The COVID Diaries. Insights from a 27-year old expat living in Sydney.
This isn’t a normal recession — no bubble has been burst and our global economy is on life support, but such ambiguous times have launched a wave of creative destruction. Crises spur radical change and powerful solutions. If this “new normal” doesn’t last the entirety of 2020, and societies, governments, and businesses continue to adapt and evolve, we will see benefits stem from this turmoil. We are forming new health habits, ways of working, communicating, financing, socialising and exercising, that will forever change the way we live and thrive as a planet.
Creative destruction is the process of sweeping away redundant organisations and industries and replacing them with enlightening ideas, revolutionary businesses, and better jobs. Unemployment, pay cuts and furlough working agreements induced by COVID have provided many workers with the time to reflect and reassess lifestyle choices, ways of working and public needs. In the last month of this pandemic, I have seen an emerging group of public-serving start-ups and not-for-profits storm the market to support struggling health services, food distribution, transport software and mobilisation of army support. Deep tech start-ups have pivoted business models to refocus their efforts to help solve major societal problems with containing the virus spread. All of these new businesses are rooted in COVID issues, and have been designed and scaled remotely. It is clear more than ever that agility, innovation, and human-centered design principles are driving our workforce to adapt, re-invent and resolve the COVID situation. It almost feels like we are all living in the garage start-up era, an environment that gave birth to Amazon, Apple, Google, Disney, and Microsoft… Anyone who has unearthed a new human problem and has the time to build, test and scale an idea, is going to deliver colossal social and economic effects. I am truly amazed at what we can collectively achieve for the economy whilst self-isolating in our homes across the globe.
The effects of anti-globalisation and social distancing have provided me with more opportunities than ever to break down geographical barriers and virtually socialise. Video-conferencing apps saw a record-breaking 62m downloads in the last week of March. Suddenly the entire world feels tech-literate and comfortable communicating purely via Hangouts, Zoom, Teams, and HouseParty, at all hours of the day. Our perceptions of virtual communications have changed from being a corporate chore to a personal and social experience, that makes me feel connected in uncertain and lonely times. These applications have broken down organisational hierarchies, allowing us to meet our bosses’ dogs, kids, and partners, whilst occasionally providing access to household domestics. I hope this virus disrupts outdated beliefs about presenteeism and office ‘face time’, as well as parental ability to juggle work and childcare simultaneously.
Whilst some of us are seeking all of the facts, and others merely want to feel capable of contributing to a COVID conversation, collectively our thirst for information means we are consuming more news than ever. Self-quarantining and a lack of commuting for many of us means we now have more time to read the news, but more than ever I believe we truly care about the livelihood of the human race and how we are responding globally to battle this pandemic. All ages and demographics are actively learning about crisis policy, national health system constraints, financial markets, unemployment claims and how to examine the shape of the curve. From what I can see around me, people are not just reading articles about what is happening, but they are learning about what they can do about it.
As a growing percentage of millennials have absolutely nothing saved in the bank, I believe being put on a Furlough payment, reduced salary or being made redundant is going to be the catalyst young people needed to kick start savings. As a young expat who is unable to fly home, many of us are asking ourselves daily, am I going to be able to cope with all of this financially if I lose my main income stream? Such ambiguous futures have led many millennials to live a much more frugal lifestyle, and self-isolation has allowed us to cut out the non-essentials. We don’t need the expensive wine, designer clothes, and fine dining experiences; we need financial stability. As a result of shifting our buying and saving habits to ensure we can continue to finance our lives, I believe we will all become more financially conscious and efficient.
2020 hasn’t been an outstanding year for most people on the planet, however, if we allow this creative destruction to build better products and services, form new working routines, saving patterns and higher standards of living, we will emerge stronger. Of course, society cannot reap all of these rewards without accepting job loss, ruined companies and vanishing industries, however, these are the negative components of the growth process. All countries will bear the scars of COVID for years to come, but this emerging policy landscape presents a gaping opportunity for innovation. We must remember that good can emerge from this, if we continue to evolve.
