What is 'normal' anyway?

I have posted the following question on social media streams several times over years:

“If we are all different, all individual and all have our own traits and personalities, who or what is normal?”

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been several posts on social media which also ask us to question ‘what is normal?’

Posts such as:

“Normal wasn’t working!” or “If we go back to the way things were, we have lost a golden opportunity”

What if, after the lockdown is lifted and the coronavirus pandemic is under control, nothing changes? What if we just return to the way we used to work and carry on like nothing has happened? Have we missed an opportunity?

These are my thoughts........

As we move through what we all recognise as unprecedented times and as we face and battle the coronavirus pandemic which is affecting everything around us, every one of us has seen major changes to our lifestyles and have faced severe challenges over the past few weeks, yet we have all pulled together to help keep each other safe from the effects of the COVID-19 virus. 

Words and phrases which we had never heard of or had rarely used before this year such as ‘furlough’, ‘social-distancing’, ‘self-isolation’ and even ‘home-working’ are now being used as part of everyday conversations without any thought.

Many of our ‘normal’ day to day activities have been affected with a huge impact on everyone.

From a personal perspective, each of our lives are in a totally different state than they were just a few weeks ago. The thought of not being able to physically visit our families and friends or being restricted as to how many tins of beans or packs of toilet rolls that we could buy was unimaginable a few weeks ago yet here we are entering another 3 week period of ‘lock down’. Everyone is trying their best to make the most of the situation to make daily life go on and make our days as bearable as possible. Who would have thought that sports events, pubs, theatres, hairdressers, non-essential retail outlets and other things that we have taken for granted for years would all be closed. Thankfully, the vast majority of the population are complying and following the government guidance.

When it comes to work though, nearly every workers daily practices have been affected in some way but for many, the way that they carry out their daily work activities has changed beyond recognition or in the most severe case, work has disappeared for the time being.

Home working, virtual meetings, video conference calls, video based interviews, webinars etc were all available for businesses to use prior to the pandemic but they are now being used and adopted by more and more businesses every single day.

This move to using the technology as a practical and effective business solution is across the board and is being adopted by small business owners, global corporations and everyone in between. For companies who may have retained some paperwork based systems, the transition to electronic based systems is happening right now with simple tasks such as submission of times sheets and work sheets being moved from being hand written to being submitted electronically.

Companies who may have resisted joining in with the technological advances are now being pushed towards using technology in a way that they may never have envisaged before or had only ever touched on previously. Companies and their employees are using social media to engage with their customers, sharing messages about products and updates about the company. Luckily, many of these platforms and systems are user-friendly and can be operated without too much difficulty, although for many individuals, watching themselves on screen or hearing their own voices playing back through a speaker system takes a bit of getting used to.

The move to ‘home learning’ by schools and colleges has been a massive decision and I am sure there will be some discussion over coming months as to how effective this has been. It will be interesting to see how the different methods of delivery are used going forward. Will there simply be a full return to standard classroom based teaching or will the Education sector adopt a mixed approach? The Education sector understand that lessons need to be planned and delivered using differentiation in order to meet all class member’s needs. Will home learning and independent study become a more widely used strand of differentiation and if it does, what will this mean for the sector, their staff and their students?

Many successful networking groups have moved from physical meetings to online meetings and while there are definite positives in this move such as maintaining contact with members of the groups to provide support for each other and the massive reduction in the need to travel (less emissions, less fossil fuel being used etc), the question is whether virtual communication is as effective as being able to talk face to face?? Time will tell.

But what about the individuals who are affected by these changes?......

Fortunately there are many organisations who have realised that while some of these changes are positive, these enforced changes can also have a negative impact on the mental health of their employees, especially where staff have been furloughed.

While new technology is being implemented to allow business to continue, many managers are becoming aware that their team members are primarily social animals who feed off the interaction with colleagues around the offices, share banter and humour around workshops and catch up with others while having a brew; these same individuals will be the face of the company in many instances and may be the point of engagement with clients and customers.

Not being able to do perform these interactions can result in many of us feeling alone and this can lead to a negative impact on our mental wellbeing. There are many examples of how managers are using these new technology methods to keep in contact with their furloughed teams to check in on the individual team members’ health and wellbeing.

When you mention the term mental health, there is usually a negative image presented or a negative reaction encountered but it is worth remembering that we all have mental health, the state of which can change over time.

Some days our mental health is in a good state but there may be times when our mental health is in a low state. Regular or continued low mental health can lead to other conditions developing. It is therefore important for basic well being and welfare checks to be made on friends, family and colleagues during these strange times. A quick text asking “how things?”, “are you ok?” can be really appreciated. A quick video chat and a virtual brew may just help lift the spirits of those involved. I am sure that there are many other examples that are being used to check on each other and there is no reason why we shouldn't all try to do this on a regular basis within our own circles of contacts.

We can and will get through this pandemic and be stronger on the other side but we need to look after each other and support each other wherever, whenever and however we can.

Stay Safe.