Editorial: Let’s not forget what working at home taught us
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It’s back to normal for Pennsylvania government.
Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that 2,300 state employees will be heading back to the office. That move came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s decision that federal emergency measures related to the coronavirus pandemic will end in May.
These are positive moves on many fronts.
From a social standpoint, it’s another sign that we are returning to life as we knew it before the world shut down in March 2020.
From an economic standpoint, it’s a jolt for some flagging areas of business. While most of those 2,300 state workers will be heading back to Harrisburg offices, it’s also likely to bolster other areas. Those office workers will translate to more people stopping for coffee on the way into work and buying lunch at noon.
There will probably be more work clothes purchased rather than relying on comfy stuff to wear around the house. Dry cleaners will be thrilled.
The move to normalcy after three years will not come without bumps. It’s going to cost more to drive to work than it did. There will be struggles to coordinate child care — or senior care. But it will happen. People will adjust.
What is important to remember is there were lessons learned.
We know now that we can coordinate off-site work. We can do it statewide if necessary. We also can do it on a company or individual basis. If we recognize how well we managed over the pandemic, we can empower ourselves to handle almost anything.
There’s a stomach bug burning its way through schools? Let’s proactively make plans to limit contact. There’s bad weather on the way? We don’t have to lose work (or school) time by encouraging people to come in when we have the equipment and infrastructure to handle it remotely.
The history of the world is written in discoveries made for one purpose and adapted for another. Memory foam came out of the space program. Pennsylvania’s own Slinky was never intended to be a toy; it was a naval stabilizer.
The pandemic response has become a political football — what one side did right versus what the other did wrong. However, that ignores what we can take away from it.
Those state employees will go back to their offices at least three days a week starting March 6. But the state’s been working hard for the past three years. It would be a disservice to all of us to forget that.