Time to ditch the Covid clichés?

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There’s a new sense of permanence around Covid, so let’s ditch the worst of the buzzwords, keep safe and get down to the serious questions – such as what to eat during a video meeting.
The moment has come. We can’t beat Covid-19 anytime soon, as the prime minister once used to promise and we can’t yet go back to our usual social habits or plan holidays with any sense of security. And we still can’t even have a traditional Christmas (although many are maintaining they can and will).
So what can we do? It’s time to start ditching the cliches, buzzwords and cheap marketing phrases associated with the notion that the pandemic was a blip.
That means it’s time to stop saying “new normal” (what’s new about it?), “Zoom generation” (most people still travel to work), “unprecedented times” (see new normal) and, most annoying of all, “the great resignation” which nobody ever seems to quantify but somehow exists in the zeitgeist based on a vague feeling fuelled by a million vague surveys.
Yes, it’s been a dispiriting December – in fact how about that as a new catchphrase, “dispiriting December”? Parties have shrunk from being three-course meals for 50 colleagues in funny hats in a posh restaurant to a few drinks outside huddled around a heater in the freezing drizzle, with a diminishing number of enthusiasts.
One pandemic phrase, however, which everyone relishes and that should stay the course is, “You’re on mute.”

Crumbling institutions

For the tech firms that have seen demand for their wares surge exponentially during the pandemic, it’s time we surrendered to reality. Remote working is here to stay and a good amount business travel is now consigned to the past.
Gabriel Engel, CEO of online comms firm Rocket.Chat, says the concept of “normal” no longer exists for businesses.
As the firm’s press release rather inelegantly states: “Anyone trying to claim we’ve reached a ‘new normal’ doesn’t understand that that concept is a complete moving target.”
Engel predicts, conventionally, that remote and hybrid work models “will continue to impact the business ecosystem” and that businesses will continue to invest in digital workplace technologies and “solutions for the long-term hybrid workplace” with “video and voice functionality becoming a must-have for team collaboration tools and platforms”.

Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch is a freelance writer and production editor who has worked in sectors including travel, aviation, agriculture, music, theatre and social work. He also works for a national newspaper