"Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born". Easter 1916 - W.B.Yeats

An Easter like no other. With the Covid-19 pandemic on all our newsfeeds, we are seeing the scale of the human tragedy, presented in cold numbers and graphs, but with every number representing a human life lost, family and friends in mourning, unable to even say goodbye. We applaud the heroics of the front-line staff in hospitals battling an invisible enemy, many contracting and some succumbing to the virus; we thank the supermarket staff and delivery drivers for taking personal risks to continue working, while most of us stay at home.  This crisis has also brought a collective awakening in our societies, bringing us to our senses as to changes that are much-needed, changes that are imperative in the long-term after the Covid-19 crisis eventually abates. 

What has "changed, changed utterly" and what "terrible beauty" can we take from this tragedy?

1)     Climate Crisis Action, not Complacency

At the launch of his “Our Planet” series a year ago, David Attenborough stated that the Earth is in the midst of the 6th great extinction event. Covid-19 has proven that governments can act decisively when there is an acute crisis and we must do so to address the climate crisis. David Attenborough concluded his speech hoping for "an unprecedented global understanding of the one place we all call home". We have seen that we can collectively act and change our behaviours in the short-term, will we change our addiction to consumerism, meat-based diets and Instagrammable tourism in the long-term?

2)     Remote working, not Office working

Many traditional office-based organisations insisted on a “presenteeism” culture, making the assumption that employees working remotely would just slack, or that teamwork would suffer. The forced and exponential growth of working from home, using technologies such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, has proven that companies and employees alike benefit from remote working. Companies can reduce their office rental costs by actively encouraging employees to work remotely, where they can do far better “deep work” than in open-plan offices designed to generate interaction, but having the opposite effect. Employees can avoid the grind of the daily commute, start work fresh and limit interruptions, and post-Covid-19, choose to go to the office for important face-to-face meetings only.

3)     Cities for Communities, not Cars

Walking about my hometown of Dublin (within my 2km limit), I’m enjoying the fresh air and calm streets, taking pleasure in seeing a father playing football with his young sons in the street, a mother cycling safely with her small children in the road and the general tranquility. Restricting car traffic in cities has enormous benefits for the live-ability of cities and health of city dwellers, it’s high time that we re-designed cities for citizens, not cars. The "superblocks" concept implemented in Barcelona offers a model many cities could emulate.

4)     Leaders, not Populists

A crisis shines a light on everyone and shows us people for who they really are. On one side, we’ve seen elected leaders showing their true mettle, from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s St. Patrick’s day speech; to Jacinta Arden of New Zealand; to Taiwan's Tsai Ing-Wen. On the flip side, we’ve seen the charlatans exposed: Donald Trump, who made it all about himself; Boris Johnson, who pushed an out-of-step "go-it-alone" British approach, before a belated change of direction; and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, repeatedly downplaying the threat of Covid-19. Will the electorates of the US, UK and Brazil see through these populists and oust them from office at their next elections?

5)     Societies, not Self-Interest

As well as the crisis exposing politicians' true selves, CEOs of organisations are showing their true selves. We’ve seen many examples - top restaurants such as the Greenhouse, preparing meals for the frontline workers, distilleries producing hand sanitiser and clothing outlets producing facemasks and PPE.  On the dark side, we’ve seen the heartlessness of the leaders of some corporations, such as the CEO of Wetherspoons, who first argued that pubs should be allowed to stay open, then suspended pay for his staff three days into the lockdown, bluntly telling them Tesco was looking for staff. Collectively, we should remember who looked after their employees and others vs those who abandoned them at a time of great need – and when the “Roaring Twenties” kicks off in earnest, which it undoubtedly will, let us all support those organisations with our spending power who were there for society, not those who, when times were tough, took the path of narrow self-interest.

6)     Respect, not Condescension

The phrase “the customer is always right” needs to be re-worded to read “the dis-respectful customer is always wrong”. Retail staff, delivery drivers, shelf stackers, have always deserved our respect for doing a difficult job for minimal reward. Even during this crisis, we hear of stories of retail staff having abuse hurled at them for simply pointing out limits on items or explaining why something isn’t available. Just as after 9/11, no-one dared use an inappropriate tone towards airline staff, so too it is unacceptable for retail staff to have to tolerate abuse. In the past, many staff were often told not to argue with customers "the customer is always right", but the management of these companies should make it clear that any abuse of their staff will result in summary removal of the offender from the store. We also should refuse to be bystanders to poor behaviours and instead speak up, otherwise we are complicit with our silence.

What other changes has Covid-19 brought? Please add your comments below.

Finally, for all medical staff everywhere, which include my brother and sister-in-law here in Ireland and my two cousins in Germany, please - Stay Home. Stay Safe - and for your mental health, stay connected.