What's so great about "normal"?

Most of us will have experienced certain events in our lives that make us re-evaluate and re-assess. Often these are traumatic and potentially life changing.

One such event for me was the sudden and unexpected death of my father at the relatively young age of 54.

He had always talked about how he was looking forward to spending his later years with my mother now that my older brother and l were no longer living at home. Sadly, he never got to enjoy those twilight years.

Even though you find it hard to realize at the time, with the benefit of hindsight you might be able to see that some good can come from misfortune.

The untimely demise of my dad had a profound effect on me. I decided not to live my life for some potential future, but instead to take chances and live in the moment.

So it is with many unfortunate events. They can lead to outcomes that perhaps otherwise may not have happened.

Even though we will all have experienced this it seems we may be missing an opportunity.

Unless we are forced to make changes we tend to just plod along and do the same things over and over, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Take the way most of us go to work. For the majority we have been conditioned into getting up early, commuting to a central location, trying to be productive between standard working hours (usually 9-5), struggling with the return journey home, having just enough time to grab a bite to eat, do our domestic chores, watch some mindless TV and get a reasonable night's sleep before hitting the reset button and going through the same thing again the next day!

No one really questioned this as it was the way things had always been done - well since the industrial revolution anyway.

But then one of those unexpected, unforeseen and tragic situations occurred.

This one was called COVID. Over night we were told you cannot interact face to face with others. No more trips to bars, clubs and restaurants. No evenings at the theatre or cinema. No sporting events, concerts, even funerals or hospital/care home visits.

And of course, no working from the office!

With harsh penalties for breaking the rules, everyone except those designated as essential workers, were told they had to stay at home.

Suddenly we had to find a new and different way to function. Behold the era of working from home was born.

And contrary to conventional wisdom the world didn't fall apart. Businesses continued to operate. Targets were achieved. Things got done.

Not only that, people didn't miss the commute and they quite liked the fact that they could work when they had the energy or inspiration rather than when the clock reached a certain hour.

But most of all when restrictions eased, they loved the fact that they could drop the kids off of school, take the dog for a walk when the sun was shinning and enjoy a quick nap when they felt tired, as long they got their tasks completed on time and to the required standard.

But now all of that has changed. The immediate threat of COVID has rescinded and we are now being told that is safe to go back to our old ways.

And that's just what a number of organizations are looking to do. Many banks have told their employees they must come back to work full- time. No exceptions. Elon Musk has been very direct. Everyone must come back to work and if you don't he will assume that you have decided to leave.

It seems that quite a few people are in a hurry to get "back to normal".

But what's so great about normal? Aren't we in danger of missing one of those opportunities when faced with a challenging situation?

Shouldn't we be looking for the COVID silver lining? We have a glorious chance to completely re-assess the way we work, tear up tired and out dated conventions and start to build a new world order from the bottom up.

It is a wonderful time to question everything. Try to establish why we do what we do and never accept "because we always have" as an answer.

Let's explore a working culture where we can produce results yet at the same time ensure employee well-being by being flexible and allowing true balance and the ability to integrate your lifestyle around your work.

The last 2 years have been truly awful for many people. Let''s not just blindly go back to how things used to be.

If we have learnt anything from the pandemic it should be that we can and should do things in a different way,

Of course not everyone can work from home. But at least let's make sure that when we do ask people to come back to work, there needs to be a really good reason to do so.