Positive Effects of the Pandemic

I predict that this will be an incredibly unpopular post, because I think people aren't ready or willing to accept that 2020 wasn't a complete shit-show.

The Pandemic, which started here in the United States in March 2020, has wreaked havoc with our social fabric.  

• People have died.  
• Individuals and businesses have been financially devastated. 
• The economy is, arguably, in shambles, and probably won't recover to what it was before anytime soon.
• The philosophical, religious, and political (and, yes, I absolutely do mean to lump them all together, implying that they are intricately linked) divide has widened, perhaps beyond any ability to close the gap. 
• I, personally, have lost friends because of the very deep divide between those of us who want better answers than, "because I said so," and those who want to shame us for seeking more and/or better information.  I am not the only one who has been shamed to silence by people who (probably) mean well, but can't hear anything other than their own fear.  
• Those who were extroverts before the pandemic have suffered from wont of social stimulation.  Those of us who were introverts before the stay-at-home stratagems took affect have thrived in this new world.  

There have been some really bad bits, for sure,  but at least from where I'm sitting, there have also been a lot of positives.

Let's take a look.

More People are Working from Home

I'm sure some of the above-mentioned extroverts will argue that this is *not* a positive outcome.  That's okay.  Argue away, but before you say nay, take a listen. 

I started working from home in 1998.  Back in those days, there weren't many of us, but the demographic was growing by leaps and bounds every year. With the introduction of this amazing technology - the world wide web! - and all of its accouterments, many jobs that previously required actual bodies in office spaces, could suddenly be done remotely.  I researched and wrote a lot about it, and in fact, my original blog (happilyhome.blogspot) was born from a desire to assist other SAH parents in their search for a work-from-home life.

What I found, back in those days, is still true today - maybe even more true - and that is that companies that allow part-time or full-time telecommuting options have a lower overhead (because they don't have to have as much real estate devoted to offices in which their personnel work) and in most cases, their employees have a better work/home life balance and are happier.   Even with that data freely available to anyone who was looking for it, many companies were still stuck in the 19th Century idea that employees needed to be watched, lest they slack off.  

Fast forward twenty-two years, and out of necessity, many companies are sending their employees home.  I read an article recently that was discussing the changing nature of the publishing industry (sorry, I didn't save the link), and the gist of the article was that NYC would be the hub of publishing in name only, as much of the actual work would be performed remotely - often from out-of-state home offices. 

Maine has seen a huge migration of former New Yorkers, who are buying (cheaper) property here and telecommuting to their jobs in the city. 

Supporting a home-based workforce has some incredibly positive side effects: 

Less time off for sickness!  Keeping us healthy was (is) of course the primary motivator in adopting 2020s work-from-home paradigm, but it extends beyond the COVID crisis.  In the long-term, with fewer bodies in big office spaces, there is less opportunity for that winter flu to run through the work force.  As such, with fewer people falling ill, there will be a greater productivity, overall.  Hopefully, for that reason alone - this WAH life will prosper.

Companies save money on real estate.  When I started my home-business twenty-two years ago, my first client was an out-of-state entrepreneur.  He was hoping to take advantage of the dot.com boom, and he was looking for a local person to be the administrative contact for this business idea he had.  He had some rental property in a very desirable area, and his idea was to use one of his rental units as an office space for his administrative assistant to run the business.  I talked him into allowing me to be a contractor rather than an employee and to use the office space and equipment I already had at my home.   The benefit, for him, was that I already had the equipment and the space, and so he didn't need to buy a computer or peripherals, AND that he could, now, rent the apartment.  The money he made off the rental funded his business venture and paid my contractor fee.  

My home is much cleaner.  Which has no benefit for an employer, BUT is incredibly beneficial for my family ... which perhaps indirectly benefits an employer, because everyone is happier.  

No commute is better for the environment.  When I quit my job at the theater in December to return to working full-time from home, I completely eliminated my daily commute.  I always use my credit card for gas purchases at the pump, like most folks.  On our most recent statement, I noted that I have filled up my gas tank twice since mid-December, and the last time I put gasoline in my car was January 5.  The environmental impact from reducing/eliminating the commutes of millions of people has proved incredibly (but not surprisingly) beneficial.  

Working from home saves money.  I won't go into this one too much here/now, but suffice it to say that working from home, and/or having a full-time at home partner, saves a LOT of money in the long term.  The specifics are a book in the works ;).  

Businesses are Supporting a Work-at-home Workforce

I was in Staples the other day, exchanging my CO2 cartridge (because we make our own seltzer with our SodaStream, which also saves us a lot of money), and I saw this pretty cool display.  

The sign on the wall says, "Build Your WFH Haven."  WFH is work from home.  Back in the day we called it telecommuting or work at home.  Telecommuters were people who had an employer who allowed them to work at home.  The WAH designation was for those who had home businesses or were independent contractors.

I have been working from home for decades, and I have had half a dozen different configurations of a home office - everything from a plywood box-turned-desk in the dining room, to an executive computer desk with a hutch bookcase for storage in a dedicated "office" space, which could have qualified for a home-office tax deduction, if we had chosen to take it.  

I could always get great supplies from Staples, but the fact is, they never catered to the work-from-home demographic.  Seeing those displays of ideas for setting up a work-at-home space was just so satisfying.  

When I dissolved my business four years ago, we turned my former office space into a den/guest room with a sofa bed.  Currently, my WFH Haven is a bit more modest, but considering most of what I do is on my laptop, it's enough.  

And I love how portable and streamlined my work space is.  My hope is to get a covered outdoor space so that I can work outside in the summer. 

Staples isn't the only corporation that has turned its sights on the WAH workforce.  There have also been some businesses that have taken a page from Mr. Bigweld (from the animated feature, Robots) - "see a need, fill a need."  While virtual office space probably did exist pre-COVID (I have had my share of Skype interviews and meetings), companies like Google with "Google Meet" and Zoom, have made it possible and fairly easy to have virtual meetings.  

Delivery services, like UPS and FedEx, are making bank.  I see a UPS and/or FedEx truck on my road (I live on a dirt road with six other residences - one that is vacant) every day.   

And then, there are the businesses that have always offered services that we ... or maybe it's just me ... never looked for, because we didn't know we needed it.  Did you know that the USPS offers prepaid, pre-addressed flat rate envelopes?  Well, I didn't!  And I wouldn't have gone looking for that service, if I didn't want to *not* have to go into the post office.  The envelopes are the perfect size for sending a book.  I received my envelopes the other day, put in my book, wrote the recipients' address in the spot provided, and dropped it into a convenient mail box.  I actually wish I had known about the service years ago, when I was sending out a lot more books.  It was so much easier and faster than standing in the line at the post office, and while I like most of the folks behind the counter, sometimes the whole experience has been draining and very unsatisfactory, for me.  And the best part - the postage is "forever" - like the Forever Stamps.  So, if the cost of the bulk rate envelopes goes up before I use the ones I ordered, I get the lower postage price.  Sometimes it's good to stock up ;).

The Entrepreneurial Spirit has flourished

While there are so many very sad stories about businesses that have suffered and shuttered due to the pandemic, I have also seen an equal number of businesses that have adapted in some pretty exciting and amazing ways. 

The whole take-out industry is pretty exciting, for an introvert, like me.  Deus Ex Machina and I used to eat out frequently (a few times per month, at least), and when I say "eat out", what I mean is that we would do take-out.  I like to eat dinner in my pajamas and enjoy a nice glass of my favorite red wine with my meal.  Unfortunately, for us, we don't do fast food, and the kinds of places from which we wanted to order our dinner, usually catered to people who were dining in.  Our take-out food was not as carefully considered as our meal would have been had we stayed in the restaurant.  Things have changed a little, and those restaurants are adapting to a much greater volume of people who want their food to go.  People, like me, who don't want the hassle of having to put on pants to eat dinner,  are the unintended beneficiaries of this new dining paradigm.  

The delivery services, like Uber Eats and Door Dash, are also a nice bonus.  We've owned our house for two decades and before the pandemic we couldn't even pay for delivery - not even Dominos or Papa Johns, which specialize in delivery service, delivered here.  I mean, it's not like we live on the top of Mt. Katahdin, for heck's sake, but for some reason, no one would deliver to our neighborhood.  Being able to have food delivered was a pleasant change. 

No contact, curb side pick-up where one orders on line or over the phone, pays, and then, drives to the store, where they put it in the trunk or the backseat is next best thing to home delivery.  I sincerely hope that it will remain a thing after this is all over.  

I have also seen a whole industry emerge as a result of the pandemic.  Individuals who possess the heretofore underappreciated skill of sewing, are earning a nice income making masks.  I applaud their entrepreneurial spirit - see a need, fill a need.  

I have also seen businesses adapt their entire business model.  

• Hyperlite, which made ultra light backpacking and camping gear pre-COVID, kept their facilities up and running by transitioning into mask making. 
• A local distillery started making hand sanitizer when their tasting rooms were shut down and they couldn't sell their booze.  
• Several wholesale companies that had previously served the restaurant industry started offering their services to individuals - like me.  
• Native Maine now offers home delivery of a variety of grocery items.  I am a very happy customer of theirs.  I can buy 5 lbs of locally roasted ground coffee for about $6/lb.  That's cheaper than what I pay for a regional coffee at the grocery store.  We drink a lot of coffee.  The cost savings is big.
• A local seafood wholesaler is offering weekly "pop-ups" at which we can purchase seafood products at the price restaurants pay.  We have to buy in bulk quantities, but hey, I have no problem with vacuum sealing 35 lbs of haddock on a Friday evening.  That's 35 lbs of awesome Atlantic white fish in my freezer.  

Prepping has become mainstream

Last August I wrote a blog post about having a difficult time getting my chickens scheduled to go the butcher.  In 2020 more people were home more hours than they had ever been, and the thing that many of them decided to do with their extra time was, basically, what we preppers have been doing for years: gardening, raising livestock (like chickens), canning, stocking up on food and supplies, DIY home improvements. 

Seeds every where were suddenly out of stock.  

By mid-April, here in my local area, every place that sold baby chicks had sold out.  

Even Amazon.com was out of canning supplies.  Forget trying to get them locally! 

Grocery shelves were empty of canned goods and non-perishable long storage foods, like pasta, yeast, and flour.

The home improvement stores were deemed "essential businesses" and had lines of people waiting to go into the stores - I was in a few of those lines, more than once.   

As I do every year around this time, I'm placing my chick order and looking at what we might order for seeds.  I think after the shortages last year, a lot of people will be planning earlier, too.

I don't think people are suddenly thinking that we, preppers, have all the answers, and I don't, for a second, think that, for most people, it will become a lifestyle.  I think most people will happily return to their pre-COVID, non-prepping ways once the masks come off and they can go back to on-demand service for whatever their hearts desire.

But I think for enough of us, this pandemic is a small taste of what could happen to change, forever, the world as we know it, and those people will be the ones who find new and exciting ways to ensure their future is comfortable - no matter what that future holds. While we, preppers, may not be completely accepted, at least we're not being ridiculed and dismissed these days.  In fact, we are, at least in this article, being celebrated.  

I also think that the pandemic has created a few SAH moms and dads of people who never imagined that they could or even wanted to stay home full-time.  There was another article that I skimmed and didn't save.  The gist was, basically, to discuss how mothers have been the unwitting victims of this  pandemic with regard to their careers/income potential (i.e. the pandemic has worsened the gender wage gap), because women are the ones losing or leaving their (thankless, low paying) jobs to come home and be with their virtual-schooling children. 

I mean ... as a two decade stay-at-home/work-at-home Mom and an eighteen year homeschool veteran, I'm not seeing the downside to this.  

The idea, for me, is very exciting, because I know, from personal experience, that being home full-time benefits my family and myself in innumerable ways:  financially, professionally, and spiritually.  My hope is that the stigma around having a full-time at home parent/partner will be decreased, because we, as a society, will discover that being home is not a bad thing, after all.

People are getting healthier 

 

The pandemic, especially early on here in Maine, spurred a huge interest in getting outdoors and walking.  I mean, that was really one of the only activities that was permitted outside of one's home, and so, of course, everyone was out there.  People are still getting out and walking more, which is a good thing. 

I would also posit that people are eating better, because more people are cooking at home and are learning how to actually cook using whole foods and not just pre-packaged mixes and processed foods.  I had an old high school friend who posted a video of this woman who was making macaroni salad.  It was the best cooking video I've seen since I watched Julia Child as a youngster.  The woman was just so easy-going about the whole process, and I tell you, at the end, I just really wanted pasta salad. 

My friend was talking about starting a YouTube channel on which she would just cook old timey kinds of meals, and I hope she does.  I would be excited to share her videos, because cooking is not hard or complicated, and preparing wholesome, tasty meals doesn't require a culinary degree.  

  

People had the courage to leave or at least consider leaving dead-end jobs/careers

If 2020 taught us one thing, it's that life is too short and too precious to live it doing activities that rob us of our joy.  

Someone very dear to me lost his job due to the pandemic.  He was out of work for most of the year, which actually ended up being a very good thing for him and his family.  Being home full-time gave him an opportunity to do some soul-searching, and what he discovered during those long months of hanging out with his wife and kids, and going for lots of hikes, and planting a garden in their new home, and just being, was that he did not want to return to the high stress and long hours of his former career.  

He was able to secure a new job at his same pay level with better hours and a lot less headache.  It was a happy ending, but he would never have looked for that particular job, if his old career hadn't been taken from him.

Another friend had worked at a job that she didn't love for more years than she had ever intended.  Her job was discontinued during the pandemic, because her employer had to go virtual, and hers was not a virtual sort of job.  She was employed for some piece work stuff, but mostly, she didn't have a job or an income.  Except, she did.  

For a while, she had been working this part-time side gig, and as luck had it, the side gig turned into a full-time permanent thing.  She was able to leave the job that was paying the bills, but robbing her of her spark, and do work that gave her life value and meaning.

While the news is full of the stories of tragedy and loss, what I'm hearing on the street is that people have discovered passions they didn't know they had, and this pandemic has allowed people to take a long, hard look at where they were, and where they want to go.  

Another loved one is planning a late-life complete career change, and I am so excited to see where it takes him.  

And on a personal level, Deus Ex Machina and I realized that my outside the home job was not enriching our lives in any measurable way. The money I earned wasn't greater than what we could save if I were home full-time.  The pandemic gave me the permission I needed to leave the job and come back home to do what gave my life meaning and purpose.

I didn't rejoice at the end of 2020, and frankly, I don't hold out a lot of hope that 2021 is going to be so significantly more positive than 2020 was - unless we step back and take a look at the things that made 2020 not so terrible, because those will be the same things that make 2021 good.