It's work, but not as we know it.

Long gone are the days where a 9-5 day at the office is what one expects when going white collar. We are entering a new era and this BBC News piece helps clarify what “the new normal” might mean for you and your loved ones.

Think working from the comfort of your own home and splitting your day to suit your life; a morning of zoom conference calls followed by a homemade lunch and then onto an afternoon spending time with your family before continuing with your work through the evening. 

Let us stop for a moment to compare this to the normal you have been living to date: your daily commute to the office, the best part of your day surrounded by co-workers, a rushed and processed lunch bought hurriedly from the closest take out as you need to be back for another meeting. Meetings and calls continue until you realise you are working two hours later without even noticing. By the time you are home there is no family time but just enough time to eat the dinner that was piping hot two hours ago and say a quick goodnight to your loved ones. 

It is clear that our egotistical side had taken us close to the abyss and just as we were free falling, the overpowering hands of COVID-19 pulled us out and awakened us to a new normal. One where the majority of our time is spent with our loved ones, the ones we chose to spend our lives with or the ones whose lives we are helping to build. One where we have the time to eat healthily and enjoy the simple pleasures, and one where productivity is enhanced through flexible working. 

Those overpowering hands of a virus that seemed to threaten our whole existence might have provided a relentless wake up call, a call that displays not what “the new normal” is but what normal should always have been.