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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern Subscriber

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How will Covid-19 change things forever?

We're all hoping our society can weather the storm. And as software developers we're most certainly not the ones most at risk of personal disruption.

Anyway, how do you see our global society changing forever in the fallout of this event?

Top comments (34)

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yaser profile image
Yaser Al-Najjar • Edited
  • Pros:

People will embrace remote work, and they'll realize how productive it is.

  • Cons:

I'm afraid there will be large numbers of deaths (like World War) 😬

I've mentioned some numbers here:

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artis3n profile image
Ari Kalfus

Alternatively: the stress of taking care of family arrangements, housekeepers and nannies being unavailable, etc. other unique problems due to the virus will put a lot of people off of remote work.

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kayis profile image
K

Yes, I have to admit, while I think remote work is a superpower, I really think it's not for everyone.

If it creates extra work, as you said, it can be better to simply leave the house and work in an office.

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kylefilegriffin profile image
Kyle Griffin

Twitter is saying "watch and see how bosses will see how working remotely doesn't hinder productivity and actually saves money"

It was not about the money. They keep you working in the building because it's where they can keep an eye on you.

So the real concern for me is that this forced remote working is going to create a lot of tension between teams and management as there is not enough time to slowly phase it in. Its implementing a massive change to the company dynamic without any proper risk assessment.

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kayis profile image
K

This.

I saw so many companies in my time that were like "We don't do time tracking here, come to work when you like!" and then became huge privacy liabilities when things didn't work out.

New investor, replaced management, MBA starts to turn everything on its head, people leaving the company. Some soulless work creation scheme in form of a company left.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

So the real concern for me is that this forced remote working is going to create a lot of tension between teams and management as there is not enough time to slowly phase it in.

I can definitely say that our approach of slow and steady was really great.

It took time and iterations.

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davelsan profile image
David Velasco

I'm worried that this could be used as yet another excuse to arbitrarily close borders and limit people's freedoms. This is a delicate situation, so we'll have to wait and see.

On the positive side, I'm happy that many business are starting to appreciate the benefits of remote work and having people with the skillet to do so effectively.

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lleonardogr profile image
Leonardo Gasparini RomΓ£o

I don't think so, maybe some countries like Italy or even China will reform their public health structures, but according to some biologists, the Coronavirus will probably have a vaccine treatment in a few months, and with this, global society will returning into an normal state after that. But this is only my opinion

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bairrada97 profile image
bairrada97

even if they find a vaccine today, will take around 12 to 18 months to go out and be commercialised

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lleonardogr profile image
Leonardo Gasparini RomΓ£o

This can be true, but apparently, the progress to create a vaccine this time is impressive comparing to other diseases in the past, so, I believe that we will not be so affected by this virus, in a social way I mean

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matthewbdaly profile image
Matthew Daly • Edited

We're definitely looking at a recession in the short to medium term, with all the grief that brings. Our industry tends to be quite robust in that regard because there already weren't enough developers to go round, but it's still potentially stressful for us, not to mention our friends, family and loved ones.

Also, while I naturally want this crisis to be managed as well as humanly possible, I have very little confidence in many of the current populist leaders. If this goes badly, they'll either be exposed as ineffectual, or will use it to justify more authoritarian policies.

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madza profile image
Madza

If you think about it, we are privileged to have an opportunity to work and communicate remotely as well as having advantages of advanced medical technologies to cure diseases.

For example, imagine being among the people forced to go work to earn money for food in 1346–1353 during the Black Plague which took est. 70M-200M lives.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard • Edited

People will be an awful lot physically isolated for one month at the very least

Pro: this helps flatten the curve helping people to not die

Con: there is an epidemic of anxiety and loneliness and depression coming if we do nothing.

Fortumately doing something is really simple. Reach out to your friends and family, listen, ask how they feel, ask how you can help, suggest movies to watch, books to read. Do art. Write. Learn something

I wrote about it here

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deanius profile image
Dean Radcliffe

I think our increased physical separation will make realtime technologies more urgently needed. How much of dev.to is live updating, Ben? dev.to/deanius/stop-wasting-time-i...

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deanius profile image
Dean Radcliffe

I just saw your podcast features - seems like a step in the right direction!

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allanmacgregor profile image
Allan MacGregor πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

Depending on how long this extends, remote work might become more prevalent if not a new normal. The economy is getting hit hard, so it is possible we will see layoffs and hit the tech ecosystem, think about all the affected startups Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, etc.

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nasoma profile image
nasoma

In the developing world, leaders will may be forced to invest in better local healthcare. It will finally dawn on them that you can't always fly our to Europe or India for treatment even if you have money to facilitate such trips and treatment.