Lifting the Lockdown & Mood

The great polar explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries, captured the imaginations of millions of children and adults alike. In lockdown I have been reminded of one of their most potent legacies; that is their contemporaneous diaries. Below his signature on the final page of his diary, the dying Robert Falcon Scott, as his celebrated last entry, appealed: “For God’s sake look after our people”. These could be the words of so many today.

From the millions reeling from the images of the final broadcast moments of the death of George Floyd. To the brothers and daughters of the Covid-19 infected family being taken into hospital to face their ordeal with only professional staff for company. To the hundreds of thousands staring into a bleak future as the world economy creaks in the face of the pandemic. It is hard to avoid these gloomy protestations, making some of us anxious or sad, while in others leading to more serious mental health states, such as depression. We pray for a vaccine, we hope for rapid and accurate testing, we wish frontline workers well and the infected “good luck”. Longer term horizons can, however, appear no brighter, with a possible second wave, mass unemployment, billions of government debt, leaving seemingly precious little time to address huge issues like equal opportunities for all and how we arrest climate change. We cannot be heard shouting, for all the screaming.

One of the great polar explorers was Sir Ernest Shackleton, who famously crossed the Southern Oceanto South Georgia in a small boat, to mount a rescue of his crew - still stranded on the frozen, and inhospitable, Elephant Island. He was asked which characteristic he most favoured in selecting fellow explorers. He said, “The quality I look for most is optimism: especially in the face of reverses and apparent defeat.” We need to search for the optimist in ourselves, look for optimism in each other and embrace optimism about our society. So perhaps it is time to grab some small joys from the Covid-times in which we find ourselves.

A common theme through the diaries of the starving polar explorers was , unsurprisingly, food. What they were eating (a lot of pemmican, ship’s biscuits and melted fat in boiling water!). But it also involved fantasies about what they might eat on returning home. Sunday lunch, roast beef, steamed pudding and custard, pies and bacon. The references to these reveries often grow in frequency as the adventure carries on - and even pemmican falls into short supply. They record games in which the frozen and starving protagonists would describe to one another the food of their dreams; heaven and hell. In much the same way, I am more frequently caught up in fantasies about having a beer in my local pub. It started innocently enough with a passing remark of how good it would be to “have a beer in the pub”. Next to a fully descriptive public house fantasy of the place to sit in the beer garden, who to be with, at what time to ‘start’. I now simply stand, eyes closed play-acting drinking the first, delicious and refreshing mouthful of cool hoppy beer - all in glorious sunshine of course. We now even have a date, Independence Day? Will I even be able to sleep, with the excitement, on the 3rd July? Boris – won’t let the nation go thirsty. It will be 28oC after all!

Before the day of beer – maybe we could make it an annual holiday – there are things to do of course. We need to continue to learn the whole new language and new habits of remote working. Months ago, when making my first forays into zoom and teams…horror… with the video ON, I chose my usual work shirt of pale blue or white, a pair of smart trousers and flip flops. Afterall, no one can see my feet! Three months later the key dress code decisions are which tee shirt and which shorts? It’s now been three months without long trousers. But choose carefully. A couple of weeks ago I was being interviewed by a young woman located in Singapore, noon for me in my home office and seven in the evening for her in her home office. About 40 minutes into the conversation it was obvious that the doorbell was being rung. Out of politeness, or so I thought, the young woman continued her conversation with me, ignoring the bell. It went again.

“Sorry”, she said, “I’ll just ignore that”.

“No problem”, said I.

The doorbell went again and this time sustained and with, what seemed to me, added gusto! The young women continued to ignore it and we continued our discussions. Then it went again. Persistent I thought and offered,

“Please feel free to get that, it seems urgent”

“Yes, I suppose I must”, she said, “I think it’s a new computer”.

I could not understand why she was so reluctant to stand up until she did stand up. A professional white-linen work shirt, was nicely matched with a pair of yellow Batman embossed pyjama bottoms! Her walk to and from the waiting door was a tribute to DC comics.

One thing we did avoid in that zoom meeting was accidently leaving the mute button on. This phenomenon has now generated to whole new Pavlovian response. As the speaker mouths her first few words, spontaneously, all the other participants say, not in unison, “Sally, you left your mute on!”. If I had a ￡ for every time…

Along with business attire our hair has been left to do its own thing during lockdown. Many men are showcasing styles that were much favoured by sporting icons of the 1980s and women in shoulder length locks right out of the 1970s. The Covid-19 retro-look will grace Carnaby Street soon and might be here to stay. We also hope that here to stay is sensible business travel, time with our families, time with our friends, space to walk, breathe and time to reflect. We might even fear that all of this could disappear. We can choose for it not too, and others are already planning this way. The CEO at WeWork, Sandeep Mathrani, is already planning for “hub and spoke” offices as well as “very flexible” user arrangements, based on emerging data in the post Covid-19 world we will be happy to walk or cycle 15 minutes to the office, but not take public transport, nor spend longer commuting. We want to bring the office closer to home.

As CEO of a biotech, I have optimism as a pathology (ask any of the other CEOs about this!). In part because of this, I lift my mood and I’m optimistic that we will overcome Covid-19 and its economic legacy, through treatments, vaccines, testing and understanding. We will build a better economy by innovating and adapting to a new normal. But I also lift my mood in the face of those two greater crises of climate change and equal opportunity for all, because of those I see fighting to overcome them. They are, on average younger, they believe that they will make a difference and they are choosing to act. So, when I look on, I don’t need my biotech optimism to know we will be a better society with equal opportunity, and an improving environment. I simply know that this next generation eagerly ‘grasp these batons’. Our job is to simply join with them to make the changes we need. Covid-19 and George Floyd will shine as remarkable, global, concurrent, catalysts for our all of our better futures.