This time last year, the world was panicking, everything was closing, and people were very uncertain about what the next few months would look like. As was the case at most other businesses, Buchanan Public Relations employees were sent home for their safety. We stayed in touch with Zoom calls and Slack, while feverishly monitoring the news for updates. At that time, very few of us envisioned our world still consumed by this pandemic one year later. And while the last year has brought many challenges, it has also provided an abundance of lessons in both personal and professional life.
Check out what Buchanan team members said they learned over the past year:
This past year has taught me about the importance of being honest. I believe most of us have experienced periods of not being OK, of struggling emotionally to survive this endless year. I found when I acknowledged my own struggles, others were more likely to open up and share theirs, too. Feeling less alone has made it easier for people to soldier on.
This past year has taught me that this country is not well-prepared to deal with a pandemic emergency. We have no national health structure to handle it. We’ve seen the public politicize, demonize, and trivialize the science. More people than I thought possible chose to believe anonymous conspiracists over objective, peer reviewed facts. In the future this country will be tested with a more lethal outbreak. What then?
This past year has shown me how resilient people can be, and how helpful we can be towards each other. It’s taught me to have a profound respect for those who continued to work through the pandemic to make sure life as we know it kept going. And it’s made me value the relationships I have even more and to make a concerted effort to stay in contact with those I might not otherwise see in person.
This past year, the news cycle was moving at rapid pace, even more than usual. It seems as if a new, big story broke each day, which meant today’s big news would be old news tomorrow. While the news cycle has slowed some, this is likely a trend that will continue. The key takeaway: Never hold a good story to try to time the news cycle.
Over the course of the last year, I have learned the value of patience and empathy when approaching communication. My approach to communication as a PR professional has changed a great deal, and it has helped to remind myself that everyone is going through a collective experience of uncertainty. For this reason, whether it is a client or a friend, it is crucial to approach other people’s emotional response to fear with understanding.
This past year has taught me to slow down. In the communications world, that can be difficult because we are always focused on deadlines and getting ahead of what’s next. However, with the pandemic putting a lot of things in my personal life on hold, I learned that I need to slow down, enjoy where I am now, and try to not just rush into the next thing.
Eventually, the pandemic will end. We will likely still meet by Zooms here and there, but hopefully our Slack conversations will be replaced with water cooler conversations, and our virtual happy hours will be swapped for in-person celebrations. We only hope that one day when life is back to normal, we will hold these lessons close and allow them continue to guide us both personally and professionally.