Keep the Economy Going!

How we can help curtail a recession by working from home

Over the last weeks we all set up our home offices to help #flattenthecurve. We proudly showed off our workplaces and held our meetings online via Zoom and Skype. We showed even those who doubted it that work from home really works. It means actually accomplishing tasks, not just playing cards. Of course, after a productive day we did have an online “Office Happy Hour”.

At this point, most governments have set up plans to help businesses out. The threat of immediate bankruptcy is gone. Now the next step is necessary: we need to keep the economy going! If we fail at that, then the repercussions of the Covid-19 crisis are going to be even worse.

#keeptheeconomygoing

What does “keep the economy going” really mean? While I’m not a trained economist, it’s clear to me that money has to work. If it just sits in a vault, unused, it doesn’t contribute to the economy. In other words, you should carry on with your projects and plans. Don’t postpone or delay them – dig in and step up! Keeping the economy going means buying things, spending money on projects, and pursuing the business plans you’ve made. It also means paying your bills. That’s the only way we’ll be able to curtail the upcoming recession.

So how can we keep the economy going? We can continue with our plans. We have to get used to relying on delivery services. The driver I met from UPS said that they’re as busy as they usually are before Christmas. If you were planning an infrastructure project, keep going, try to run it on schedule. That order you’ve been contemplating issuing – now is the time.

In case we have to go in to the office, we know that the rules of working with each other have changed: keep your distance (#physicaldistancing while staying social), wash your hands, use disinfectant, isolate yourself if you feel sick. Completing projects in a team might take a little longer, but ultimately businesses will survive, jobs will still be around, and we’ll avoid a total economic standstill if we keep working.

Since we’ve all started working from home, maybe now is the time to figure out how to do more online. Some businesses are already feeling an uptick. My colleague Thomas from Phoenix Systems told me that he set up ten online shops for farmers and other small businesses over the last couple of weeks. Fabian from veeting.com has twenty times more customers than two weeks ago – his video conferencing software, like so many others, is definitely booming. Can you also offer your services digitally? This is the perfect time to find out just how much can be done outside of the company’s office space.

While we’re on the topic of working from home, consider reviewing the security of the home office workplaces that were set up hastily during the last weeks. Now that everybody has VPN access, is the network still secure? How big are the holes in the firewall, and did we protect all the connections with certificates? Procrastinating on fixing those gaps in cybersecurity is no longer an option. In fact, this is an ideal chance to stop avoiding those issues and find out what other Band-Aids have been put over problems that don’t match internal security regulations.

When we’re recovering from this crisis (and yes, we will – humans are a very tough species) we don’t want to have to start from scratch. While government help is appreciated, we can’t keep the economy going by just relying on financial aid. Now isn’t the time to hunker down and wait it out. By keeping our projects going, our businesses won’t have to adjust to the new status quo. By the time this crisis is through, things will have changed.

As Albert Einstein said: “In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity”. We should start by learning from the Covid-19-induced situation. After all, we’re experiencing the biggest step in digital transformation ever seen! Just a few years ago, such a massive shift to online business wouldn’t have been possible. These changes will stay with us. What does it mean for us in the long run? What’ll be gained by the new way we’ve learned to work and interact? Are we more efficient? Is the “home office” concept better or worse than the traditional company workspace?

Finally, as I wrote before, don’t forget about yourself. I challenged my team to learn or do something new. Take half an hour every day – half the time you save from not commuting – to do that thing you never had time for. Learn Italian, read a book, start playing an instrument, practice balancing on a slack line, take that online Yoga class – whatever. Do it, because now is your chance! After all, this crisis won’t last forever.

Doctors, nurses, and many others are working overtime to keep us alive. The rest is up to us. We’re the ones who will keep the economy going! 

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Here is my other post on Coping with the Lockdown

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Robert Rogenmoser (RoRo) is the CEO and co-founder of Securosys, a leader in cyber and blockchain security, serving customers with its HSM network appliances (and cloud service) all over the world.

You can connect with him directly or reach him via email: roro (at) securosys (dot) ch

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