The Silver Lining

The Good Things That Might Come Out of the Corona Virus Epidemic

The Corona virus pandemic is one of the most worrisome things any of us have experienced in our lifetime. Not just the virus itself, but the changes it inflicts on our society, such as the lock-down on entire cities are unprecedented events in peacetime. But I don’t want to write another scary article. I want to write about the good things that can come out of this:

Working from Home becomes the new normal
By now, most of us are forced to work from home and we had to figure out how to remain productive…even you Marisa Mayer! Sure, some of you have been working from home for years but for many employees, this is a new experience, even if they had occasionally ‘worked from home’. But then, they still had to ask the boss, and they’d feel a little bit guilty and looked down upon as someone who might just be taking it easy for a day. 

Well, guess what, that’s changed now. We are experiencing that we actually can effectively work from home. The tools such as Zoom, Slack and Box are widely adopted now and, in most roles, you can be as productive working from home as while working in the office. Working from home should become the new default after this crisis is over. There are tremendous benefits that will result from this shift: 

• Cutting down on my commute saves me 2.5 hours every day, and my commute is the average in the Bay Area. Now, getting just 25% of the people off the roads during rush hour every day would significantly reduce our traffic and make the commute a breeze for those poor souls who still have to commute.
• I save serious money on fuel and my car’s operating costs. The official IRS mileage rate is $0.575 per mile and, trust me, the IRS is not being generous with that rate. That means that if you drove to work 25 miles each way, you are now saving $575 every month (!) on the cost of your vehicle, service, fuel, etc. You might even not need a car at all. That’s a pretty good raise, folks!
• The reduced traffic also means much less pollution. Even in the Bay Area, where it feels like half of the cars are Teslas that don’t have any exhaust pipes, the pollution is down just like the traffic. The cities around Europe are already noticing much cleaner air as a result of the lockdown. In the end, if we can get 25% of the cars off the roads because people work from home, it’s 25% less pollution. Wow, here is a way to address Global Climate Change!
• Work-life balance. Yeah, you know what, working from home means that we get to be more home. It’s something that some of us managed better than others in the past. Being at home gives you all kinds of flexibility, from being home for dinner every night to being able to sign for that pesky package delivery.

Distant learning becomes the new normal

Being stuck at home doesn’t need to mean that learning stops. Distant learning in the modern era means live video streaming and interactive conversations between the teacher and students. At least that’s the theory – after all, the technology is available and just about every kid is online today.

That said, my kids go to different schools that have shown a different level of preparedness for a crisis that forces everyone to learn from home. One school was ready to go with a distance learning protocol whereas the other school asked for a full week to figure it out. And we are in Silicon Valley where just about everyone has access to a computer and a decent Internet connection at home. I can only imagine that other places might not be as fortunate.

But the schools are figuring it out and getting better at it. Sure, not everyone might end up with real-time lessons, but they are doing at least something. This is a great step towards breaking down another boundary which is making the world a little more flat and which makes education accessible to more people, no matter where they are.

Tough times bring people together

I am fortunate to have lived in multiple countries and, in times like these, I like to see what’s happening where I lived before. The entire world is going through this crisis. Everyone struggles and everyone is impacted. But what I love is reading the stories about how this pandemic brings people closer together.

I read stories about the Italians singing like a choir from their balconies and about the kids in Prague volunteering to walk the pets for the elderly who are under a mandatory lockdown. I read about young people in Munich, Toronto, and San Jose helping others get their groceries or medications. There is even a new word they invented for this in Canada: caremongering! To stand up against fearmongering that the media loves to indulge in, people in Toronto are caring for each other. How cool is that?! Tough times can bring people together, and this time is tough for everyone. No matter where you live, where you come from, who you vote for, or which god you worship, together we are stronger!

We all learn a lot about hygiene

I probably don’t have to explain this one much but just think about how well we have learned to wash our hands in the last few days. What’s your favorite hand-washing song? I like the Bohemian Rhapsody but that’s a bit too long…I figured I’m done by “Galileo!”.

We have learned about social distancing, that we should rather call physical distancing, because we should remain social, even if we are physically isolated. We are learning about which material makes a more effective face mask and about the virus surviving on packaging surfaces for 24-72 hours. Learning more will make us smarter and we need to get smarter to prevent the next epidemic from ever happening again.

Casual is the new normal

Working from home, hardly anyone puts on "office clothes". And that’s just fine…and, I hope we can keep it that way even after the pandemic. Why do we live in a world that requires us to have two complete wardrobes? Why do I need to buy clothes to only wear in the office? It’s expensive, not that comfortable, and it’s environmentally irresponsible. The clothes and their cleaning require resources that are only used because we need to wear office attire.

Now, don‘t take me wrong. I am a father of teenagers and I am well aware that there need to be some boundaries in what people can wear. Different jobs, climates, cultures, safety requirements, and other factors may require such boundaries. I also understand that some people like to stand out by the way they dress. It’s a free country and we should be able to wear what we like. For example, every male in Italy will always look way, way, way sharper than anyone of us in Silicon Valley. But I do hope that we can drop the term "smart business casual" once for all…because I still don’t know what it really means.

We all become a little more human

One of the things I enjoy the most during this Giant Working From Home Experiment is that we are all impacted the same way. Even the company’s executive officers have their children screaming, dogs barking, and doorbells ringing at the most inconvenient times while on video calls. And you know what, that’s great! We are all human. We all have to deal with the daily hassle of family life, we need to have our oil changed, our refrigerators fixed, our hair cut, and our teeth cleaned. This crisis makes it a little more visible for all - and to all - of us. Because we are all impacted the same way. We are all human and it’s good to see that firsthand.

Social media might become social again

Let’s face it, social media no longer has the appeal of what it had ten years ago. Remember when we used it to just connect and share pictures of our pets and favorite dishes? Social media once allowed us to stay closer with our remote family members, communicate better with our friends and reconnect with our old classmates. Since then, unwanted advertising, online trolls, and political manipulations have become an integral, annoying, and unfortunate part of our social media experience. We don’t like when we see it but the most troubling part is that very often we don’t realize that we are being manipulated. Social media has become much less “social” and much more “media”.

Well, this crisis could be social media’s second chance. If we manage to start connecting with each other again, if we use it to share about ourselves and to help each other, we might find the social part of social media again. I still see a lot of fearmongering but I’m beginning to see some caremongering too. I still see a lot of fake news and advice but I’m also starting to see useful tips and sharing about how to deal with kids in the house while working from home. There is a lot of good that social media can do for us when we are all socially distant at home.

The Internet can be a powerful lifeline to our families and friends during this crisis. It’s up to the leaders of Facebook and Twitter to weed out all the evil - the trolls, the manipulators, and the fake news. This is their second chance. They have blown it the first time but if they figure it out this time, their platforms might have a real future. Otherwise, we will sign off for good.

The Corona virus pandemic is the greatest challenge that mankind has faced since World War II. It’s testing our resilience and our ability to adapt. But I do not doubt that we will come out of this crisis stronger than ever before. I also hope that this crisis will result in some permanent changes to our way of life – good changes, that make us and our lives better.