On March 15, 2020 The New York Times released an article entitled Coronavirus Cost to Businesses and Workers: ‘It Has All Gone to Hell’. The title alone says it all.
The New York Times and many other reputable sources agree that not since the attacks of September 11, 2001 has the economy been thrown so quickly and so deeply into a time of economic turmoil. From the fifty-year-old mom-and-pop shop around the corner to the large-and-in-charge corporation, no business is safe from the clutches of the relentless tentacles of the coronavirus.
As the number of people allowed in one spot decreases and the feet needed to maintain the proper “social distancing” increases, manufacturers find themselves forced to close their doors or work with a skeletal crew. This causes suppliers, and businesses that rely on parts from the affected manufacturers, to experience a drastic cut in their production.
2020 is the year of… the St. Patrick’s Day that never was… the Kentucky Derby that delayed… the prom dresses that hung in waiting… the mortgages that went unpaid… the stores that closed… the children who didn’t go to school… the toilet paper that vanished…
2020 is the year of the virus that stopped the world.
But like all times in the most devastating moments of the world’s history, it will be the people who turn the economy around and restore it to its former, if not greater, glory. Now, this won’t happen immediately, but it will happen. In fact, we’re still in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and already people are rising up and resisting the steep downward spiral that the coronavirus is desperately trying to unleash.
Since other articles articulate the gloom and doom related to the coronavirus as brilliantly as Ludwig van Beethoven wrote Symphony No. 5 in C minor, this article aims to expose the light so desperately trying to pierce the darkness of the coronavirus crisis.
2020 is also the year of… teachers tirelessly working around the clock to continue learning for their students via packets, email, and electronic services… dance studios providing online classes, so their students have an outlet during this uncertain time… stores opening an hour early, so senior citizens have a safer time to shop for their necessities… businesses working around the clock with smaller crews and people working remotely, so services that people need continue… food pantries sending bags of food home with school children who are receiving free breakfast and/or lunch, so they continue to eat while their school is closed… truck drivers working overtime to deliver the supplies needed to restock decimated store shelves…
2020 is the year of the virus that made the world slow down, re-evaluate, and band together.
To the business leaders, employees, and every person reading this: Embrace this moment. The world is being forced to slow down. This is devastating for the economy, and each and every one of us needs to do our part to help the economy get its legs back when the coronavirus is over. But since the coronavirus is still rearing its ugly head and the government has enforced restrictions to keep people safe but that also inhibit pulling out of the economic nosedive at this exact moment, take a second to listen while the world and yourself run at a slower pace.
Right now, you have someone you love who hasn’t heard those words from you in a while, if at all. Right now, you have someone you need to reconnect with and now is the time to reach out. Right now, you have abandoned dreams that deserve reconsideration. Right now you can strategize how to reorganize and perhaps rebrand your company. Right now, someone needs you. Right now, you need someone. Right now…
All businesses know that the economy is in an unprecedented nosedive and that it’s going to take a gladiator effort and a team effort to pull up and out of that nosedive and regain altitude. However, not all businesses realize just how much quicker altitude is gained by those businesses who have leaders and employees who display positive attitudes, exude great work ethics, which include working with intention and passion, and who truly realize that their successful escape from the coronavirus-induced economic nosedive is more than a matter of their particular company surviving.
Truth: A business’s successful escape from the nosedive is a sign of something much greater than their own survival… it’s a sign that one more beacon of hope remains… one more place of employment that keeps people working and supplies and products moving… it’s a sign that although the coronavirus took it’s best shot and we have scars to show the times when we didn’t miss its swift uppercuts and relentless punches, we did not accept defeat. Instead, we stood up, regardless of how battered and pain-stricken, raised our fist in the air, and screamed no more!
Businesses and people are being called to a higher purpose. No longer is a company merely a symbol for what they produce. Now, companies will be a symbol of the country’s resilience, and I can’t wait for everyone to see just how resilient we can be.
Author: Evelyn Lindell
