The World after Pandemia

I think I might be fresh out of general advice when it comes to blogging, at least for this first week of Blapril. Instead this morning you are going to get a brain dump of something I have been thinking about at length but have been uncertain of when or where exactly to throw it out for open discussion. I’ve been using the term Pandemia to refer to this time we are living in and I even probably shortsightedly named my Island in Animal Crossing after this. In my mind it made sense given that ACNH has been helping a lot to keep me calm in a time of crisis. However one of the things that I have been devoting a decent amount of my mental processing to is trying to think about what the world looks like after this.

The previous event for me that has had any relevance in explaining the changes that are rapidly happening in the world is that of 9/11 when airplanes were used as suicide bombs to attack key targets in the United States. After that event there were sweeping changes that rapidly went into place in a failed attempt to help us feel like we had some control in the world. Now this might not be true for everyone, but I live in flyover country and as a result we are pretty slow to adopt things and as a result of these events metal detectors were installed in pretty much every public building as well as a good number of retail stores. This is somewhat ironic given that we are also an open carry site and you don’t need a license to carry a firearm. However it was a noticeable change that sorta happened over night.

I am wondering if after the events of this pandemic if we are going to see Thermal Imaging like FLIR installed much like those metal detectors at the entrance of public buildings. Will we effectively begin screening individuals with higher than normal body temperatures as a sign of infection? How is this going to change sick leave policies across the board? Traditionally we have been a country that has frowned upon taking off time from work when you are feeling a little under the weather because we have to make sure productivity stays high. Where I work has some fairly draconian policies surrounding sick leave where you accrue it at a staggering rate but can only use a certain amount each year without getting into trouble. Will we see restrictions like that eased as an entire generation is reminded of the dangers of communal spread?

The other change I wonder about is how exactly the workplace is going to shift over time. In flyover country we are still very much traditionally a “butts in seats” economy. This is driven by the fact that most of the management are still in the baby boomer generation, and feel that they need to physically see a person sitting at their desk in order to feel like they are doing a good job. As managers go, I’ve always been a “judge progress on projects” type of person because I know LOTS of people who occupy space with perfect attendance but are otherwise useless. This event has rapidly proven that we can in fact keep the lights on and keep business moving forward with literally the entire office working remotely. Does that begin to shift what the office means as far as culture goes? Do see a shrinking of office space and a widespread shift away from the soulless cube farms? In theory there isn’t much of a reason for my team to ever return to the office because all of the systems we work on were remote in the first place.

I feel like this also is going to be a huge boon for the disabled individuals that need to work from home in order to fit their schedule or medical requirements. For years employers have come up with excuses as to why this would not work, or invented reasons why someone had to be physically located in the office. The last month has proven without a doubt that we can keep carrying on business as usual through the use of technology that we have had access to for years. Those of us who were already savvy in such things have been using it for the better part of two decades. I just wish that business teleconferencing software was half as evolved as Discord or Teamspeak, because I am constantly frustrated by the fact that everyone has a damned open mic all of the time. Years of gaming and talking with strangers on voice chat have taught me an etiquette that I wish I could force upon the coworkers that are not directly in my team.

The other thing that I’ve been wondering about is how this shift in working conditions is going to effect the distribution of the population. Over the last several decades there has been a migration away from rural areas into larger cities, and even within that a sub trend of migration away from the suburbs back into the central core of the city. In the time of pandemic it feels inherently more dangerous to be in more populated areas. I know personally as much as I love QuikTrip we have been avoiding them because they are always busy, and instead seeking out those gas stations that never have anyone at them. Similarly we have been avoiding Walmart or Target and getting whatever we can at Dollar General which has significantly less volume than the bigger stores. However we live on the outskirts of a larger city because that is where the jobs require us to be.

The biggest challenge is infrastructure, but I am wondering if a migration trend would drive investment in higher speed internet in rural america. I could see myself living out in the middle of nowhere because the main case against that used to be the lack of access to goods. Amazon however has acted for years as the great equalizer of access to material things for those who are isolated, because they seemingly ship to anywhere. With decent internet, I could absolutely see a case made for moving away from the big cities and buying cheap property in the more rural communities. Our 1800 home sq/ft in suburbia can be purchased in the tiny town of 2000 people that I grew up in for just a bit over half what it currently appraises for. So the question is will living in such close proximity of other people start to feel more dangerous than it did prior to Covid-19? Will we see a trend of moving away from these cities and repopulating the relatively neglected rural corridors of our states?

Ultimately these are the questions that I have been pondering. I don’t know what the world looks like after this, but I doubt it looks the same. Things are going to change in weird and interesting ways. Some are going to be for the better and others are going to be likely problematic. However I don’t think we return to business as usual after having effectively shut down the world for several months. I am bracing for the financial impact of these events, which are likely to be extreme. I know this post is a bit of a divergence from the sort of thing that I normally write about in the mornings, but these are things that I have been pondering while sitting at home in isolation and social distancing mode. Once we go forth and can populate the earth once again… what is that earth going to look like? Tomorrow I am sure we will return to posts about the games I am playing or blogging advice as part of Blapril, but today I just wanted to dump all of these thoughts onto the digital page and walk away. You know the whole blogs as self therapy thing and all.