Clearly your firm has made a lot of adjustments to accommodate their employees and clients needs. Seems like you work for a great company.
The information you provided about travel is very interesting. I wondered how companies that rely on a lot of employee travel were fairing.
Although I am retired, I volunteer for a few non-profits. Almost all of our meetings have been virtual or at least had that option for those who weren't comfortable meeting in person. One interesting side benefit of this for me is that I have difficulty hearing in noisy environments caused by old age hearing loss. When meeting virtually, I wear noise cancelling Bose headphones which are great. Also, people tend to talk individually in virtual meetings instead of talking simultaneously or over one another.
My son works in an overseas government position. Since COVID, his travel is reduced to almost nada. Prior to COVID, he traveled for work worldwide, particularly to installations in Africa and frequently to the U.S. for lectures and trainings.
The Owner is a great guy and it's not a large company. He has allowed us to make decisions for ourselves and been relatively unbiased about Covid, and he's a Liberal.
The industry i work in is at the top of the essential list of operations (infrastructure construction). So we get to travel unopposed since my job cannot be done remotely. I work as a consultant that does forensic evaluations of large concrete and steel structures, also feasibility and costing for large bridge replacement projects all over the USA.
I'm sure if i was just a desk jockey i wouldn't be able to do what i do. I have written permission from my City and State Engineering Departments that allows me free access to travel unopposed to anywhere in the USA, even if for personal travel.
So i'm not your typical employee.
Still today 90% of the meetings i have are virtual, but that is due to other company's guidelines and not ours. My company has allowed us to move freely.
