So much has changed in the span of a week. Just the other day, I was publishing my opinion piece on “Keeping Calm & Carrying On” when it comes to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). At the time I was feeling that we should remain “business as usual” and to some degree I still do. However I feel like in time, we will all need to start adjust to a new normal.
Last night I held an event at StretchLab Granada Hills. I expected cancellations because of people feeling nervous about Coronavirus. Furthermore, with the rain coming down all day long, I knew there would be even more cancellations because if there is one thing that I learned from working at UrbanSitter doing Marketing/Event Planning, is that LA people will opt out of events when it rains.
We had a lovely event and I’ll write more on that later. What got me thinking these last few days is the change in mindset that a lot of us have (now) in reaction to this pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic is “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.” Has Coronavirus affected me personally or anyone I know? Not yet…and I hope not ever.
However, when the NBA, NHL, and even March Madness suspend their games/matches – this starts to give me pause. Also theme parks are closing and Princess Cruises is suspending operations for 2 months. Now I’m starting to worry because the last time (in my lifetime) I saw something similar to the suspension of life as we know it, was after 9/11. At the time I worked for Disney Consumer Products and our stock dropped big time. People were scared to go to the theme parks even after Disneyland and California Adventure resumed operations. As a result of that and a myriad other factors, the Walt Disney Company had to layoff 3% of the staff. That seems small but for a global company that employs thousands of people, it still hurt because the job cuts were felt across all divisions and departments. I can only imagine what people are feeling who work for the hospitality industry (hotels, cruises, Uber drivers, etc.), not to mention those who work in the airline industry.
Schools are being disrupted, transitioning from in-person to online schooling/teaching. My own employer is asking all of the employees to work from home starting next week. This will be interesting, as I’ve never worked from home with both my daughter and husband in the house as well. We will be testing our internet bandwidth for sure!
Personally I just hope that I don’t end up like this while video conferencing in for a work/team meeting.
For those who want tips, I found this great article online from Huffington Post.
I know that we are all on edge. It’s hard to know what to say to our kids or even to ourselves. All I can say it, stay calm, focus on the important stuff like family, and try to block out the external noise. As a self-professed news junkie and pop culture enthusiast, sometimes it’s hard to turn off the TV or stop reading the Twitter feed. However, if I want to model a good example to my daughter (who will be seeing me a lot more since we are working/schooling from home), then I better put the cell phone down and be present. Let’s keep calm and be nice to one another during this time of uncertainty!
Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this post. The opinions expressed in this blog post are 100% my own.
Leave a Reply