The adult industry has once again proven itself to be resilient, even in the face of a global crisis like the coronavirus. Sales are currently strong; our people are working as best they can under strict new guidelines and the community has rallied.
It goes without saying, really, that the last few weeks have felt incredibly strange — certainly, with the most widespread disruption I’ve experienced in my lifetime. As COVID-19 continues to run rampant globally it’s been increasingly tough for all of us — not just at work in the adult industry, but personally too.
Who’d have thought a global pandemic could be such an effective team-building experience?
During what is an extremely hard time for a lot of our family and friends, adult retail online seems to be performing strongly. Whether that’s down to couples on lockdown together and experimenting, or people on their own with a lot more time available to try something new — the effect seems to be a healthy interest in sex toys! Sex takes our minds off everything going on with the outside world, however briefly, so I like to think that all of us making or selling adult toys are helping people cope in a small way. Whatever the exact reasons, at ElectraStim we’re not taking it for granted and hope we’re bringing some fun into people’s lives during a difficult time.
The U.K. government announced lockdown as a country on March 23; restricting all movement to essential functions only. If you can work from home, you must. Outdoor exercise is allowed, and we can venture out to get supplies from the supermarket, but otherwise we’re encouraged to stay indoors. We don’t know how long this will last, so in the meantime the ElectraStim team are getting used to a very different way of working. Never have we used video chat so much in our lives and I’m sure my colleagues are sick of my cat trying to join in!
Our first priority when the lockdown came was to ensure that our staff and customers were protected. Before the 23rd we were already strictly observing social distancing and hygiene rules both in the office and the workshop. We’re a small team, so it’s already fairly easy for us to stay two meters apart at all times if we need to. However, since the official lockdown we made the decision that one or two people would take turns visiting the warehouse to pack and dispatch orders. The rest of us are working from home, so to the outside world ElectraStim will appear to be running as normal. It’s a little inconvenient, and we definitely miss our team tea breaks, but ultimately it means we can continue to operate without putting ourselves or our customers at risk. Although we’ve always been a close-knit team, it would have been easy for us to just communicate with each other in work emails, but we’ve all made an effort to check in personally with our colleagues. Who’d have thought a global pandemic could be such an effective team-building experience? Every cloud has a silver lining and we’re making sure to celebrate the positives.
As a manufacturer that sells directly to stores, we’re particularly mindful of the effect international lockdowns have had on the brick-and-mortar side of the industry. Even if it’s just a silly tweet or a quick email, we’ve been checking in with all of our stockists and industry friends; not to find out their situation from a business perspective but to lend our support (and an ear) wherever we can. Ultimately, this situation affects all of us and it takes hardly any effort to connect with people on a personal level.
I’ve worked in a pretty eclectic range of industries in my time, but I firmly believe that the adult industry and the wider community contains some of the most caring and welcoming people I’ve ever known professionally. The number of emails I’ve had in the last fortnight from within the industry with the sign-off “Stay safe” has been a strange but moving experience. And I don’t doubt for a second that every one of those has been genuine. The adult industry community (and I’m including bloggers, porn actors, podcasters and everyone else involved) has shown care and compassion in a million different ways over the last few weeks. It’s cheesy, but we’re all in this together and I’m proud to be part of this industry during such a weird and scary time.
I’d be naïve to not prepare myself for the situation to get a lot tougher. None of us can see what’s coming in the future, but what I am confident in is that when the world starts to return to normality the adult industry will thrive once again.
From me and the rest of the ElectraStim team, we hope you and yours are keeping safe.
Claire Blakeborough is the marketing manager at ElectraStim.
