Since mid-March, we’ve seen offices shuttered, countless businesses closed, limits on the number of people allowed inside essential businesses, and even one-way traffic patterns in grocery stores. We’ve learned more ways to connect virtually and are figuring out how to multitask and homeschool and make whipped coffee and picnic lunches and take walks and teach geometry and history and…the list goes on and on.
As stay-at-home orders are lifting in other parts of the world, we know that there will be reversals in the U.S. at some point. The way back, however, may not be the same as the way we arrived.
If (when) retail and office locations open up again, things will be different. Our rules of social engagement and use of physical space will change. We might never shake hands again. The limit to the number of workers and shoppers inside a space might stick. The standard 9-5 workday may be shortened or broken into shifts to help people balance family and home responsibilities while adhering to new physical distancing guidelines. Working from home and continued homeschooling might become part of our day-to-day.
As working parents, we have to be ready for anything. And while here in Pittsburgh, we’re not quite ready to reopen, this can at the very least be a chance to evaluate:
- What’s my responsibility to my career, to my family, and to myself?
- What’s within my control?
- What do I need and want to be doing to make Life + Work Fit?
For now, we just wait and watch, and do our part to make this pandemic a part of those history lessons. What do you think your day will look like after COVID-19? We want to hear about it #flexable #lifeworkfit
