Keep calm – but perhaps do not carry on until it is safer
It is a normal Wednesday night in the Stanton household, Zara has been racing around the sitting room before finally jumping up onto my lap as we zone into watching the evening television.
In a televised, good-mannered debate, centered on Covid-19, what really comes across is that with other a thousand poor souls perishing in one day alone, a new record high level, and the disease hard baked into more fatalities likely in the coming weeks, things are at crisis point.
As I return to my screen to tap away this piece; I see that Capitol Hill the over side of the pond has been stormed, gunshots fired and at least one injury. And the President is telling his Republican faithful that though he was cheated, there is a need to to show no violence and to go home safely.
Is it me, or just six days into 2021, are things becoming just a little unhinged? Is social cohesion at breaking point, is everyone just a little bit too tightly wound, and has Fake News, made it hard to set our own personal compasses.
During the day, I have had yet another avalanche of contact from agents, the owners, the employees all looking for answers, direction and well comfort.
My thoughts are – stay at home, stay safe and follow that path, it may put me at odds with some of my readership, but maybe it is time to accept that in 2021 – digital is better than physical, and tapping away in your home office, your bedroom or bathroom, and doing business, is better than being outside in what is fast becoming a very strange and almost dystopian world.
The single thread that I seem to be hearing is that agents are genuinely fearful of their personal safety and those they come into contact with, and many say that it is ok for senior industry individuals to say there are safe procedures to protect people, but Covid-19 is the invisible enemy, and the rate of contagion is rife.
I am hopeful, that things will calm down.
For those, and it does seem to be a growing number who are conflicted by the need to do business and the need to be safe, my advice is look to your support groups, your senior management and your Resources departments or your bosses, and if you are a boss, then the guidance and counsel of others in your peer group.
Now is the time for unity not discord, kind words, not just potential cash on the bottom line, and most of all a realisation that we are all in this together.
And for those who have to make the big decisions about a hard lockdown for their businesses tomorrow morning – think very much of the welfare of you committed extremely hard-working teams, some of whom have been the backbone of your businesses for loyal decades; as many of them are tired, stretched, mentally fatigued, and many now with children at home they are having to juggle. With the likelihood that tougher times are upon us, before we see a better picture forming.
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