Like WW1 - Society will change
WW1 changed the world enormously - the old order was upended, society changed, the global order changed. I suspect COVID-19 will trigger similar levels of change in the world, and here in Australia.
As a prosaic example, my employer required everyone to start remote working from last Thursday. Our tech was a little sketchy but our IT guys sorted things out and even some of our support staff who we didn't think would be able to were able to be provided with a solution - they rocked up to work on Friday with suitcases, packed their computers up and went home. Literally every client or peer I'm working is doing it remotely. Our peers, several of which are in our building, are also doing the same thing. I noticed this because the bike shed - sorry - "End of Trip Facilities" - which are usually full to overflowing were about half empty. (BTW, there's over 300 bikes in there, in case you're wondering.) Had the showers almost to myself. When I got to our floor I said, are X remoting? Yes, started yesterday, was the answer.
After a couple of days of this they interviewed our Head and the heads of a group of our peers, including the ones in our building. Everyone said that their tech was holding up but the clearest comment that came out was this - working like this is entirely feasible for us, so why haven't we been doing this before? I'd guess that when this is over, and if I'm around - because as an older asthmatic that's not guaranteed - our work style will change and presumptive flexibilty and remote working will be the norm in my industry. And I can't wait for it.
