I’m convinced that, in a post-COVID world, the new normal will look quite different than the old in a number of ways. Many of these are as yet unclear, but today I want to look at a few ways that things might change, as well as some ways in which I hope they will change. These span a wide range, from work and work-related travel, to academic publishing and online education. I’ll look at that last topic in a later post, as I’ve got a lot to say on it. For now, though, it seems save to say that, as former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote:

This pathogen has altered history and changed our world.

The new normal won’t be the same as the old normal, and it will take a while before we see all the ways in which it will change.

The new normal and the workplace: More work may go remote

Many careers involve a lot of travel – at least travel to the office, but also travel to other states and abroad. With so much moving online for COVID-19, I suspect that some workplaces will decide to allow more flexibility to work remotely afterwards. There are pros and cons, but I think many workplaces which now allow remote work had never previously considered it, so I’m expecting this is going to become more common. While it has downsides, it also has benefits. For example, in my work with the Open Force Field Initiative, we’ve already had a large, delocalized research team for a while, and we’ve found that we can hire better people when they don’t have to be in any specific place. So not only do we have folks working at five different academic institutions, but we’ve also got personnel in at least two other US states, a couple of European countries, and, at least temporarily, in New Zealand. Many of these people wouldn’t have been able to relocate to join our team but instead, we were able to bring on the best people.

Not only do I think this outcome is likely, but I hope it happens to an extent. Many of my friends here in Southern California spend hours on their commutes each week, sometimes multiple hours each day. While many advocate living close to work or working close to home, this isn’t always possible. But driving hours each day is terrible for our families, the environment, and our health. Normalization of remote work – even if just a couple of days a week – could change this dramatically for the better, helping our health, our families, and the environment. We’ve already seen clearning skies due to COVID-19.

My neighbor is a specialized medical doctor, and reports benefiting from the huge surge in telemedicine lately. The technology is now there that he can see many of his patients remotely, which saves him commute time and allows him more time with his family, but this had been slow to take hold until COVID-19. Indeed, I’ve often been puzzled as to why we need to visit a doctor in-person to get a prescription renewed when all we do on the visit is step on a scale then talk to them a few minutes. Perhaps far more such visits will begin moving online. Certainly much more of this is already happening at present, and COVID-19 has “fueled a sudden leap toward the future of medicine”.

I’m a scientist in academia, and many of us are prolific travelers; I hope this will also promote a shift in norms for our field. I normally try to “limit” my travel normally to 6-12 trips a year for conferences, workshops, and presentations at other universities – which is far less than many others in my area, including my postdoctoral mentor. But even this amount is taxing for my family; when I come back, I’m wiped out from the busy schedule while traveling, and my wife is exhausted from parenting six kids solo for a couple of days to a week or more. Some of this travel is well-motivated; in terms of networking and science discussions, it’s hard to beat an intense couple of days of focused interactions with colleagues in-person, taking turns at a whiteboard, talking science over meals, etc. But sometimes, this travel is just to give a talk or two at different institutions or in large meetings where there’s little of this most valuable kind of interaction. In terms of getting word about my group’s science out there, I’d likely be better served by conducting, recording, and posting a series of webinars then scheduling follow-up zoom meetings for discussions. I’m hoping academics can begin to shift our culture in this direction so that a hectic international travel schedule will seem less like a mark of prestige and achievement. This probably applies in some other areas, too; academia is just the one I know.

Networking, too, might need re-thinking; a collegue wrote on Twitter:

I know I am simplifying a very complex problem now, but we should probably do our best to get away from a system where having a drink at a conference is a standard approach to improve ones career prospects.

Speaking of academic travel, one colleague actually suggested institutionalizing an academic “social distancing month” where we would all forego work-related travel and focus on our families and research groups, which strikes me as a good idea. We’d stay home, take stock, and use the time to ensure we’re giving adequate attention and care to the folks we’re closest with rather than traveling far and wide.

The normalization of online learning: Will more education move online?

I’ll want to look at online learning in more depth later, but many of us have been thrust reluctantly into it by COVID-19, so in that sense, it’s becoming “normal”. I know that many of us feel it’s far inferior to the “real thing”, but at the same time, I can see myself becoming more willing in the future to record in-person lectures to allow (for example) sick students to view them remotely later – rather than simply having to miss. Most of us have been reluctant to do this kind of thing in the past, giving students the choice between missing class or coming sick – which is not good for anyone. And, if we’re really just lecturing, how much difference is there between watching a video and attending? There’s a difference – but it may not be a vast one, at least for large lecture-style classes at the university. But I’ll look more at this in a later post. In any case, my point here is that COVID-19 will likely have lasting effects in this area. In my current course this quarter, I have one student IN China who is enrolled, which would certainly not have happened before.

In academic publishing, COVID-19 further highlights the value of preprints

It seems likely that COVID-19 will contribute to publication reform in academia; we’ve long had a system where journal publications are slow to come out and slow to disseminate as articles pass through a time-consuming peer-review process, revised, reviewed again, and then are eventually typeset and published. More recently, preprints (often basically submitted versions of papers prior to peer review) have come to serve to more rapidly disseminate results, but COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of these earlier and more rapid reports. Not all of this is wonderful, as misinformation can get out as rapidly as correct studies – but many of the places where this information is posted allow commenting, essentially providing public peer review. This can be confusing for the public, but it allows science to progress far faster. COVID-19 seems certain to further accelerate reform in the academic publication industry, though it remains to be seen how things will shape up.

Perhaps we can stop equating “professionalism” with “seeming perfectly prepared for work”

I can’t find the conversation again on Twitter, but someone reported being told it was “unprofessional” to appear with a bed in their background on Zoom calls, but they had nowhere else left to work. They asked for opinions, and I chimed in that I thought it was entirely appropriate. But that led me to a larger realization: We’re socialized to think it’s unprofessional to have family obligations, interruptions, or appear less than entirely put-together. The present set of stay-at-home orders remind us of reality. We’re real people, with a broad array of different living and work situations. Some have small children who need our attention NOW, or spouses who are also working, or pets or roommates or parents who need our attention, or even all of the above. Or our living space (or office!) is crowded and less than perfect. Maybe we have a bed (even an un-made one!) in the background.

Call those things unprofessional if you will, but they’ve always been there. It’s just that now, you can see them when you do a Zoom call with us. Now, instead of us hiding our life from view when we come to an artificial office space, you see it right in front of you in the Zoom call, hear it on the phone, etc. “Unprofessional?” No! Our personal lives are part of who we are. Asking us to hide them away, act as if they don’t exist, and be unaffected by them is the unprofessional side of things.

What does being “professional” really mean? For me, my goal is to give my best to whatever task God has me doing at the time – but that means my best in view of all my responsibilities, not my best while ignoring all other responsibilities. I hope this reminds us to see co-workers more holistically, rather than just someone we expect to have their act together in the workplace.

Other things which are changing

What else do you see changing?