Chapter Five | Pandemic and Change | Chapter 5 of 6
The reality, having studied political science at Carleton was a curse because, with all the changes we all face today, I started asking bigger questions and realized the devaluation issues I’m facing are the same ones many have already and have yet to face. The Social issues around these questions are bigger than any one of us. While business was picking up nicely in 2019, I was still not back to where I was in the heyday, however, it had come a long way and Brougham was almost there. Caring and good work still work. In fact, caring is where I started and with courage and confidence, the rebuild will work.
The 2020’s
Today the issue is the pandemic and with enough business and the help of government subsidies we have been OK. That said, the Omicron wave will be interesting to deal with. It is really whether half measures will help and how much things open while we’re supposed to be making it on our own. It seems the government must stop sometime; however, it should be when we define a new normal. If a business or complete industries are to shut down for good, then I hope they have the guts to state it clearly as opposed to having well-meaning dedicated businesspeople hang onto hope for the other side. I had a neighbour who suggested that Covid will be good because it will get rid of a lot of the weak businesses that are nothing more than jobs for the owners and a few ‘afforded staff’. Of course, he added he hopes that does not include me. Brougham is not weak, but we are affected by the suspension of tradeshows, events, in-person higher education, and people getting together for any number of reasons.
No matter what happens in the future, I will work for others’ well-being. Today the benefits to those who have us work for them include knowing they have dedicated people who are on their team. They know that we are socially and environmentally conscious while we work our way through economic changes. We all know that we work in an imperfect economic system that’s not adapting fast enough to change, but we all need to serve someone to earn a living!
When your business, NFP, or government department uses promotional products, we’ll help you be more socially and environmentally sustainable, but it may involve not ordering the least expensive products for the goal you have in mind. Buying Canadian or at least North American is not less expensive, but it does not involve shipping from the other side of the world where little is known about social and environmental standards that are not paid for and therefore produce a cheaper product.
There is also a lot of social and environmental whitewashing out there. The best thing you can do is to give something of quality that people will hang onto. Not that people use key tags as much as they used to however if you’re going to use that as a gift to reflect your organization to your target audience, make sure it’s one they’ll use. The absolute worst thing for the environment is getting a promotional product and dumping it in the garbage. The resources used to create and get that product to you, and to send it to landfills never should have happened.