Experts became curious about which aspects of the pandemic lifestyle will outlast the plague.<\/p>\n
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Since March, people across the world have made big changes in their lives. The simple act of eating at a restaurant has become a thrilling adventure, our hands smell vaguely like cheap tequila from hand sanitizer, trains have become empty, and our home turned into both a treasure and fortress.<\/p>\n
And the worst thing about it is that COVID-19 has stuck around for a really long time, but lessons have been leaned.<\/p>\n
You might say, “how could next year possibly be worse than this one?” But 2020 has taught us that things can always \u2014\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 get worse.<\/p>\n As The Atlantic\u2019s Derek Thompson\u00a0put it<\/a>, \u201calthough the biological stage of the pandemic might come to an end in 2021, the infrastructural aftershocks will be with us for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n What might those aftershocks be?\u00a0Neal Freyman<\/a>, editor at Morning Brew<\/a>, explore some of the trendiest trends that developed over the past 10 months and try to paint a clearer picture of 2021 and beyond.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get the obvious out of the way first: There will be a\u00a0lot\u00a0<\/em>more remote workers, maybe\u00a0triple or quadruple<\/a>\u00a0the amount there was before the pandemic, per McKinsey.<\/p>\n What about that trend is so sticky?<\/p>\n But \u201cremote work\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cWFH.\u201d We can expect more companies to create tools to support the remote worker, from asynchronous video startups like Loom to companies aiming to\u00a0replicate<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cserendipity\u201d of random conversations in the office hallway. Plus, in a post-pandemic world, people will be able to work in settings other than their bedrooms, like a coffee shop or a library.<\/p>\n Will virtual tools fully replicate the office experience? Not 100%, which is why many execs expect some sort of\u00a0hybrid arrangement<\/a>\u00a0will emerge: Depending on your job function, you might come in a few days a week to a \u201chot desk\u201d setup (basically a flexible workspace where people rotate in and out). It\u2019s not crazy to think coworking companies like WeWork might benefit from the emergence of the two-day-a-week office worker.<\/p>\n Is there some kind of \u201crule\u201d that determines whether a pandemic-inspired trend will stick around after we\u2019ve all gotten our shots? Maybe not, but I\u2019ll put one forward anyway: If the change a) made people\u2019s lives better and\/or b) saved a company money, we can reasonably assume some form of the behavior will stick around.<\/p>\n As an example, take cross-border leisure travel, which the pandemic essentially eliminated. Did that make people\u2019s lives better? Well, I don\u2019t think I can name a single person who enjoys looking at pictures of Paris more than actually walking the Rue Denoyez. In fact, the urge to travel was so strong that people paid hundreds of dollars to\u00a0eat dinner<\/a>\u00a0on an Airbus A380 just for the \u201cthrill\u201d of boarding a plane again. For all these reasons, we can anticipate a snapback for leisure travel next summer.<\/p>\n Business travel is another story. For companies, it\u2019s costly. For employees, it can be fun; it can also mean three nights at a Holiday Inn in Topeka. But the pandemic experience has shown you don\u2019t necessarily need to see someone in person to onboard, strike a deal with, or sell something to them.<\/p>\nWork from home<\/h2>\n
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Toward a framework<\/h2>\n
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Let\u2019s talk about shopping<\/h2>\n