Friday open thread: pandemic innovations that you're glad have continued

[dolorosa_12]

It's Friday. I have some nice things lined up this weekend, and only five more days of work for the year, which is an excellent feeling. Today, I've been thinking about all the wonderful online events I've attended recently.

I posted last weekend about having attended a series of panels and Q&As associated with the British Library's fantasy literature/film/etc exhibition from the comfort of my own living room. In addition, I went to a panel discussion on (geo)political, social and economic outlook for Kosovo, featuring experts and some opening remarks from the prime minister of the country — the event was in Pristina, but again I was able to watch it from home. And there's a Kate Elliott Q&A waiting on Youtube for me to watch, and a Zoom event with my favourite Ukrainian journalists coming up, and I watched a Zoom tutorial on how to make pancakes filled with poppyseeds and fried in butter during my lunchbreak, and so on and so on. You get the idea.

Obviously the concept of webinars and livestreams existed before the pandemic, but I feel that they really became mainstream during the first lockdowns, and have become established and accepted (I would almost say, in certain contexts, expected) modes of delivery. To my mind, this is a very good thing. Before this, if I'd wanted to attend most author events, at the least I would have had to travel to Cambridge, if not London, or have been barred from attending due to distance or time difference altogether (the number of north American events I've been able to attend now is staggering, and the willingness of Ukrainian journalists, activists, and people working in the culture sector to host online discussions in English is incredibly generous — I even participated in a couple of Zoom panel discussions with librarians working in an equivalent university setting in Kharkiv, and we all learnt a lot from each other). It just opened up the wider world in a way that is almost the opposite of what might have been expected in a time when large numbers of people were mandated to stay apart. It's definitely a change wrought by the pandemic that I'm very glad seems to have stuck.

What about you?

(Just a quick note to say that this is not the space to relitigate arguments about frustrations that masking, distancing, and isolating from others when ill did not survive after the point most governments declared the pandemic to be 'over'. Everyone knows how everyone on all sides of this issue feels, and I just don't feel it's a productive discussion to continue here. My prompting question is about positive changes that have been retained, so please stick to responses in that vein.)

Comments

[muccamukk]

Masking on airplanes! Brilliant! I'm going to do that forever! I always used to get sick after flights.

I wish being able to remotely go to film festivals had stuck around, though. You still can a little bit, but a couple years there it was all online.

[dolorosa_12]

I always used to get sick after flights.

Me too, after long haul flights! Sadly, I didn't see many people masking when I flew back to Australia earlier this year — people seemed to have reverted back to their pre-pandemic ways, but obviously that doesn't stop individuals from masking.

I remember that about the film festivals. There was a lot of live theatre, music, opera and so on also being streamed during the pandemic as well.

[raven]

I hate working from home, I hate online-only events that used to be in person, if it involves staring at a screen I probably hate it. However, if the idea of those things hadn't been completely normalised by the pandemic, I would have lost my job in 2021. A job I managed to do for another 18 months, by the skin of my teeth, because I wasn't commuting and was allowed some grace in start and end times that in practice no one even noticed because I was at home and could go sit at the computer if someone wanted me. Without that, I don't know what I would have done.

[dolorosa_12]

That is definitely a very good thing, even if you don't personally enjoy remote working, or remote anything. It sounds as if it was a very, very hard time for you, but I'm glad it made it possible for you to hang in there.

I'm glad it's become normalised, for a variety of reasons — there are other people here in the comments talking about how remote work helped them manage tricky situations with childcare, sickness, and so on. I think about how in 2015-16 my entire faculty spent close to two years decanted into a freezing and inadequate crumbling 1960s building while our main building was being renovated — there was no teaching space, there was no office space, and we had to go back and forth to the building site in hard hats collecting books on request for people — because the idea that we could all do our work without being located in a single physical space together was just utterly inconceivable. Whereas now, if those renovations had happened, we would have had much better solutions.

[raven]

The funny thing is, I started this job back in 2016 and literally on my first day, the building caught fire. And we did go back to it, but there were about six weeks where no one could go back in because the place wasn't structurally sound. And the organisation figured out how to make remote working for everyone work - figured out to send out laptops, make sure remote connections worked, all the rest of it. So four years later, they did everything perfectly and had people up and running straight off. People said that the fire had basically been a six-week practice period, which is exactly right. Funny how things work out!

[corvidology]

The ability to be able to work from home part of the time after everyone was able to return to work - the proof was in the pudding for the uni.

The normalization of talking to friends and family via Zoom and the like which has continued to be great with family and long distance friends. It's easier for my mother to stay on track if she can *see* me when talking to me and I find my interactions with long distance friends has greatly increased. There's just something about a 'face to face' chat.

I mostly agree about the continuation of being able to attend things that I wouldn't be able to attend otherwise but no one has really been able to come up with a way to compensate for those conversations that take place at in-person conferences between sessions, over coffee and dinner or the like. Those spontaneous conversations have overall proved more useful to me and my career than any official session I've attended.

Also, as a non-shy introvert (yes, we exist) I find people in general far more considerate if I've exhausted my social quotient. They don't, for the most part, chivvy me to attend when I decline a social invitation like they did before the pandemic.

[rmc28]

Enthusiastic agreement! Early in 2020 I was talking to my boss about the possibility of working from home 4-6pm daily, as I was trying to get my child into a special-needs school and there would be no after-school care. Boss was supportive but HR directive was we would have to go through a formal process to approve alteration of my working pattern. Then we all worked from home from March, so when child finally entered said school in September 2020 I just started blocking the necessary hour for the school run out on my calendar and carried on, and no-one has suggested since I need a formal process to approve this.

Family zoom calls have done wonders for keeping up with some of the more distant family, in particular strengthening the relations with some of my cousins, and we have kept them up ever since.

My own pet happiness is table service via smartphone at bars and cafes, especially those with outdoor seating, so in summer I almost never have to go inside the building (except maybe for the loo). And a friend was telling me about some amazing bistromathics offered by a recent meal at Zizzi - everyone scans the QR code on the table, the list of things ordered to that table appears in the app, each person ticks the things they ordered, has a 10% tip added and pays, meanwhile you can see how much is left to pay for the group. I love that so much.

[corvidology]

Like in many parts of the US, people can spend hours commuting to and from work here. The pandemic gave them a chance to see how much better their lives could be, getting that time back and frankly I feel they were even more productive because they weren't exhausted.

I saw that table service set up when I was home in England this summer but I've yet to see it catch on here.

[dolorosa_12]

The QR code menus and payments are good, until you get a person with poor connectivity, or from outside the country. We ran into this issue in the US — we were in a bar in New York, and the payment system would only take American card details and American addresses. Thankfully at least they did have other options for ordering and payment, but they were surprisingly baffled for people in a global tourist destination city that people from outside the country might want to visit their bar!

[corvidology]

My suspicion is that bar in New York was just having problems and passed it off as it not being an American card.

I mean, with my family and friends from England we've been to a lot of different parts of the US and we've never encountered this issue, even in the smallest of places.

[dolorosa_12]

People are just so much better about flexibility when it comes to working arrangements now, as long as the work gets done and you respond to emails/messages/calls in a timely manner. I have colleagues who've been able to rearrange their working patterns around the school run, or are able to work from home when caring for a sick child (whereas before they would have had to take paid leave), and people are fine with me requesting to work from home on specific days if I've got contractors doing work on the house. (I actually work four days from home, and only one day in the office, and this has done wonders for my productivity, energy levels, and overall mental health.) I find they're less fussy about you working at specific hours, as well — I'm much more productive in the morning, so I tend to start work around 7am and finish earlier in the afternoon when I'm at home, whereas before I would have been expected to start at 9 or 9.30 and finish around 6.

I'm glad flexible working has been so positive for you, as well as the other things you mention.

[dolorosa_12]

I agree 100 per cent. Pretty much all jobs at my university have gone at least partially hybrid, although some individual people who prefer to work in person went back to that as soon as they were allowed. I love remote working and took to it like a duck to water, and I always have much less energy, a headache, and an aching body on days that I have to work in the office. Luckily my library is one of the most generous in this regard in the whole university, and I work four days from home and only one day in the office (although I go in more often if I'm required to teach in person or attend a specific in person meeting), and it suits me perfectly.

I agree with you about conferences, though. I've seen people try to replicate this with virtual coffee breaks and so on, but it feels so artificial and forced, and to be honest if I've just come out 1.5 hours of presentations, the last thing I want to do is stare at a screen for another half-hour and make forced small talk. To be honest I always found that part of in-person conferences excruciating anyway, and used to just flee off somewhere on my own to drink coffee and read. But I know those moments are important for personal connections and professional development.

as a non-shy introvert (yes, we exist)

We definitely exist, because I am one of them! Perfectly comfortable talking in front of a lecture theatre of 400 people, utterly drained by the experience of having to be switched on and with people for hours on end. I'm glad you're finding people are more considerate when it comes to social events.

[vriddy]

I started occasionally "having lunch" with my mother on Skype when I work from home and we want to catch up, and I love this! It's a lot easier to fit into my schedule than a call at the end of an exhausted day or whenever we both happen to be free, and it's fun to comment on what we made, or things like that. It feels like a more natural way to stay in touch to me, and it means I still have the evening to recover from the day rather than try to fit in another commitment.

[dolorosa_12]

That sounds really lovely! As you say, it's a much more natural way to catch up, and I'm glad it's something you've retained.

[naye]

Working from home! We had a strict "everyone has to be in the library at all times" policy before the pandemic. No exceptions. Now we get to work from home one day a week! And instead of having to choose between going to work a little sick or taking full sick leave, we can stay at home and work. Win/win!

[dolorosa_12]

It's so much better, isn't it? The same thing happened at my work, except that it was even more generous — I work four days a week from home, and only one in the office (coming in more frequently if I have specifically scheduled in-person teaching or meetings on other days, or to cover for people on leave). It's made everyone's lives much easier — no one bats an eyelid if someone needs to work from home with a sick child, or to let contractors into the house to do work, or if they have a medical appointment (most of us don't live in Cambridge, and our GPs are in the towns where we live, so before we would have had to take half a day off just to go to the doctor), etc.

[sophia_sol]

phone appointments with my doctor! in the before times I had to trek all the way out to the very inconveniently located office but now, if it's on a topic that the doctor doesn't actually need to examine my physical body, appointments can happen by phone. it makes seeing the doctor a 15 min experience instead of having to take half the day off work for an appointment. incredible.

relatedly, virtual therapy. I can talk to a counsellor who's a very good fit for me who lives in a different city instead of having to make do with the local options!

[dolorosa_12]

These are all such good things! Virtual/phone appointments with doctors are particularly good, because my employer has a rule that you can take a maximum of three consecutive days off work due to illness, but any longer than that you need to have seen a doctor and have a note from them. Getting a GP appointment in the UK is ... complicated, and for something like a cold, where you just need a medical professional to sign a piece of paper saying you indeed do have a cold, it was ridiculous to have to waste so much time going in for an appointment. Now, that's no longer necessary, because you can basically fill in a form describing the situation, chat on the phone to the GP for a few minutes, and the whole thing is sorted out.

I'm glad virtual therapy and telehealth more broadly have been such positive things for you.

[monksandbones]

As a result of the pandemic my province brought in nearly-universal paid sick leave for all employees. Before 2022, paid sick days were either at the employer's discretion or, for unionized workers, part of collective agreements. It's still only five days per year, arguably not enough, but it's mandatory for employers to provide it after 90 days of employment, and it includes part-time employees. In other words, it's a big improvement! Even at my company, which is otherwise very good to its employees––permanent full-time staff used to get two paid sick days per year, and now we get five by order of the province of British Columbia!

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, I had no idea things were that bad (and to be honest five paid days doesn't sound like all that much — over here our employer doesn't have any kind of limit on them, as far as I can tell, although if you become chronically ill you need to inform the employer, and work out some kind of working plan that is going to be manageable, or go on extended leave at reduced pay). Five days is definitely better than two, and hopefully it becomes the start of broader, better changes in this regard.

[monksandbones]

I mean, a lot of employers, especially in white collar/professional fields, give a lot more, and already did before the pandemic. I assume that many unions have also negotiated better sick leave policies, and unionized workers make up around 30% of the workforce. However, this is a real improvement on the baseline legal minimum, which was no paid sick days before COVID, and it was specifically aimed at sectors like the service industry and retail, where workers have to work in-person and generally get minimal benefits.

In my case, my employer offers pretty good benefits to its permanent employees, and goes above the minimum (which is VERY low because agriculture is exempt from various labour laws) for certain things, but sticks as close as possible to the absolute legal minimum when it comes to paid time off. COVID, and having the paid sick days, have actually made a real difference in the company culture of coming to work sick!

[merit]

Most places having hand sanitiser. So convenient sometimes.

[dolorosa_12]

Isn't it just? I have some in my handbag normally, but it's useful to have it be so ubiquitous.

[eglantiere]

my job was fully online way before the pandemic, because my country was one of the early adopters of online format, but it's amazing how quickly, after covid hit, all kinds of conferences, webinars, workshops and teaching courses became online-first or even online-only, and i can only welcome it. there's special magic in doing it in person, but before like 90% of it were inaccessible to me - time, money, visas, planes, accommodation... and now it's something of a new standard and i can see the big figures in my field do work in real time from my chair. it's great and i have no regrets.

[dolorosa_12]

Exactly so. It just opens participation up in a way that in-person events, even with the best will in the world, infinite money, targeted funding for participants from outside of north America or western Europe, and so on, are never going to be able to manage. Now, as long as you have an internet connection, you can participate. I love it.

[chestnut_pod]

Live theater and dance on streaming! At last!

[dolorosa_12]

Isn't it wonderful?