‘WHAT THE WORLD THINKS’ SERIES
A list of predictions for life after Coronavirus (Part 2)
How will we be living our lives after coronavirus is over? Here’s a collection of thoughts from people around the UK…
Taken from the podcast ‘What The World Thinks’ by Samantha Hornsby. But for those that don’t like listening, here are the most interesting predictions for you to read…
THE END OF THE BUFFET: “One of our American friends said she thought it was pretty much the end of the Buffet Diner. They’re not so common in this country, but they’re very, very popular in the US with all you can eat/serve yourself type places. She said she couldn’t imagine now going into somewhere and helping herself from a food bar that everyone else would help themselves from. And she thought that would have a lot of knock on effect, and that would then pass on to all kinds of food sharing. She’s a teacher and she’s imagining that ‘bring in cupcakes day’ could die out. So if and when we get back to the point where we can venture out, we might find a lot of the places that we used to go to have gone. And because of suspicion that will linger on in terms of social distancing, there’ll be fewer people that will go out and people won’t want to sit quite so close to others, which will mean that it will make it more difficult for restaurants and cafeterias to make money out of the normal covers. So prices will go up. I think the eating out scene will change quite a lot.”
PEOPLE WILL CHANGE THEIR VIEWS ON TAX: “I wonder if one of the lasting impacts of Coronavirus would be the shifting perceptions around tax. I think for a lot of people, taxes at best are a necessary evil and at worst something to be avoided. But I don’t think you can really argue with the fact that when called upon the people that tax pays for — the entire NHS, the police, the fire service and a whole host of public sector workers who have really stood up and been heroes in so many cases — are invaluable. I do wonde if this would be a turning point in general perceptions around tax and whether people start to see it as an investment rather than a cost to themselves.”
PEOPLE WILL BECOME MORE DECISIVE: “One of the habits that I think I have dropped quite quickly is… I’ve sort of dropped the little box of guilt. I’ve suddenly been liberated from a lifetime of neurosis in a most amusing way. There’s this sort of parameter around it of straightforwardness, of just pragmatism, common sense, that in a very strange way, I found quietening and stilling in a positive way. So I think already my habits have changed in terms of being much more direct, much more straightforward.”
COMPANIES WILL BECOME MORE DECISIVE: “I work in the fashion world, which has obviously been very interesting. The reactiveness of everyone and how quick everyone is making decisions… not requiring a thousand different meetings or a million different sign offs has quite frankly been pretty refreshing. I work for a couple of different big retailers and usually processes are just all over the place, about a decade out of touch. These kind of last two weeks have been super interesting, seeing how reactive people are being, how people are just putting their trust in their employees or their contractors and how people are just not requiring so much time to make decisions.”
SMALL BUSINESSES WON’T REQUIRE OFFICES: “For me personally, I’ve been working from home and I think this is probably something that will continue for many businesses after the lockdown. Our team are all thinking there’s no real reason for being in the office. After all, why would you pay thousands of pounds for an office when everyone can just be in a virtual office for free?”
WE’LL BECOME A MORE POSITIVE NATION: “It’s really difficult sitting here with the world so quiet outside. So this time where everybody’s inside and the worlds really slowed down is very unusual. When we leave this world, we want to leave positive things. That’s about how we behave. It’s not about what we’ve got. So let’s try to make the best of what opportunities this gives us the back of this horrific nature of what we’re dealing with. Hopefully we can take some positives forward for the future.”
Enjoyed that? Want to read more predictions, or other articles from the ‘What The World Thinks’ article series? Well, here’s some more on Medium for you…
Want to hear the audio of people giving their predictions? You can find the predictions on episode 2 of What The World Thinks, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Simplecast (for desktop listening).
Thank you to those who shared their thoughts (in order of appearance):
Paul Gisby, Owner and Principal Producer at Talking Leaders (talkingleaders.com)
Elliot Simmonds, Associate Director at DJS Research Ltd (djsresearch.co.uk)
Isabel Collins, Specialist in Belonging and Culture (linkedin.com/in/isabel-collins-1479b311)
India Price, Freelance Writer, Brand Copywriter & Editor (indiakgladstone.com)
Ted Lawlor, Grid Asset Management & Podcaster (ifonlytheyknewuk.com)
Amanda Coleman, Crisis Communication Consultant at Amanda Coleman Communication Ltd (amandacomms1.wordpress.com)
