‘Unprecedented Times! Stay Safe!’ Are You Using Coronavirus Lingo In Your Emails?

There are many ways in which it is clear that we are in unprecedented times. One of them is that in eight out of 10 emails, someone mentions that we are in 'unprecedented times'.

And if they’re not mentioning the unprecedented times, it’s the crazy/worrying/unsettling/strange times. The irony of us all hardly understanding what time is anymore, while constantly talking about THE TIMES shouldn’t be lost on us.

With everyone working from home, our emails have never been crucial (or busy). And we’ve started to notice patterns emerging in the new etiquette.

Long gone are the ‘kind regards’; straight in is the ‘stay safe!’ ‘Hope you’re well's are either actually earnest, or swapped for a ‘Hope you’re doing ok in these… unprecedented times’. We’ve yet to have our first Friday in isolation, but we expect there’ll be fewer ‘have a great weekends’ than usual. Though there probably will be some ‘lol’ jokes about what a weekend looks like in these, well, unprecedented times.

To help you cope with the unprecedented influx of new email etiquette, we’ve created a ‘Coronavirus Lingo Bingo’. It’s up to you whatever you do every time you spot one in an email (or send one yourself). With the current rate they’re coming in, three fingers of booze might not be the best idea....

Just to be clear, this isn’t us claiming we’re above all this – we’re doing it too, day in day out. Because what else is there to say? We’re all being forced to communicate constantly – and electronically – and are genuinely in a time where we’re trying to pull together and look after each other, whether we’re close or not. It’s a strange mix – one which, of course, social media has already become obsessed with…

Of course there's something to be said for the fact that we're all being nice to each other - and probably, unlike the usual throwaway comments, meaning it.

And in some ways it’s fascinating that even though we’re all sitting separately at home, the nation has adapted to the same behaviour and adopted this new etiquette within a matter of days. It’s… unprecedented really.

Now, (especially if you’re playing lingo bingo as a drinking game)... Stay safe!