Crisis? This bloody crisis!
Be honest. Who saw this coming?
Not me, that’s for sure. I was happily minding my own business, working, exercising (occasionally) seeing family and friends and looking forward to the start of better weather and a summer of holidays and warmth.
Then that was it.
The COVID-19 virus hit. Slowly to start with, and somewhere else.
But now it is here in our (and everyone else’s) backyard. The pandemic status has created world-wide ‘panic’, and for many a complete rethink of everything, and I mean everything.
Being a bit older than many of the readers of this BLOG, I must admit my cynicism around COVID-19. Not just because of all the YouTube posts showing Corona beer in jocular situations. But also, because I’ve heard it all before.
Cuban missile crisis, AIDS, 1999, 9/11, SARS, etc, you get my drift.
This one is different. My daughter in law is a highly qualified prescribing nurse who cut her teeth in a high dependency Intensive Care Unit, tells me she is worried about this one. But not in the way that you might think.
She is not worried about the disease, that’s maybe because she is used to seeing some pretty terrible things. But she says that’s not it. She is worried about the economic impact as much if not more.
Schools closing, Universities in shutdown, Car plants stopping production, hospitals cancelling all non-urgent operations, trains empty, airlines and pubs considering their futures, it reads like a Nostradamus prediction rather than the daily news.
A word, if I may about the media. Last week I was watching the news with my wife. The first 25 minutes of which was about COVID-19 and its impact. After which the medical correspondent said that whilst several people had died, we should not take COVID-19 out of proportion and need to keep perspective on it. All I can say is good grief!
Back to my point.
The economic impact is already massive and potentially a disaster for many people.
Contracts will have to be cancelled, redundancies announced, complaints levelled at companies or maybe you, and we will be surrounded by numerous conflicts that all need to be handled sensitively and compassionately and we will all need to tread through them using all the skills we have at our disposal.
Negotiate your way through these as best you can.
For those of you that are Scotwork Alumni please remember our offer to give you free advice and contact your Scotwork Consultant for help.
We are here and working hard to fast track our online offering (which is now available, click here for more information), and getting ready for this all to end, stronger and with more to offer.
Stay safe.