In this podcast, Will Sampson and Bobby Dalheim of Woodworking Network share the results of a survey on the effect of the pandemic on the woodworking industry.
This episode of the Woodworking Network podcast was sponsored by FDMC magazine. FDMC magazine is your vital source of information to improve your woodworking business. Whether it is keeping you apprised of the latest advances in manufacturing, helping you solve your wood technology problems with Gene Wengert, or inspiring you with case histories about successful businesses and best practices, FDMC magazine is there to be the sharpest business tool in your shop. Learn more and subscribe for free at woodworkingnetwork.com/fdmc.
Woodworking Network is a home for professional woodworkers, presenting technology, supplies, education, inspiration, and community, from small business entrepreneurs to corporate managers at large automated plants.
You can find all of our podcasts at WoodworkingNetwork.com/podcasts and in popular podcast channels. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks again to today’s sponsor, FDMC magazine. If you have a comment or topic you’d like us to explore, contact me at will-dot-sampson @ woodworking network dot com. And we would really appreciate it if you fill out the survey at woodworking network.com/podcast-survey. Thanks for listening.
Intro music courtesy of Anthony Monson.
Are you fed up with dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and all the related fallout? I know I am, and lots of our audience is. When we first surveyed people in the woodworking industry last spring related to the impact of the coronavirus, we got more than 500 responses. We’ve followed up with more surveys, and responses have gone down each time to now just about a fourth of that. I guess I should come up with some clever name for what is happening like Pandemic Fatigue or COVID Exhaustion or maybe Virus Apathy. People want to be done with the school and business closures, the masks and social distancing, the daily drone of statistics for deaths, hospitalizations, positive infection tests, and all the incessant analysis and arguing that goes along with it.
The problem, though, is we can’t be done, at least not yet. As I write this, there is a new surge of disease being reported. There is still no vaccine or even an organized, universally recognized plan for vanquishing the virus other than trying to minimize new infections and waiting for the vaccine or for the virus to simply run its course. That’s all devastating for business, which really suffers in an environment of uncertainty.
But wait a minute, you say, people are dying. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. We can’t just go on as if nothing is happening. We’ve got to DO SOMETHING!
But what if the “something” we do causes as much or more damage than the virus it was intended to fight? Human beings are social creatures, and we’ve built a complex, technology-driven world with complicated, interlocking features that can’t just be undone and put back again. It’s kind of like those classic thriller movies where the hero is trying to defuse a bomb. “Do I cut the red wire or the green wire?” We don’t want it all to blow up in our faces, but the clock is ticking.
My concern is that even after we survive this virus, the survivors will have suffered other serious damage. They will have lost businesses, lost jobs, lost income and life savings. A whole generation of children is having their education disrupted. The way we look at communicable diseases has undergone a transformation where we are now quarantining the well rather than the sick in an effort to limit spread of a disease that might show no symptoms while it spreads. Many experts suggest we will have increases in suicides, drug overdoses, and other deaths not directly related to COVID-19 but still tied to the reaction to the pandemic. Besides all the physical losses, we’ve also lost confidence in leadership. Our overheated politics have spread a disease of mistrust and power plays that have little to do with actually combatting the virus.
I don’t have an answer. I wish I did. But I know I’m tired of dealing with it all, just like our survey respondents. I’m tired of hearing about a “new normal” when all I want is to get back to the old normal. I’m tired of not being able to plan things. I’m tired of not being able to hold face-to-face meetings. I’m tired of being on a perpetual death watch. It all goes against my basically optimistic and pragmatic problem-solving nature.
What keeps me going is knowing that humanity has been here before. Countless plagues and pandemics have swept the globe before. With and without vaccines, with and without quarantines, with and without modern medicine and sophisticated science, humanity has survived. I know we will this time, too.
Before we get to the results of the survey, let’s pause for a word from our sponsor. FDMC magazine is your vital source of information to improve your woodworking business. Whether it is keeping you apprised of the latest advances in manufacturing, helping you solve your wood technology problems with Gene Wengert, or inspiring you with case histories about successful businesses and best practices, FDMC magazine is there to be the sharpest business tool in your shop. Learn more and subscribe for free at woodworkingnetwork.com/fdmc.
That’s it for today. If you’d like to get more information about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the woodworking industry, check out the COVID-19 Update section at WoodworkingNetwork.com. If you are looking for more of our podcasts, you can find all of them at WoodworkingNetwork.com/podcasts and in popular podcast channels. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode. Thanks again to today’s sponsor, FDMC magazine. If you have a comment or topic you’d like us to explore, contact me at will-dot-sampson @ woodworking network dot com. And we would really appreciate it if you would fill out the survey at woodworking network.com/podcast-survey. Thanks for listening.