We have observed drastic and significant changes in our lifestyles, personal, social, and work lives lately due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our daily routines have changed a lot which taught us that change is inevitable, and we need to adapt to new and evolving challenges to ensure that we are not left out behind. What lessons did we learn from the pandemic? With the pandemic threat, we have incorporated many safety measures, including practicing social distancing, wearing masks, getting out less often and only when it is necessary, working from home, etc., so that we can keep ourselves safe.
While adapting to a new lifestyle and work schedule, we have learned many new and interesting things that made us realize what humans can do and what we cannot. Though we learned a lot of new lessons, a few are more important and worth discussing.
Lessons Learned from the Pandemic
Some of the important lessons we learned include
Family is Important
While staying home most of our time, we are spending more time with our family members than we did ever. While working from the office, we tend to be away from them for around 10-12 hours and can hardly spare time with them. As we started working from home during this pandemic, we could be with our loved ones, help our children study, talk to them, and understand their feelings and requirements. Since we feel the happiness of being together with our family, we enjoy and treasure every moment spent with them in our lives, which makes us realize how important they are in our lives. Without them, our life will not be as good as it is now.
Work Can Be Done Remotely
We often struggle to go to work as nobody wants to travel on the roads that are often overcrowded. This pandemic has made organizations adopt new ways of working remotely. Even the organizations that did not have a work-from-home option had to allow their employees to work remotely in order to ensure business continuity and timely delivery of their services. Also, some organizations have already removed the location restrictions for hiring candidates and started recruiting people worldwide. It is the pandemic that helped organizations realize that the work-from-home option will not only ensure business continuity but also improve their employees’ productivity.
Self-Hygiene is Essential
We seldom care about personal hygiene and sanitation while eating outside, meeting people, moving around crowded places, etc. Since the start of the pandemic, we have started practicing COVID-appropriate behavior, which includes washing hands frequently, wearing masks while outside, keeping a safe distance from people, avoiding crowds, increasing COVID-related awareness, and so on. Thanks to the pandemic, we have now developed a habit of practicing self-hygiene more than ever. By including it in our daily routine, we can not only keep ourselves safe from COVID-19 but also avoid other contagious diseases.
New Online Learning Opportunities
As an attempt to continue regular studies, colleges, universities, schools, and other institutions have allowed their students to take online classes. This move has helped students save their precious academic years as well as improve their computer literacy and the ability to use the Internet efficiently for learning new things and gaining knowledge. Additionally, job seekers and employees have enhanced their knowledge and skills using online platforms like Udemy, LinkedIn, Coursera, etc. Besides offering the flexibility to study anywhere, these platforms allowed users to develop their skills at a minimal cost or for free. The pandemic helped us learn that we can learn anything from anywhere.
Importance of Being Financially Stable
Many people lost their jobs or their income was reduced drastically during this pandemic. Organizations faced huge financial losses which forced many to close their businesses. People who were not financially stable suffered the most. In such a situation, bearing the cost of hospitalization made them more unstable financially. People having medical insurance received little help from their insurance companies as their policy did not cover the COVID disease, increasing their responsibility towards hospital expenses. This made us realize that saving money for bad times is indeed essential.
Cybersecurity Awareness
With everyone working from home, phishing attacks have been on the rise. Many employees working outside their office do not have enough security against phishing attacks as they use their personal devices for office work. Employees who use devices provided by their organizations often have security software preinstalled on their devices that protects them against cyberattacks. Employers urge their employees to implement the necessary security measures to avoid cyberattacks like phishing. This has led to increased cybersecurity awareness.
Conclusion
Apart from the above-listed lessons, we have seen a transformation in every walk of life. No individual or organization could stay unaffected by the pandemic. Although we cannot do much in such sudden pandemics, we must strive to be resilient and safe as much as we can in the future.
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