah, not a typo, z-e-r-o) flu cases in the UK in the first two months of 2021. Granted, the lockdown might’ve had something to do with that too, but you get the picture. I’m not saying we should all don N95 masks the minute we come into the building. Just that wearing a chirurgical mask if you have a cold will should become an act of hygiene, like brushing your teeth or showering in the morning.
We may have some time before we’ll want to see another face mask again once we’re done with COVID, but our attitudes about masks will have already changed. And that’s a good thing.
3. Mental health issues actually discussed
This is one of the two (tops) serious bits in this fluff piece. Most psychologists agree that the COVID crisis is only comparable in terms of psychological trauma to a world war. But there’s a (small, albeit) silver lining.
In the past 6 months or so I’ve started to constantly see people both within tech companies and on social media in general talking openly about the mental health issues they’re facing and how they deal with it. It’s a bit like COVID and the mass trauma it entailed somehow de-tabooed the subject.
Once the genie is out of the bottle this will lead to a lot more honest discussions about this long after we will have dealt with COVID. And I’m not only talking about companies taking this more seriously and putting some money into awareness, identifying early signs and offering counseling. With this becoming a more approachable topic it will also become easier to talk about mental health to your partner, to your friends or family.
4. Enhanced hygiene
Right, so it wasn’t obvious by now, I am a bit partial towards clean, disinfected spaces and surfaces. My germaphobia aside however, hepatitis A cases have dropped a whopping 70% percent in Romania since the start of COVID.
Once we’ve become accustomed to someone disinfecting our table at the restaurant, or hand sanitizer dispensers at the entrance of office buildings I see no reason on getting rid of them once COVID has passed. Oh and don’t get me started about hotels or airplanes. Both badly needed to up their game IMHO and I honestly hope they’ll keep the good habits. It’ll probably depend on how many of us ask for that. Wink wink.
5. Meetings outside the office
This is just not about the occasional after-work drinks. Those happened pre-COVID and will (if there’s any justice in the world) continue way after COVID has passed. I’m talking about meeting people, no matter whether they’re coworkers, partners or customers regularly in various places whose only common trait is that they’re not an office.
It’s obviously not rocket science, but I for once only saw this as a possibility after the office stopped being one. Yes, it was easier to just book a meeting room (I kinda lived in one anyway), but I’d never get back to that. Granted, part of it is moving away from that office-coffee-machine-of-death, but it’s generally about breaking routine. It doesn’t matter if you just do what we do and meet for coffee in a different place each week, have one to one meetings over lunch or just go for a walk in the park. Office meetings aren’t going to really cut it for me anymore.
