The Covid-19 outbreak has provoked a crisis of such enormous proportions that life won’t immediately return to the way it was before. When some semblance of normality emerges, things will be different – we’re set for huge social, cultural and economic changes. It’s unlikely that we will suddenly wake up in a world where anxieties around the crisis have vanished into thin air. Rather, a new normality will gradually emerge from during a transitional period that could last for a long time.
When lockdown restrictions are eased, it’s probable that we will enter a phase where life will hang between normality and lockdown. The government may again assert its need to tighten the rules depending on infection rates or the capacity of the health system. The operation of some businesses may be severely restricted and some social distancing rules may remain for some time.
How the world will look after the outbreak is difficult to call. It depends on many factors, for instance whether or not countries are able to reduce infection rates around the world and how long it takes scientists to formulate an effective vaccine. However, there are a few changes that we can infer from what we have already seen during the crisis. Working culture seems set to change for good. For many, social distancing has seen a complete shift to working from home, with technologies like Zoom, Teams and Slack enabling many to move seamlessly into this way of working. If employees can maintain the same kind of productivity while working from home, there will probably be a large shift towards remote working in the long run.
The impact of large-scale remote working would be huge. London, Birmingham and Manchester may no longer see their daily deluge of commuters from the surrounding areas as experts have hinted that this could change the entire makeup of the country. Rural villages and suburbia could again become a centre of working life while big city offices may only host a businesses’ core staff and be used occasionally for whole-company events. Flexible office spaces or co-working spaces could become a regular feature in suburbs, towns and villages.
The COVID-19 outbreak also looks set to accelerate the country’s shift to becoming a cashless society. People are being discouraged from using physical cash as it’s considered that notes and coins can carry the virus, raising the risk of transmission. The crisis may mean that we’re increasingly accustomed to using contactless and digital payment methods to make transactions, which could continue even after a vaccine is found.