Captain’s Blog – Lockdown Habits

Let’s move to the seaside. Property portals are on fire with buyers looking to move to Cornwall or Norfolk or other rural idyls. Sell the cramped house in town and buy a rose covered cottage with a garage which can be converted to an office. Ditch the commute and use the time to make bread and plant the garden. Get the work life balance back to where it should be and be a better parent spending quality time with the kids. Fitter, happier, more productive… A third of workers now say they anticipate working from home more according to Ipsos Mori’s latest poll and a quarter of commuters say they will do less travelling to work, with that figure increasing to almost a third in London.

Fast forward a year or three. The kids are bored and missing their friends. The bread doesn’t actually taste that good and the gardens overgrown. The locals haven’t accepted you and resent your towny background. The regulars at the pub talk about you behind your back and no matter how hard you try you can’t get into their clique. You miss the buzz and the choice and the variety of the old life. You even miss the stress. When every day’s the same boredom sets in and life just isn’t so rich anymore. And what do you do when it rains – which it does, a lot. 

Meanwhile those who stayed in the City are enjoying quieter streets with fewer commuters and even fewer cars. The bars and restaurants aren’t quite as full as they used to be and try a little harder to please. The office provides a welcome break from home on the three days you now spend there and that mid-morning coffee or drink after work with colleagues is a thing to savour. The young thrusters are making hay whilst you make jam and scones. 

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side and is often a muddy field. We should all have learned something from the past year of lockdowns and we should use that to make a better life. 40% of people in the same poll said they would walk more in future whilst 31% said they would do more of their shopping locally. Those are both good moves but as in most things, getting the balance right is key. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is never a great idea so we need to avoid any knee jerk reactions and remember what made life so good for so many of us before COVID. We need to get out of the house and back to the office. Out of our pyjamas and into a suit. We need to create work and not just do it. We need to be pro-active and not just re-active. We need to re-engage as humans and use that interaction to produce more for everyone. And we need to stop using electronic communication as our default setting. Otherwise as Private James Frazer would say – We’re doomed!