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V O L . X X V I I N O. X V I 6 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine Q UA L I T Y O F L I F E 10 trends that shaped Maine in 2020–21 The pandemic brought on many changes in the workplace and business community, and not all of them were negative. It was a jolt to many office dwellers to start working from home. The familiar "church-and-state" barrier between work life and home disappeared. Kids tagged along to "work," dogs barked and wailed during meetings and conferences were planned around people's home life. In Maine, we saw housing prices skyrocket, as the pandemic drove urbanites from Boston, New York and San Francisco to find safer, more remote areas. With more people working from home and buying houses further from urban centers, the pandemic also galvanized the need for more extensive broadband. Here are some of the trends that shaped the past 18 months. It was a jolt to many office dwellers to start working from home. The familiar 'church-and-state' barrier between work life and home disappeared. DEI came to the forefront The May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police galva- nized a movement that was already grow- ing, calling attention to systemic racism in America. For businesses, it prompted a discussion of how to communicate with customers but also how to refresh and diversify workforces. The result was the creation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion depart- ments at a range of businesses. In Maine, many in the business community signed a pledge to make changes. We'll be able to go back a year from now and determine whether that has worked. Curbside pickup becomes permanent part of business offerings Retailers and restaurants had to spring into action to meet COVID protocols. As retailers evolved, curbside pickup signs, windows and procedures became a nor- mal part of business. Your regular coffee shop, if it survived, may have required you to pay ahead of time, on an app. It just became a regular part of business — and, particularly in the case of payment systems, will likely remain part of doing business. New people, new ideas If you think you're seeing new faces at the coffee shop, you're not imagining things. Maine's new arrivals are coming from Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut, as you might expect, but also from California, Texas and Colorado. The pandemic was only part of the reason they're moving to Maine. Anecdotally, new arrivals are saying they also left states because of skyrocketing real estate prices, fear of wildfires and a desire to have more space around them. Many new arrivals are working their old jobs, remotely. But Maine's schools are adapting to the new students. And Maine's influx of residents is not limited to people fleeing the pandemic. There's also been a wave of immigrants moving to Maine, and the population shift has reflected that as well. Working from home — a natural fit For many, the shift to working from home was as jarring as a new job or even a new career. Most of us had never heard of Zoom and yet it became part of our everyday lives. So, too, did people's back- grounds and personal lives. Dogs barking, kids wailing for lunch and construction traffic outside the window became constant reminders that this was not business as usual. Yet the work got done. And as 2020 and the pandemic wore on, we became used to working from home. Now, for many, the "office" as we knew it may be a thing of the past. Companies, colleges and nonprofits are all adapting a new, hybrid model of working, allowing employees more flexibility. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Tragedy and protests sparked conversations and introspection among civic leaders and CEOs. Lydia Coburn, community coordinator for Fork Food Lab, has been doing a brisk curbside business during the pandemic. Zoom calls became a part of our lives in the past 18 months. Z O O M S C R E E N S H O T B y p e t e r v a n a l l e n

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