Red Green Repeat Adventures of a Spec Driven Junkie

COVID-19: the Cold that Changed Work and Fashion

I’m suffering through a bad cold now - so bad that I thought it was a variant of COVID-19. All the symptoms were similar to the previous I had it.

Miraculously, I don’t have COVID-19, so I don’t have to isolate in my room the whole time (and get a mental health week!)

As I think about COVID-19, wow, this is a cold that affected society in massive way, both work and fashion changed because of this one cold!

Picture of people working remotely with masks on

Work

Before COVID-19, working remotely was for the 1% of companies. When COVID-19 was in full swing, 100% of companies went remote, everyone adapted, remote became the new normal.

Before 2020, did you ever have to “call in” for a meeting where the majority of the attendees were in the same room and you were remote?

Remember how hard that meeting was? I do! Nobody in the physical meeting remembered me and the meeting was such a waste of time for me. I didn’t know who was talking, the Polycom (yeah, remember those??) was covering a room of 50 people. No video cameras to even see - those meeting rooms were $$$.

Now calling into a remote meeting is a world of difference. Everyone is basically on their own computer with their own microphone and screenshare. Calling into a meeting remotely is normal while collocated attendees are the exception.

Quite the reversal COVID-19 made on work!

Fashion

Before 2020, the only times it was socially acceptable in most first world countries to wear a mask is in the hospital OR Halloween! Wearing a mask in public any other time would get weird gestures from those around (except in Japan and other Asian countries).

Now, it’s perfectly normal to wear a mask in public, not just a hospital mask, any kind of mask. Colored ones, tie-dyed ones, black ones, ones with flags, company logos, etc.

There are a plethora of variations of masks, you can coordinate all of your outfits with an appropriate masks.

Conclusion

COVID-19 brought so much change to the world in such a short period that I can’t even remember the world before COVID-19 anymore. The new normal for work and fashion is fundamentally altered that I wonder what changes will happen next.