big increase in restaurants providing online/mobile ordering. It’s so much easier to order and pick up food now
Rules vary by state, but there were really severe limits in mine. Like, it was completely illegal unless the doctor had previously seen you in person. The rules relaxed substantially, and i hope they stay relaxed.
Oh, and related (but not due to any legal issues) I’ve been seeing a personal trainer online for months, now, and i love it. I get 90% of the benefit of seeing her in person, but it’s easy more convenient for me.
tl;dr basically the entire life insurance distribution system in north america.
In 2019 almost all life insurance sold in Canada, and a good portion of what got sold in the US, was sold in person. Selling in a non-face to face environment was rare. Post-pandemic of course, 100% of this is being done non-face to face. I think that’s surprising to most people, but it was the way things worked.
It should also hopefully push consumer to buy insurance online (instead of over the phone with an advisor).
I know this because when I started selling insurance in about '06 most Canadian companies either had no policy about selling life insurance non-face to face, or actively prohibited it. I was the first person to sell non-face to face in a number of Canadian companies…in '06-'07. I exited that business in 2018 and was still one of the very few places in Canada doing life insurance business that way.
Life companies are still backwards up here though. I recently reached out to most of the major life insurers in Canada and asked about selling entirely online. The typical response was an excited ‘oh, with the pandemic we have non-face to face sales procedures!’. Uh, that was 12 years ago dude, I’m talking about entirely online. Nobody’s got any procedure for that in Canada.
And they still actively use paper. I went through their process with a life company last week, they’ve got an electronic application with esignatures etc (and are quite proud of it, they pushed it out after covid hit and had no such thing prior). When we got to policy delivery, I asked if the client or the advisor got the policy by email. To which the answer was…they send it out paper. Paper. that stuff that’s made from trees.
In fairness it is 
, you guys have loads of 'em
“Post-pandemic” medical world–including counselling therapy–isn’t guaranteed to have video calls. At least not in every state.
I think the only thing I really missed early in all of this was my gym closing. Otherwise, my life didn’t change much other than wearing a mask from time to time.
As long as the grocery, liquor and hardware stores were open, I was cool.
if you count Home Depot, Liquor store and kids’ school you’ve basically covered all of the public places I’ve been since COVID started 
The one thing I did miss was the barbershop. My guy always has a nice bottle of single malt for the regulars to sample while we wait.
But my wife had her cosmetology license and can cut hair reasonable well. (She’s the only woman in 30 years I’ve let cut my hair). So she continues to do mine. I still take my son to the barber. Phil still lets me take drink whilst I wait for my son.
I don’t think WFH is going to become quite as ubiquitous post-covid as people think. Yes, anybody who wants a full time remote job will be able to find it, and that’s a good thing. But I think a lot of companies are going to say “We prefer in-person interactions” and a lot of workers will agree. I can’t wait to get back into the office, personally.
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My company recognizes that there’s going to be a balance between “face-to-face” interactions and “isolated productivity” . . . so each area (I work for a large company) will determine to what degree the former is needed for business continuity and team building* and the need to enact the latter to manage “numbers” in the same work space at one time (i.e., requiring people to WFH some of the time during the week/month).
*While some degree of team building can be done virtually, I haven’t found anything that really is better than in-person activities to have people get to know each other (when done well, that is) in a very short time.
My company places an overemphasis on networking and schmoozing and having people leaders be in the office. How does a person get those skills without also investing in those things? So, I don’t see WFH being a real option for anyone who is looking to advance, at least for a long time.
I do think it will be an option for people who aren’t looking for officer status.
So, a wash. Yes, there are winners and losers in each economic decision. For “society,” meh.
Not so sure that this would be a “wash” . . . I’m sure that the impact will have a bigger impact for POC whose job is janitorial/maintenance for those office buildings that are now “under utilized” which the companies benefiting from the reduced expenses aren’t going to compensate (at least in the community impacted by the vacated building).
Don’t forget about the businesses around these office buildings, especially ones in cities. People often eat at local places, get their dry cleaning done, maybe do some shopping.
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There’s no doubt that a lot of business moved (or were pushed, alright, shoved) to an online platform. And that’s probably a win for society. I guess I was hung up on your use of the words “need” and “required”. @Lucy gave a good example of such a point. Doctors can legally now see a patient in a Zoom call.
I don’t know that the life insurance industry ever required face to face contact, but does so more out of tradition and effectiveness. An agent was/is always required, but not face-to-face. Pre-pandemic, only a very small % of the population valued life insurance enough to search the internet for a policy. Despite the success of so many other products/services being purchased/sold directly on the internet, life insurance has not followed the trend. Typically an agent has had to “sell” the value of the policy. That’s probably changed somewhat due to the number of COVID deaths. I’ll be curious to see how things shake out 5 years from now.
My company is going the opposite way. Soon some people will be required to be in the office more than they were before the pandemic. I suspect the pendulum will swing back eventually but for now, I’m getting ready to pay for that expensive gas again.
what if they find that the majority of those who want to WFH are the disengaged low performers? Then companies offering WFH options might face anti-selection, as they attract more of the disengaged types, away from the companies that don’t offer WFH
AKA “skimming the crap”?
Consider also employers in areas where the talent pool has been “tapped out”. Acceptance…or at least (hopefully) lasting tolerance of WFH begins to make it possible for employers to more effectively recruit of their area, without the challenge and expense of convincing candidates to move to their area.
I do expect we will see more office-based and less WFH employment than we might have expected a year ago. I’m sure there will still be many companies where being in the office is necessary…or at least a significant advantage…for those seeking to climb the corporate ladders.
But I also expect that I’m no longer going to be quite the oddball or novelty for my WFH status either.
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I suspect my company has found this to me the case in some pockets. Sad thing is, for those who worked really hard it feels like they are paying for those who didn’t. I judge my own performance to be about the same either way.