I recently read that the Nightingale hospitals built in the UK to hold the influx of coronavirus patients are due to close in April this year after being hardly used throughout the pandemic. What a success story! It may finally mean that the ordeal is finally drawing to a close, an ending of some sort. I don't think life will be exactly the same, simply evolved into this new lease of life, one with an increased amount of caution and empathy to those around us, or at least I hope so. If we hark back to media studies, Todorov's equilibrium theory states that in a story, the natural equilibrium of the world will shift, creating an imbalance, before it is returned to a new equilibrium, one where the protagonist is given new authorities or power to do what they couldn't do in the first place. If we look to accept this theory as fact, we should see echoes of it within our realities. For instance, we were haphazard, almost fancy free in our lives, travelling here, there and everywhere, hugging who we wanted, when we wanted. We were stuck in jobs we didn't feel were our forever jobs, unable to take the leap into what we truly wanted to do, with fear of the unknown. Suddenly, life was turned into disarray, our worlds turned upside down as our everyday lives were completely disrupted. We had to adapt quickly and face the wrath of circumstance, unsure if our lives would ever be the same again. Now, as we reach the third act of our pandemic story, we begin to see glimpses of normality, a glimmer of hope, but with reluctancies to return to who we once were, it's easy to see why so many people don't want to return to their old equilibrium. It's why it's becoming so important for people to shift their circumstances once again to adapt and feel comfortable with their new equilibrium. We can't see the last year's progress go to waste. From a business perspective, it's why employers should remain open minded in how they choose to run their operations, be mindful of staff who have changed their perspective and adapted their working style. In a recent poll on linkedin, a question was posed: "when work reopens full time for everyone, what working style suits you?" and surprisingly, no one said they wanted to return to the office full time, almost everyone who answered said they wanted to mix time between the office and WFH. That doesn't mean they're lazy, it means that they want balance: the social of the office, with the productivity of home life. If we can embrace this then we should see an increased work/life balance and happiness in the workforce. Life is about adventure. It's almost always been my moto but has become even more prevalent in the past year. Its about learning to accept the waves of fate as they are. Sure sometimes we won't be able to see what's coming, but surely that's all part of the excitement of our story? Until next time.
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