Clearly the Coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of people in not only our country but also the entire world.  It changed the lives of everyone in America almost immediately and unfortunately will likely take the lives of hundreds of thousands before it is done. While we have all TRIED to adjust to life with Corona, it certainly has not been easy and proves to likely become more difficult. Not that endless videos from celebrities in their mansions and hot tubs telling us how we all need to stay home hasn’t helped. I, for one, can’t get enough of them telling us what to do and stay calm or the 24-hour death clock the news has been fascinated with showing us. But after all this settles...and it will... How will we be different? Will we be better? I believe so, and here are some reasons why…

1. Handshaking will be gone. I have never liked handshaking, but I do it, why, because everyone does. But every time a hand is extended out towards me I can’t help but think….did they just go to the bathroom, pick their nose, etc?  Or... I just sat in a meeting and watched this person pick their nose and now at the end of the meeting they want to shake hands. No worries about that anymore.
2. Unnecessary Meetings – There are many reasons to get together for a meeting, but many of us would agree that there are many more reasons not to meet.  Most of what we really need to accomplish can easily be done with a phone call or a virtual meeting.  This will save time, save gas and cut down on traffic. I can’t tell you how many days I spend running from one meeting to another and afterward feel as though I really didn’t accomplish much of anything. It will be good to find ways to accomplish work without driving an extra 300 miles a week. To bring back an old slogan – Is this trip really necessary?
3. We will now be much more careful to NOT come in to the office sick. This is a very good thing. Too often people don’t want to “burn” a sick day and they come in and get us all sick. This is a personal pet peeve.  I for one would rather pay you to be home sick or work from home sick than you come IN to the office sick.
4. Readiness – It is a shame to say it, but we will be much more prepared for the future.  This pandemic not only has shined a light on our medical preparedness but also our business preparedness. We have been lucky as we have been preparing for this day for one reason or another (terror attack, recession, etc) for many years, but many businesses and government agencies have not. Shutting down for many has literally meant SHUTTING DOWN.  For some business this cannot be avoided, but for others, it has been important, actually critical to be able to transition your workforce to home.
5. Buffets will be gone – They have a “sneeze shield”.  Need I say more? This is good... humans should not feed on an assembly line.
6. Lastly...  the look back on this pandemic will be difficult. Many will feel we didn’t do enough and many will feel that we went too far and over reacted.  No one will know for sure what the right answer was, but what we will know is that things will be different in our lives.

A month ago if you asked me how things were going, I would likely have said “same old same old”.  Funny how you can miss the same old same old... but we are learning that we very easily can.