Sharing the Burden

It’s been an extraordinary few weeks in which our working and personal lives have been turned on their heads as we face a challenge unlike anything the world has experienced since the Spanish Flu pandemic over 100 years ago.

Intuitively, we know that when dealing with significant challenges, how successfully we navigate them begins with how we think about them, and then moves to what we do about them. If the thinking part is underdone, the doing part is at risk of falling short!

With that in mind, we thought it could be helpful to periodically share observations on how COVID-19, the market turmoil and the issues and challenges that flow from them may affect each of us as financial services businesses and as people.  The idea is to publish these reflections as they come to us and hope that they may contribute in some small way to your own response to the challenges ahead.  Let’s begin!

Sharing the Burden

The world has changed profoundly. As things stand today, the health of every person in the community is at threat from corona virus, sharemarkets have fallen over 30%, unemployment has spiked massively, and for older Australians in particular, their very lives are at risk.  There is credible talk of a deep recession, and the possibility of a depression. 

None of this was in contemplation 5 or 6 weeks ago! The speed at which these events have unfolded is astonishing.

The response of the community, including the financial services industry in which we work, has been no less astonishing.  City buildings are now empty as people work and communicate from home.  In many cases, parents with young children are juggling home schooling on top of working remotely, and all of us are acclimatising to the reality of no face to face contact with colleagues, clients and industry peers. 

Moreover, we are all dealing with extreme market conditions.  Advisers have talked themselves hoarse communicating with clients, portfolio managers are working overtime to manage investors’ wealth and portfolio administrators and platforms have been implementing a flurry of changes.

And while we marvel at how quickly people have adapted to the crisis, it seems likely that our list of challenges will grow and that we may take time to fully appreciate the toll that responding to this new reality is taking upon us.

This is not business as usual.  For advisers in particular there is the stress of being expected to have all the answers, to be the ones to help ease the anxiety of others, when certainty is in short supply.

For all of us there the concern regarding the health of family and friends - particularly the elderly, anxiety about impacts on children’s schooling, worry for the unemployed and what the future holds as economic conditions worsen. 

What should we do?

For many of us, the day job is about the pursuit and preservation of our client’s welfare.  That can become all consuming when time is tight and the need to respond is overwhelming. 

Mary Shelley said , “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change” and it is inevitable that the scale and speed of the change we are experiencing now is creating a variety of anxieties in all of us, just as it is for our mutual clients. It may just be that many of us are too busy to deal with our own anxieties and it may also be that this is “lead in the saddle bags” at a time when we need to be as close to our best as we can be.

So, the reflection for this week is to take time out to consider your own situation and to listen to yourself as to what may be concerning you in this environment.  Put an hour aside.  List your concerns.  Think about mitigating strategies.  If you are not sure how to respond – talk with the people around you.  Be willing to share the burden – you’ll be helping them with theirs.

We are confident that in such difficult times that people will be generous when asked for input. Equally there is the opportunity for all of us to be generous in kind when we see an opportunity to assist others.   

The hope is that by taking time to achieve perspective on our own challenges, we can be fresher of mind and better equipped as industry professionals to serve the clients who depend on us all.  As an additional bonus, we may also be better company at home at a time when household harmony could come under strain.

Have a good week.

Brett Sanders