David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
NOT Traveling Blog, 3rd
Week Of June
In 2014 I was voted
by USA Today readers as one of the top ten business travel bloggers in the
USA. Now mind you,
I turned out to be number ten on the list of ten, but I did make it on (with my
thanks to all those who voted.) Now
that we’re all stuck at home and not traveling, I had to think about what to do
with my blogs. I could stop writing them
entirely – waiting till we all get through the current COVID19 pandemic /
crisis. I could wax nostalgic and/or
complain about past trips. Or, I could
focus all of my efforts on my day job – growing the use of collaboration
technologies – especially in light of how many people are now forced to use
those tools for the first time. In
reflecting upon those choices, what I decided to do is compile an ongoing list
of observations during the crisis. Some
of these may amuse, some may inform, some may sadden and others may help. My goal will be for you to have seen
something in a different light than you did before you stopped to read the
blog. I was going to apologize for how
disjointed these thoughts may seem when put together, but then it dawned on me
that feeling disjointed is our new normal – at least for a little while.
So, in no particular
order:
·
Cities
and states across the US are now lifting shelter-in-place orders that were
imposed to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
That means the pandemic is over, right?
Well, sadly no – what that means is our so-called leaders are putting
economic recovery ahead of our health.
As stated
in The Atlantic, “Americans may wish
the virus to be gone, but it is not. While the outbreak has eased in the
Northeast, driving down the overall national numbers, cases have only plateaued
in the rest of the country, and they appear to be on the rise in recent days in
COVID Tracking Project data. Twenty-two states
reported 400 or more new cases [last week] and 14 other states and Puerto Rico
reported cases in the triple digits. Several states—including Arizona, North
Carolina, and California—are now seeing their highest numbers of known cases”. Also, as Dr.
Fauci warned, the “pandemic is far from over.” So what is it about the majority of the US
population that wants to ignore the clear facts because they’re tired of the
“burden” of keeping themselves safe? For
some it is clearly a desire to earn a living again, as the struggle to meet
one’s family’s needs is real. But for others…well…let’s let the comics page
answer that question.
·
I’ve
picked-on Vegas in this blog a few times, and felt bad about that, until I saw
this video last week posted by the columnist Arash Marazi (click the photo to view the video):
The video walks
us through the casino, showing nearly all visitors without masks, no distancing
on the walkways or at the tables, and no one in the casino doing anything about
it. Having a situation like this
initially happen may have been out of the casino’s control, but allowing it to
continue with no intervention is totally on The Cosmopolitan management. If you ever wondered if the casinos cared
about their patrons, just look to this for your answer. As I stated in a prior blog, this brings a
whole new dimension to the term “gambling.”
·
I
think I’ve found that term I was looking for for people
who aren’t paying attention to what’s really happening and risking their and
other lives. I had toyed with “Darwins,” the New Jersey based “knuckleheads,” “guinea pigs,”
and the simple “idiots,” and none of them seem to fit the bill for the
personality of people who have all the scientific evidence in front of them and
are too thick to take appropriate precautions either out of a mob mentality or
an acceptance of misinformation that things are safe when they clearly are not. Twitter
comes to the rescue here with “Covidiots volunteer
association” or simply “Covidiots.”
·
As
the stay-at-home orders are lifted, people are considering traveling
again. Many of them are trying to figure
out how safe the transportation options are, and how much they can trust
transportation companies based on past interactions. Again, as I’ve said many times, there is ZERO
trust between frequent travelers and travel firms based-upon past treatment –
including the continuous, unilateral rule changes and plain and simple lies
(like “blocking middle seats”) which have continued through the pandemic. Other than some scattered co-branding
and co-marketing efforts with cleaning product companies, travel companies
have offered nothing but hollow promises about safety. In that context, and with knowledge of the
thousands of stranded, vulnerable passengers the cruise companies were unable
to protect, I offer you the following email I received (again) this week
without additional comment:
·
The
awesome company I work for has told all of their employees to “take Friday off.” They are worried that while we are working
from home we’re spending too much time on work and not giving ourselves any
mental downtime. It is a real risk of
remote working that employees get so engaged and so productive that they often
forget to spend time relaxing. It’s the
total opposite of the ‘lazy’ home worker stereotype that has permeated
businesses for far too long. As I’ve
said before, I just wish it didn’t take a deadly pandemic to get people to see
the light about remote working for knowledge workers.
As always, please feel free to write to me with comments or
items I should add to a future Not Traveling blog (or if you just need someone
to write to.) Stay safe, be well, hug
those you’re sheltering with (but no one else) and do your best to stay
positive. We’re going to be in this for
a long while.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.