Choices will need to be an option when we return

Needless to say many of us have time on our hands and are using this time hopefully to our best advantage. OK, so i'm retired and have had the luxury of time, but none more so because, I have also been asked to "stay home" during this time of pandemic. But nothing like using that time to catch up on reading including reading some interesting articles from business leaders and watching interviews of various people who are all thinking about what this new world order will look like.

That said, what has become very clear too many people who are doing the "thinking" about how we will all return to the new normal, is that things will happen over a fairly lengthy period of time. Nothing is likely to open as quickly as when we all shut it down. This virus has been a good wake up call for us to revisit what we looked like (putting aside our new bad haircuts), and how we will want to do things at least for the short term. And by all accounts the short term is looking like anywhere between 12-18 months...at a minimum.

What seems to be crystal clear by many, is that how we lived and managed our lives prior to this pandemic won't likely look the same. We have been given an opportunity to reflect and experience things very differently. Whether that includes work, shopping for products, groceries, ordering prescriptions from our pharmacy, visiting our elderly in homes etc. It's all changed and that much of this will remain in place for sometime. I am not saying that 100% of us have adapted so readily, we are seeing that from those who are protesting and asking that we "return to normal " sooner than later. I suspect these folks have other motivations. The majority of us however have collectively understood the message, that social distancing, managing work and life differently is now our new reality.

What seems like a common link in thinking with the stuff I have seen and read, and how I personally feel about all of this, is that my choices are not going to be limited....they are just going to be different. But that in the new world order, I will want choices. Especially as it concerns my personal safety and health. I want a choice about what service I expect at the grocery store and how it's delivered to me; employees will expect that that access to their workplace will not endanger them ; that stores offering services will need to ensure that they physically manage differently(maybe even change their business model); that larger scale events are not likely to happen in the same fashion. In each of those scenarios, (and more that I am not mentioning or thinking about) will be about giving us a choice.

I / we will want a choice about whether we return to restaurants sitting in a room full of people, or do i want to sit in a room where social distancing amongst guests is the norm. Is the cleaning of table now mean with disinfectant; that the POS machine is cleaned at each use; that employers allow employees more options for work at home thereby lightening the load on public transit and reducing crowd contact; walking in crowded undergrounds or sitting in close proximity in your now new open office spaces. People including myself will want choices.

Governments for the most part are pretty clear that "slow is going to be the way to go". This may not make everyone happy, but not sure happiness is/should be their priority. People's safety sure has to be. If you look at the recent reactions that people are having about Quebec's decision to have kids returning to school in May, folks have been quite vocal that it a) might be too early, and b), that they "want " a choice about whether they send their kids back to school. And that choice on behalf of parents has to be respected. So what that means for schools/ educators, is that the dual practices of having kids in classes and teaching remotely will go on for some time.....welcome in this case to the new world of teaching. Employers will also need to start considering these options and I am sure many already have.

So as employers are working on seriously thinking about what the opening will look like, it does need to include in my view "choices and safe alternatives". Not sure we have a choice not to go down that path and this might be obvious. But like everything else, messages like this need to re-stated many times and embedded into our way of thinking. Employees will seriously be asking their employers whether those side by side open workspaces are safe; they will ask about how many people will be in the workplace at any given time. Are they going to de-mark how we physically enter and exist buildings so as not to cross paths; how often will public washrooms be cleaned....and the list goes on.

So despite the fact that we the general public will want choices, employers and service providers will have "no choice" but to do it differently. Is that a bad thing. I am thinking not. It will be our opportunity to re-think how we want to live.