I have a good friend who's an artist. She's not a full time artist, but she produces work on par with, or even better than, many full time professionals. A few years ago she decided to really spend time on her art and in that short period of time, her increased efforts had born fruit.
She was recognised internationally, commissioned by a church to paint an official portrait, sold a bunch of paintings and even had a couple of exhibitions of her own. It was all looking so good, so much so that she was considering packing it in at her full time job to pursue art full time.
She had an epic exhibition planned for this month (April 2020), which was to be a major launch of her art career, especially since she very recently participated in a reality TV show where artists paint against each other in real time. Sort of a Britain's Got Talent for painters. That was, of course, before the global pandemic struck.
My friend is one of the lucky ones. She's got a full time job, so she eligible to receive the government help if needed. I don't think she will be needing it, however, since she's got one of those jobs whereby you can work from home. In fact, she'd been working from home for a couple of days a week before there ever was a pandemic, so she was already set up to go. It was also why she was able to do so much painting in her home-studio.
Not everyone is as lucky as my friend though. A lot of people have jobs they've not been asked to stay away from. One of my neighbours works as a supermarket stockroom operator. He still has to go to work every day. His job is still intact, so he's getting paid, as such doesn't require government help. Sounds good right? Not necessarily!
My neighbour lives with his wife and his son. His wife works in a restaurant which has been ordered to close. It's a privately run restaurant, so I'm not sure how eligible she is to receive money from the government. In any case, her and her son's social distancing is severely put at risk by the fact that the man of the house has to go to work everyday. He puts himself, and his family, in harms way daily since he's a critical worker.
He may not be on the front lines like the doctors and nurses, but he's definitely part of the back bone. Without the supermarkets staff and people working in critical shops and pharmacies, there's no way this lockdown thing would succeed. I always have these people in mind when clapping on Thursdays.
Anyway, I believe there's a hidden silver lining somewhere. This whole pandemic induced work from home period will create some permanent posts. I think may people will simply be asked to keep working from home even after the lockdown is over. I think some companies will realise some of the benefits and efficiencies of having people work from home. Some of the will also figure out that just because someone is at home and not dressed up in a suit doesn't mean they're not working.
Increased work-life balance may produce even more productive staff. All these lessons are being unwittingly learnt right now, and will have a major impact on corporate working arrangements in the future. It's one of the many things that this global pandemic has changed forever.
Peace & Love
Adé