COVID-19 support
Back in spring 2020, the world was struggling to adapt to a new reality, one where COVID-19 was impacting how we lived our lives. I found myself supporting people adapting to a new normal. A new normal where we couldn’t see friends and family, where isolation became an increasing issue, where it was easy to fall into the trap of judging others for not following the rules, a world where facemasks became the norm and where it was understandable to become fearful of this invisible enemy.
This is not an issue isolated to a single country either, it is a truly global pandemic with each country adapting differently.
Even those countries like New Zealand who effectively irradiated the virus still have the odd case pop up which sends them back into lockdown.
No one country can solve this problem alone. Unless we close all our borders to people and goods, we won’t come out the other side until we all come out of the pandemic. The pace at which we do that depends on many factors, vaccinations being one of them.
We will come out of it though. This new normal will not last.
I’m now seeing a different challenge emerging. Whilst we want to be back to the way things were - able to hug and shake hands, able to travel on holiday, able to see friends & family, able to walk around supermarkets without one way systems or adhering to spacing floor markings. The list goes on. If you think about it, our new normal has a lot of features that we have simply become accustomed to.
I suspect most people want to be on the other side of this and back to how things were, but there is the bit in the middle of needing to change again. That is easier said than done.
Do we trust the governments and scientists to get the pace of change right?
Are we ready to go back to normal?
Are there aspects of your new normal that you actually quite like and would rather keep?
I’m starting to see requests for support in managing the transition back to normal. If that’s you, perhaps some of the triggers below may be ones that are of concern to you.
Working from home
For many people, working from home seemed like an amazing opportunity - no lengthy commute for a start.
I, for one, had a 2.5 hour commute which I did once a week and then stayed away from home with ‘only’ a one hour commute from my temporary location each day. This clearly impacted my home life and my swimming training. There was also additional costs to be factored in - accommodation away from home and a lot of petrol. I had always wanted to work from home more and believe that we should attract the best people, rather than the best people who happen to live near the office. The lengthy commute had a significant impact on my sleep and that is a recipe for long term health issues.
So was it all plain sailing? Actually no. Whilst I totally wanted to prove that home working was amazing, it does have pitfalls. You do feel a lot less connected, even with video calls. You can feel isolated as well, particularly if you live alone. Those chance conversations around the printer or coffee machine don’t happen. You end up sat for long periods of time where you would normally move from meeting room to desk or generally move around morel
Some had children and home schooling to juggle.
How do you feel about going back to the office? Excited? Nervous? Apprehensive? Scared? There’s no right or wrong, just what it is to you, and those feelings may change and evolve too.
Social distancing
‘Social distancing’ is a phrase I’d never even heard at the beginning of the pandemic, yet it’s firmly established in our vocabulary. There have always been those people who invade your interpersonal space, but suddenly your safe bubble is soooo much bigger. There are still people who don’t respect that space or dash in and past quickly as if that makes all the difference. Offices and places of work have to be different with desk space and meeting rooms with different spacing requirements.
The requirements around social distancing will change as we emerge from lockdown. This will be a great relief to some and yet others will probably not want to adapt as quickly as guidelines allow us. That’s ok. We’ll all adapt differently.
Physical contact
Whether you’re the sort of person that likes to hug or not, I suspect you’ll use the normal convention of shaking hands when you meet someone new in a professional context. Suddenly that’s not ok. Did it feel weird when that first changed? Maybe, but maybe not. That change also corresponded with lockdown and therefore not meeting people. Still, though, when I did meet new people in the summer (coaching open water swimmers), or someone did something impressive (like swim the channel), boy did it feel odd not being able to shake hands or hug.
I wonder how it will feel to unwind that? Will it be a big relief to be able to go back to how we were, or will some ‘British reserve’ remain?
Again, there’s no right or wrong and you may find you don’t react as you expected to.
Unwinding back to normal
This is completely uncharted territory for us all. We’re learning how to live in a locked down world, we haven’t yet progressed all the way back to normal.
You may just be relieved and happily slot back into how things were and that’s great. You may find that you struggle with some areas and not others and that is understandable. There’s no right way, and conversely, there’s no wrong way. You may also have to accept that others don’t adapt at your pace, they could be faster or slower and I’d encourage you to accept their model of the world.
If you find yourself, or your teams, struggling more than feels right, please do get in touch and I’d be happy to help. Irrational fears or phobias can all be dealt with through NLP or hypnosis. Equally, regular coaching may be the right approach for you.
Bottom line, I am here for you and / or your teams. Please get in touch.