Covid19 – "We Never Hated Monday Mornings Again"

Is this time to gain a sense of perspective?

P.S - I’m not an avid writer. Not because I don’t enjoy it, but largely because I don’t get the bloody time (as they all say). But, unprecedented times calls for my ignorant, but unprecedented take on the current affairs of the world.

PPS. Again, this is not to marginalise the horrors of the COVID-19 and my condolences go out to those suffering from the illness and those that have lost loved ones.

"Contagion"

The time that the indifferent became hypochondriacs. The time where the wealthy fled their countries. The time where our Prime Minister was incapacitated by the very thing he dedicated his soul and government to fighting. The time where you could only meet loved ones from across the street. The time where disposable gloves became the fastest growing ecommerce product and supermarket shelves became a stimulus for violent outbreaks of survival instincts. The time where every business, including my own, panicked, edged on the brink of survival and fear and exhaustively changed strategy 15 times a day to survive the crisis. The time where, at the time of writing, the horrible, horrible toll in a day in New York, has matched the heart-breaking toll of 9/11. Contagion.

"Are we staring at another Great Depression?"

Each day at 5pm, the country is fixated on feeding a daily dosage of government press briefing. It started with journalists and the Prime Minister himself, and just 10 days later, left intermittently with Mr Gove and a large screen. A third of the world’s population on lockdown. Fear is the dominant emotion in every household, supermarket, government and boardroom. More Americans have lost their job in the last two weeks than 18 months of the Great Recession. Are we staring at another Great Depression? U-turn after U-turn, the blind are led by the blind – because no one in this generation has experienced a war like this. With Animal Spirits fleeing, we face a vertiginous increase in debt and evaporation of confidence; an unprecedented economic, social and psychological toll on national wellbeing. With Capitalism as we know it unlikely to survive unscathed and whole industries on the brink of annihilation … is there a bright side?

“The world just pressed pause.” 

“The world just pressed pause.”  Every single business in the country is and will feel ravaged by this virus. There is a completely unknown and uncertain future, but whilst the fear of the virus becomes self-perpetuating; the fear of the fear – we enter the world of the “quick and the dead”. The virus is creating unknown certainty and favours the lean – as does wartime. To this moment, secluded and wallowing in my own fear for 20 hours a day in a “home office” – I find a strange comfort in the indiscriminate nature of the economic situation. The cumbersome nature of my corporate competitors will be circulating the definition of furlough by the time I’ve setup my whole team remotely through our (already) cloud-based systems. The business world is now scared and frozen. Fear means procrastination. In many cases for start-ups that can cut their cash, retain a baseline level of sales and be adequately agile – it’s your chance to capitalise. Every media outlay in the world is reciting and spouting low-energy and panic – because panic sells. So, remember, you can’t create customers that are simply not out there. But what you can do is show your staff and investors your commitment to the business and them. You can plan ahead to utilise the false market positioning and market capitalisation you’ll realise post-crisis. You can fundamentally change your acquisition strategy and revenue streams to suit a post-crisis world and for heaven’s sake, do it with some energy. You can sit back and wait, or invest your energy in the rainbow that follows this storm.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever played baseball with my dad”.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever played baseball with my dad”. I spend a lot of time at the office, it’s no secret. Migrating my office into dingy ex-storage room, overlooking my garden – has bought time that you couldn’t buy. Although my dad eagerly awaits his far-too-frequent, albeit essential, trips to the Morrisons, to enjoy the 150 seconds of freedom, he returns home to see the whole family. Perspective suddenly bears weight on the world – where togetherness prevails and communitarianism thrives. This is a world where we sit together, laugh together and we’re not socially distant, we’re physically distant. The distance reminding us to be grateful for the contact we take for granted – and including with our teammates; teaching us to love Mondays again.

We’re embracing with clarity the importance of those around us and sacrificing our livelihoods to support the NHS, to battle through this journey together. It’s a fearful world at the moment, but the boat we all sail in is the one travelled by all around us; through Facetime, Skype, Zoom, Houseparty and whichever new concoction of the day exists. Given it takes 21 days to change a set of habits – my mum seems to enjoy the thought of raging teenagers forced to stay at home instead of the ceremonial weekly binge – and learning how to cook/fend for themselves whilst doing it. The closeness with our loved ones – where physical distance in the world holds no barriers and with a newfound and embraced praise for our country’s key workers and healthworkers will change the way we live, work, communicate… Brexit who?!

"Fact, we’re smiling 32% less than this time last year."

Fact, we’re smiling 32% less than this time last year. There are a lot of horrific tragedies and as of right now, there are more than 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 in the world. The fear and anger is understandable for both antediluvian social conservatives and the free-roaming liberals – partisanship doesn’t matter. But can we be the best versions of ourselves in a time of crisis – dominating the irrational fear of death and the infectious imbalance between judgement and balance. There is a beautiful fragility between the love of life and the loss of life – the interplay has been clear in the last few weeks. The global calling now supersedes superficial thoughts and trivial issues between those around you – now is about emotional resilience, wisdom, courage and solidarity. As coined by Susan David (Harvard emotional psychologist) – this time can teach us to reconstruct our anchor points for happiness. Not going clubbing this week, so you’re not happy? Wrong. And now is the time to deconstruct this false sign-post and narrative to look at what your new way of living is and learn what you value. This is also not to brush away anxiety or grief – but face into it – normalise it and learn how to develop this emotional agility; not judging our emotions or anxiety but learn to be with them. This level of development is something that’ll fortify our ability to grow and our core values, for the rest of our lives.

"Stop the blame game."

Stop the blame game. The atavistic blame game has returned as it does with threatening social and emotional events. “The greater the threat – the greater the lust for a scapegoat”. Are legitimate calls for accountability being lost in the noise of social media hysteria – over vitriolic rubbish about Mr Witty’s appearance or calls to kick Mr Hancock off the job? Inflammatory language gives way for those vocalising public discourse to gain profile and traction – but with the uncertainty of the outcomes of this disease – should we be pre-emptive digital weight-ins and synthetic outrage is crowding out the voice for rational debate and expertise? Questions should be asked and scrutiny should be at it’s finest, but retrospective judging of our government figures will push them into defence-mode, where they are afraid to chart our territory as a country our biggest peacetime challenge. So, cut some slack, encourage conviction and expert opinion and start loving Mr Witty’s face, because you’re going to see it a lot more.

"One day this will all be a distant memory..."

One day this will all be a distant memory. The distant memory where the world came together in overwhelming solidarity to support each other. The time where social distancing and long supermarket queues gave us a newfound respect for all workers and the health and hygiene of those around us. The time where we realise the world we take for granted; date nights happening on Facetime and Houseparties without houses! The time The time where we got to stop, think and drive ourselves and businesses forwards. The time where boredom became an commanding stimulus for creativity and future livelihoods. The time where pollution levels plummeted and I could see the stars at night. The time where postmen dressed up in fancy dress because they were the only humans we’d come into contact with for days on-end. The time where we applauded our honourable NHS and front-line staff, with indefinite gratitude. And the time where we learnt to live in this new world with gratitude and out the other side…we never hated Monday mornings again…

-- Akshay Ruparelia, 21.