Article published on www.republica.ro

 

Contributor: Corneliu Bodea

 
 

I do not know what others are concerned about these times, but I am most interested in the probability of profound changes following the current COVID-19 crisis. Here we have two broad categories of thinking: those who believe that the return will be total, with minimal and limited consequences, and those who believe that there will be profound and lasting changes.

 
 

Being in the second category, I am not so much concerned with this debate itself as with identifying those values, behaviors and beliefs that will change. My curiosity takes the form of both pure anthropological interest and the pragmatism of the businessman who wants to understand what will be the new social resources that will cause economic change and how steep they will be.

I watched in amazement when Taleb rejected the categorization of this crisis as a Black Swan, as he says, a Black Swan first of all certifies the quality of being completely unpredictable, while this crisis was to be expected. However, I would say that the astonishment that has gripped mankind about the seriousness of this problem, an astonishment that does not cease and takes the form of denial by launching all conspiracy theories, makes this crisis one that appears surprising enough that the answer to it be uneven, shy and thus aggravate the consequences. People generally received the crisis with deep astonishment and concern, and their reaction was generally cautious and correct, thus reasonably managing the initial enlargement. I am referring to the initial spread, because I believe that there will be successive waves of the virus and the only hope is that our experience and response management will be much more appropriate.

 
 

Surprise and a sense of urgency made people isolate themselves, the measures taken by most governments imposed rather strict conditions of social distancing and even isolation where things became serious. The impact of these measures for a long enough time (2 months) at the sociology-psychological level is already felt, and from despair and divorce to rediscovering family values ​​and the importance of friendships, people have experienced a wide range of new feelings and awareness.

 
 

Personally, I felt like I was moving on a high-speed train and looking out the window at the landscape transformed into long, straight lines, homogenized by speed, a train that suddenly braked and started to go “on foot”, revealing the true landscape: breaking the lines into objects and parks, houses and people. This feeling gave me satisfaction and time to notice how I feel. I’ve never read so much since I was a child, I’ve never listened to so many podcasts and I haven’t had the feeling of boredom for decades like I had these days. I went to the office and it was quiet, I sat on the terrace for hours and I thought. I started new projects and I had time to understand… to understand what I was doing. I do not claim that this is how everyone felt and I know that there are people who have already been hit hard by the current crisis. Those who got sick, those who lost friends and relatives, those who saw their businesses already ruined.

 
 

I also felt the frustration generated by the lack of meetings with friends, the lack of interaction and contact. I strongly believe that people need this contact and that they will know how to find it. However, I can’t help but think about the chance to make the introspection that this period offered us. Now the question: will something remain in us from the pleasant amazement with which we discovered the landscape of our lives and even our own needs and satisfactions? And will that change our future behavior in any way? I think so!

I would choose from the multitude of things that will change the way we work or perceive the working relationship. Our model of work is generally to find a job. An employer who will offer us a job according to our training and requirements and give us his time. From his perspective, he sees an employee whose time he buys and provides him with other resources of the company: telephone, office, car, etc. I think there is a good chance that these things will change. Employers will no longer provide space, car, will no longer be interested in seeing us “at the office”. People, in turn, will no longer want to crowd the subway and elevators, to sit in a building locked in an office with another 100. A kind of “uberization” especially of certain positions could occur, and people to contract their services to dozens of employers. To work where they want and when they want, to enjoy time with children when they want and to go to work in a cafe when they feel the need for interaction. To be able to go to the matinee and work on the terrace in the evening. The efficient ones could increase their revenues and the companies decrease them. Why so many offices, why so many cars and public transport?

 
 

From the first wave of industrialization in the 18th century, Adam Smith warned of the risk of people losing the significance of their work, risking it becoming an activity devoid of commitment and awareness. To some extent these things have happened and we often meet demotivated people who either write lines of code or supervise an automatic machine that makes a small part of an ensemble, or who lack the general perspective on the importance and social role of their effort. They are satisfied with the reasonable transactional relationship and with the fact that the income covers the rate at the bank. A context in which time managers choose who to dedicate and continuously optimize their work to their lifestyle, could be the change that would bring a leap in the value and quality of work, an ingredient that could be the missing piece today from the market economy puzzle. The Neo-liberal trend, now in conflict with nationalism and conservative politics, lacks such an ingredient to return to the firmament.

Whether this happens or not, this period, which I hope we will get through well and quickly, will leave behind a deep economic crisis, which will bring changes. But important changes do not come from economics or politics, they come from changing the way people think and feel, from their evolution. I can only hope that we learned what was to be learned, that we understood the extreme pressure of unnecessary acceleration, that we calmed our arrogance and had time to look within ourselves and understand that we are vulnerable, that solidarity it is important that leadership suffers and that involvement is needed.