There is definitely a weird slide to normal going on. Gradually, psychologically, we're all preparing ourselves for the big return to restriction-free living, and we're certain it's close.
There was a big discussion on the radio today about whether or not the country will end up with 5-day-9-to-5-full-time offices. One lady, a manager of a large company in the North East, really caught my ears. The presenter started with a clanking assumption:
"So surely it must be better for you if people work in the office full-time? Just built a sparkling new building, room for 2000 people, shiny and new, pre-pandemic. Wouldn't it be a waste of money, and space if you don't all go back?"
"Well actually no," she said. The presenter was surprised, but she went on anyway.
"The two things that matter to us are: what do our customers need? And what do our colleagues want? And it turns out we can meet both of those things really well with the space we have."
I thought that that was amazing. Faced with a problem with no great solution, she was thinking of opportunity, and she did it by zooming out beyond the problem's natural boundary.
Sell the building? Go into debt? Force your employees back into work? All those are boundary solutions - but beyond that raw-problem-solving bit of thinking, there was an opportunity, and all she had to do was take a step back and work out what really matters.
What do our customers need? What do our colleagues want? Brilliant. She went on to say how they're redesigning the space to provide event management and a really great working environment for their staff.
Closer to home then, there's still no real news of what happens to us on our own 'weird slide' to normal. There was talk of hot-desking and hotelling (not what you think it is); a global survey went out asking us to pick whether we want to be predominantly in the office or at home. I also got the impression that The Borg prefer consistency, and would like their hybrid workers to choose a 4/1 split either way. My guess is that a huge number of us chose 3/2 or 2/3. I do hope resistance is less than futile.
It's not just work. It's a cultural slide - I noticed the other day that social distancing is slipping in the supermarket. Masks, yes. Keeping to one-metre plus? Not in those aisles. Society has a very powerful collective impulse to push for change when it wants to. It makes me wonder what happens to a law if every single person it applies to, decides to break it.*
Daily deaths are down to remarkably low figures too: 27,4,1,7,14 across the last five days. It's far better than the hundreds we had a few months ago - and you can make your own mind up about what's driving the plummet. It all helps to instill a surging confidence.
I feel less keen on relaxing my guard. Until the restrictions end, I don't want to break them, even when it feels nice or convenient to do so. I guess I'm a little over-cautious about that, but I simply can't gage my own speed down the slide, and I'd rather follow instruction that's guided by leadership and science, than risk it for a biscuit.
What's more (and I think this applies to a lot of us) I'm still not quite comfortable with normal, and I'm not entirely sure I ever was.
The Five Dates
Back to School Day: 0 days
Back to Sixes Day: 0 days
Haircut Day: 0 days
Big Travel Day: 11 days
Liberation Day: 46 days
*This is not a rabbit hole I want to go down.
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