If the COVID-19 pandemic has really turned into a COVID-19 endemic and we are ready to learn to live with the coronavirus and the new pandemic economy, are we really ready to live with a COVID excuse endemic?
That tolerance for subpar performance would not be good for wealth generation or rebuilding anything better.
There is no doubt that two years of a global pandemic has had a severe impact on every major economy around the world. COVID-19 has devastated some sectors, eliminated others and accelerated the conversion to robotics and artificial intelligence in others.
Nature’s way has exposed and punished weakness up and down the global supply chain. Many sectors will never be the same – for better or for worse.
The past two years have also raised the tolerance level for deficiencies in companies, their operations and their employees.
Many of those shortcomings have had valid reasons.
It’s hard to run a business when your employees are sick or government mandates have choked off revenue streams or products are not available because factories in other countries have been shut down or delivery systems have been derailed by spikes in supply and demand.
So unanswered phones, unheeded requests, unresponsive management have all, to some extent, been tolerated.
But pandemic performance standards are wearing thin.
More importantly, they should not be afforded pandemic passes any longer.
Businesses and governments that have not picked up their game in the pandemic’s waning days should pay the price for their continued mediocre performance.
The COVID excuse option is threatening to become an acceptable explanation for bureaucratic or private enterprise ineptitude.
The increasing reliance now from political or business leaders on email responses drafted by underlings or public relations advisers to media or other inquiries is a disturbing trend.
They are shortchanging the public they are in business to serve, and blaming the pandemic is an abdication of responsible leadership.
