How does COVID-19 Change Our World?

[Augie]

6 hours ago, Gugny said:

 Shaking hands really is a disgusting ritual.  I'd never given it a thought until this pandemic happened.  But, really ... it's a pretty unsanitary practice.

 

 

 

It was always something I just did for so long without giving it a thought. Now? No way it treat it like I used to, and this can be a good excuse. We had an electrician here yesterday. A couple months ago I would have just stuck my hand out when opening the door. I wonder if/when that goes back to the old ways. I know we have short memories, but this is something that is probably better if it just goes away.

 

My wife works for a company with over 50k employees and they currently have 91% working from home. It’s been bumpy, but they got on it early and it’s just working fine. I wonder if she will be flying 3 weeks/month in the future as she has in the past? When does that come back, and how much do they continue to use virtual options to save time and money? Flights and hotels in Manhattan or Boston plus meals add up over a year. How much do we learn form this? 

 

 It’s not always just about being afraid of the virus. Some of what I expect is just finding better ways. Don’t do things just because we always did it that way. For example, use the new technology available to see better ways to do things, like more working from home and less business travel. Happier conditions while saving time and money. 

 

 

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Edited April 17, 2020 by Augie

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I forget where I saw it, but someone quipped:

 

"For years, politicians have told us if we aren't earning enough money we should quit eating out, going to shows, and buying so many things.  Now that we've stopped, the economy has tanked and they're telling us to start up again"

 

It's a good question whether spending patterns and also travel patterns (for business) will resume their previous levels.

[Augie]

1 hour ago, plenzmd1 said:

1) Shakings Hands makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint, back when you wanted to know the dude across from you was not gunna grab his sword and  eviserate you. Agree, think it is gone for good. 
 

2) I got $100 you will be at the opener. 

 

 

1) Considering the crowd you hang with, you may want to just continue shaking hands.   

 

2) You may very well be correct. Things may look completely different in 2-3 months. It’s hard to tell now. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

48 minutes ago, Seasons1992 said:

How does a true Buffalo Bills fan NOT have their very own bowling ball? 

I never bowled in a league.  That was my unofficial 'commit' line to converting from whatever was in the lane racks to a ball of my own.  

[May Day 10]

Honestly, unless this thing turns into a biblical-level disaster, not much will change permanently, at least once we have a vaccine and/or herd immunity.  We may see a bit of shifting with small businesses and restaurants going out of business and starting up for a bit.

 

 

The one change that I expect (and hope for) is a global mitigation strategy and extensive cooperation to prevent this from happening for the next 100 years )until humans forget that this is a threat again).    At the very least, locally in the US we develop a better store of emergency equipment and a better tracing/tracing/technological strategy.  

 

 

 

[Gugny]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

It was always something I just did for so long without giving it a thought. Now? No way it treat it like I used to, and this can be a good excuse. We had an electrician here yesterday. A couple months ago I would have just stuck my hand out when opening the door. I wonder if/when that goes back to the old ways. I know we have short memories, but this is something that is probably better if it just goes away.

 

My wife works for a company with over 50k employees and they currently have 91% working from home. It’s been bumpy, but they got on it early and it’s just working fine. I wonder if she will be flying 3 weeks/month in the future as she has in the past? When does that come back, and how much do they continue to use virtual options to save time and money? Flights and hotels in Manhattan or Boston plus meals add up over a year. How much do we learn form this? 

 

 

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I am a hand-shaker, by nature.  I extend my hand whenever I meet anyone and whenever I see anyone.  I'm done.

[Augie]

27 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

I am a hand-shaker, by nature.  I extend my hand whenever I meet anyone and whenever I see anyone.  I'm done.

 

It’s a natural reflex! I have to fight to keep from sticking my hand out because it’s been engrained for so long. The electrician yesterday made it easier because he showed up at the door dressed like he was visiting Chernobyl with the mask, gloves and paper booties. But I STILL almost stuck my hand out. 

 

I’m telling on myself here, but while I’m am shaking your hand I am simultaneously forgetting your name....I just suck with names. Multi-tasking! 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Augie

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

My wife works for a company with over 50k employees and they currently have 91% working from home. It’s been bumpy, but they got on it early and it’s just working fine. I wonder if she will be flying 3 weeks/month in the future as she has in the past? When does that come back, and how much do they continue to use virtual options to save time and money? Flights and hotels in Manhattan or Boston plus meals add up over as year. How much do we learn form this? 

I seem to recall a commercial from back in the 70s or perhaps early 80s for one of the airlines, where the fictional boss of a company calls a meeting, saying the company has lost touch with the customer base by relying on phone calls to connect.  He then starts handing out assignments and plane tickets.  Very self serving for the airlines, but that was advertising.

[Gray Beard]

1 minute ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

I seem to recall a commercial from back in the 70s or perhaps early 80s for one of the airlines, where the fictional boss of a company calls a meeting, saying the company has lost touch with the customer base by relying on phone calls to connect.  He then starts handing out assignments and plane tickets.  Very self serving for the airlines, but that was advertising.

I remember that one.

There was also one with the mom who drops off the kid at daycare, gets on a plane, goes to a meeting, gets on a plane again, and picks up the kid in the evening just like a normal day.  I worked with a women who absolutely loved that commercial. 

[Augie]

1 hour ago, Gray Beard said:

I remember that one.

There was also one with the mom who drops off the kid at daycare, gets on a plane, goes to a meeting, gets on a plane again, and picks up the kid in the evening just like a normal day.  I worked with a women who absolutely loved that commercial. 

 

Yikes! Sometimes flight delays result in my wife coming home on the wrong DAY! 

 

I’m hoping the video conferencing becomes more of a thing. She’s doing it daily now, replacing what used to be trips. It’s a big issue with the compliance people that you use the right services. Things like Zoom have not been approved because you can’t discuss client info, bank strategy, etc if it can be (EDIT: easily) hacked. But there are approved, (more) secure methods and getting used to doing it this way is great if it sticks and makes travel more selective.

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Augie

[plenzmd1]

7 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

if it can be hacked. 

Then there would be no video-conference..everything can be hacked

[TSOL]

Well, with the way 2020 has been going so far, next up I expect some extreme drastic changes in the weather. For instance right now it's about 40 degrees out and snowing, right? In the next few weeks as corona dies down around 1st or 2nd week of May it's probably going to be about 190 degrees out with frogs falling from the skies.

 

Then as the summer growing season kicks off plagues of locusts oughta start showing up.

 

And by the middle of summer we should expect to see those four dudes riding steeds of fire across the skies.

 

That's my vision of the post corona world we got going on here 

 

 

[Augie]

Just now, plenzmd1 said:

Then there would be no video-conference..everything can be hacked

 

Very true, but some are safer than others they have determined. It sure is a less expensive and less disruptive way to do things. In person meetings don’t need to be as routine as they used to be, IMO. Still, it beats moving to NYC! That was the other option and was NOT going to happen! 

 

The technology is there, embrace it! 

[plenzmd1]

1 minute ago, Augie said:

 

Very true, but some are safer than others they have determined. It sure is a less expensive and less disruptive way to do things. In person meetings don’t need to be as routine as they used to be, IMO. Still, it beats moving to NYC! That was the other option and was NOT going to happen! 

 

The technology is there, embrace it! 

I have been using web meetings since truly 2000. Back then it was strictly screen sharing. Intro demo's and the like have been online for at least the last decade. But from a enterprise software sales perspective, nothing beats in person. Online, i cant read body language, cant tell when people are bored to tears and we are missing the mark so lets stop and ask why etc. 

 

Also harder to gather true feedback from your sponsor/coach, so often done either right after demo in his/her office, or at happy hour 30 minutes after demo. And yes, i try to schedule demo's to end late afternoon...I do my best info gathering when we both have a few pops!!!!

[Augie]

8 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

I have been using web meetings since truly 2000. Back then it was strictly screen sharing. Intro demo's and the like have been online for at least the last decade. But from a enterprise software sales perspective, nothing beats in person. Online, i cant read body language, cant tell when people are bored to tears and we are missing the mark so lets stop and ask why etc. 

 

Also harder to gather true feedback from your sponsor/coach, so often done either right after demo in his/her office, or at happy hour 30 minutes after demo. And yes, i try to schedule demo's to end late afternoon...I do my best info gathering when we both have a few pops!!!!

 

This is all strictly internal stuff.  I agree though, in person is always better....... but not always necessary for routine stuff. I can’t complain about the skymiles, though! 

 

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Edited April 17, 2020 by Augie

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

39 minutes ago, Talkin Proud said:

Well, with the way 2020 has been going so far, next up I expect some extreme drastic changes in the weather. For instance right now it's about 40 degrees out and snowing, right? In the next few weeks as corona dies down around 1st or 2nd week of May it's probably going to be about 190 degrees out with frogs falling from the skies.

 

Then as the summer growing season kicks off plagues of locusts oughta start showing up.

 

And by the middle of summer we should expect to see those four dudes riding steeds of fire across the skies.

 

That's my vision of the post corona world we got going on here 

 

 

? Let my people goooooooooooo!?

Edited April 17, 2020 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[Gray Beard]

46 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

I have been using web meetings since truly 2000. Back then it was strictly screen sharing. Intro demo's and the like have been online for at least the last decade. But from a enterprise software sales perspective, nothing beats in person. Online, i cant read body language, cant tell when people are bored to tears and we are missing the mark so lets stop and ask why etc. 

 

Also harder to gather true feedback from your sponsor/coach, so often done either right after demo in his/her office, or at happy hour 30 minutes after demo. And yes, i try to schedule demo's to end late afternoon...I do my best info gathering when we both have a few pops!!!!

We have had meetings with two screens for over a decade.  One screen for the PowerPoint, the other screen for seeing the audience. The screens are quite large, so several people in each location can comfortably attend the meetings.  It gets a little messy when there are more than two locations calling in at once, but it usually goes ok.  We used some sort of expensive business communication package which was supposed to be hard to hack. 

[BillsFan4]

If you have an athletic subscription, there’s an interesting article with Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger from the beginning of March (before the NHL stopped playing games) where he mentioned some ways he thought covid could change things. It’s an interesting interview.

 

https://theathletic.com/1665553/2020/03/09/as-global-markets-sound-alarms-ralph-krueger-forecasts-paradigm-shift-in-society/

(just FYI, they’re offering a free 90 day trial for new customers right now)

Quote

“There is a possibility this will affect travel for a generation,” Krueger said. “It will affect globalization for a generation. It will affect many different areas of our economy and of our social behavior.

 

“For instance, three kisses on the cheek in Switzerland was the norm (for greetings). I spoke to my son and his wife yesterday and they said it’s just stopped. A social interaction that has been there for centuries stopped on the dime, and (my daughter-in-law) thinks it’ll never return.

 

“For me, one thing I at 60 years of age can see is that this will be a paradigm shift in society. There will be a paradigm shift off this in society because all the other sicknesses, the viruses of the past, we weren’t quite globally so connected as now. If you think of the past viruses – they’ve come for centuries and centuries that humans have had these situations – but you see now how somebody from probably every country in the world was in Wuhan in December. Think about that. That’s the reality.”

 

 

They they were still playing games at this point:

Quote

“If you look at our travel coming up here, we’ve got 14 of the (season’s) last 22 days on the road. Hotels, traveling, buses, airplanes, we’re doing everything that they’re telling people not to do. I’m not a fearmonger at all. I respect the situation, and we need to respect it. That’s what we’re doing right now.”

Knowing what his son has gone through in Europe – games played without fans and games not played at all – Krueger is worried about what might happen when the outbreak expands in North America.

 

“It’s pretty scary, and I don’t know which way we’re going to move here,” he said. “A lot is going to depend on the spread, but the interesting thing is by making those moves in Europe, they have slowed it down in some of these areas.”

 

“You do realize the globalization and how interconnected the world is today. It’s insane. Travel has interconnected us all. You look at all of us interacting throughout the world in finance, in tourism and then there’s interdependency (in business). Mercedes can’t build a car anymore in Germany without parts from China. So the interdependency we all have on each other, it’s crazy.”

 

[RaoulDuke79]

This needs to be  a temporary change of lifestyle. Please, please,  please do not become "ok" and accept this as the new normal. We need to do what needs to be done in the short term, but be cognizant of your civil liberties and make decisions accordingly. 

[Augie]

9 minutes ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

This needs to be  a temporary change of lifestyle. Please, please,  please do not become "ok" and accept this as the new normal. We need to do what needs to be done in the short term, but be cognizant of your civil liberties and make decisions accordingly. 

 

I always try to be a glass half full guy. With that in mind, I think some good can come out of this. Use more technology when it can replace travel. Listen to the scientists so next time we are more prepared. And certainly, do all that is possible to stockpile what is needed to adequately protect ALL health care workers! 

 

I’m certainly not for giving up our rights.  I just hope we learn to be smart and understanding enough to protect each other. Spring break and Mardis Gras were ill advised this year.  People should have known that. I hope we can grow from this. This could help us prepare for something even worse.