#work #workplaces #jobs #coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve
Brigid Schulte believes the workplace – at least office workplaces – should not go back to the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic.
Schulte, director of the Better Life Lab at New America, was interviewed by Henry Grabar in an article for Future Tense, published July 13, 2021.
Work, before the pandemic, really didn’t work for most people, she tells the reporter.
It encroached more and more on people’s lives. Some workers, including many so-called essential workers, were underpaid for the necessary work they did.
Others were asked to work more and more hours, taking more family and leisure time away from them, she said in the article.
With the advent of the pandemic, some workers spent more time at home, and started to realize what they were missing, the article points out.
Another issue: child care. With parents at home during the pandemic, they were worker, caregiver and teacher aide to their kids. Now, with the pandemic forcing many day-care and other services for children to close, that limits the options, particularly for women, the article points out.
What you now have is a care crisis, Schulte says in the article. That puts a heavy burden on women.
Then, there is the issue of career advancement. Schulte says that people who work in front of their bosses, or at least where their bosses can see them, can help advance their careers. They can at least give the appearance of being industrious, and, therefore, get noticed.
Those who work from home may produce good work, but it may make it harder to judge someone you don’t see in action very often, she said in the article.
The article talks about digital nomads, people traveling, looking for suitable wireless signals and doing their work while having a good time on the road.
“I think it’s too early to say that digital nomads are a red herring. I think it’s just really going to depend on the cultures that develop and what they allow, what they value, and ultimately what they end up rewarding. Because if you’re a digital nomad, but you keep missing promotions and you’re not getting pay bonuses and you’re not valued, well, I can imagine you’re going to get the message that even though the policy says you can do it, if it’s not working out in practice, you’re going to run right back to the office,” the article quotes Schulte.
So how do you fit in to these scenarios? Is your employer making you come back to the office, because, after all, he’s paying for that space? Or, is the employer allowing you the flexibility you want, without penalizing you, and, perhaps, even rewarding you?
If you are in the latter category, good for you. If not, you may want to rethink what you want to do with the rest of your life.
Fortunately, there are several programs that allow you not only to work from home OR outside the home, but also can perhaps give you a potential income that could dwarf what you are making dealing with all these obstacles.
And, you don’t have to quit your job. You can do these with only a few, part-time, off work hours a week to start. No specific education, experience or background is needed.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
You’ll probably read and hear a lot more about workplace changes – the good, the bad and the ugly – over many years. Try to analyze them and work to make them compatible with your own situation. You can’t do anything about some things, but you probably can do some things that make everything work out for you.
Peter
Monthly Archives: July 2021
WORK SHIFTS: PART 1
#work #workplaces #jobs #coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve
Work, and the workforce is changing. Thank COVID-19 for that .
Anna North, in an article for Vox.com published July 13, writes that the five-day workweek is dead. More on that later.
A LinkedIn article says the pandemic has introduced three trends that are redefining the modern workforce: 1) Remote and hybrid models are quickly becoming the “new normal.” 2) Workers’ sense of possibilities is expanding. What people think of as a “good Job” has shifted, with flexibility rising to prominence. 3) The geography of jobs is realigning in ways that may have multi-decade implications. Job seekers are going to smaller places to live, rather than larger cities.
Finally, an article by Llewellyn King, executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle,” on PBS, says it’s time for “old bonds to be loosed and for new energy to be released” into the workforce. The article, written for InsideSources.com, was also published July 16, 2021, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
So, what’s happening and how is it affecting you? Are you still doing what you were doing before the pandemic hit? Did the pandemic make you rethink your life, or life’s work, and encourage you to try something different?
In the Vox article, the five-day workweek, which workers fought hard for during the Industrial Revolution, has been debated for decades. The early 1970s featured articles that said more leisure time was trending for workers, as jobs were scarcer than they are today.
One can debate whether one needs to go into work five days a week, as the other articles discuss, but it’s unlikely that most employers will allow their workers to spend any less time doing their jobs.
The LinkedIn article says what people thought of as a “good job” is changing. What do you see as a “good job?” Do you have one? Or, better yet, are you working just for money and nothing more?
King’s article takes the trend head on. He talks about how people found out during the pandemic that commuting was a drag. He also discussed how some people find life better without a boss, and are creating income through “gigs,” or starting their own businesses.
These trends are being labeled by some as just laziness, with too many prospective workers turning down jobs because of too much available government aid. They’re not seeing what’s really happening. People are beginning to re-evaluate what a job should be, how much of their time they should spend at it, and whether they should do it in a place dictated by someone else.
They are also re-evaluating whether a job that they had prior to COVID-19 is worth going back to, or is even available to go back to. There are certainly available jobs, but there seems to be more of a variety from which workers can choose. Someone may prefer to make widgets than wait tables, for example.
There is good news here, especially for those who are looking for something different, but the available alternatives they have seen just aren’t suiting their fancy. There are a number of programs out there that allow you to take, or keep, a job – if you are just working for money — and spend a few, part-time off-work hours building a potential future income that could dwarf anything you could find in the job market.
The best news: these programs can be done from home, or not, and you don’t need any specific education, experience or background to do them. Yes, there are no bosses either. To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
The coronavirus has spurred workforce changes we will see for years, or decades, to come. Companies have to adapt. Workers have to adapt. The workers, though, may find more options than they ever thought. But, they have to be willing to look.
Peter
WOULD YOU HANG AT WORK LONGER IF THERE WERE BETTER OUTDOOR SPACE?
#outdoorspaces #workspaces #socializingatwork
What if your workplace had a great outdoor space?
What if it were a place you could sit, talk, eat, even drink?
Some office buildings in Atlanta are creating such spaces.
“With many Atlantans still working from home (because of the pandemic), building owners are expanding outdoor areas to both lure workers back to the office and keep them there for the long run,” says an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the subject. It was published April 11, 2021.
“I think with the events of last year (pandemic), functioning outdoor spaces matter a lot,” the article quotes Kevin Green, president at CEO of the Midtown Alliance in Atlanta. “People need more places to gather and they need more elbow room,” the article quotes Green.
In fact, many office workers, especially younger ones, have come to expect the nice outdoor areas, the article quotes Matt Wilson, a senior associate at Cooper Carry, an architecture firm designing Midtown Union, a mixed-use project in Midtown Atlanta.
Let’s ponder this for a minute. You’ve spent a year working mostly from home to avoid spreading the coronavirus. You’ve gotten rather comfortable not commuting to an office. You’ve been available for your kids as they try to get educated from home. Now, your company is spending the money to lure you back into coming to the office to work.
Certainly, you may be eager to get out of the house and socialize with your buddies at work. Presuming everyone, or most everyone, has been vaccinated, it’s not a bad thought.
But, in past decades, work was a place you would be counting the hours and minutes to leave. In fact, for many, there was a work life, a home life and a social life. You looked for ways to spend more of your time at home or socializing, while minimizing time at work.
Now, your company may be trying not only to lure you back into the office, but also to keep you there longer.
Make no mistake: these office building owners/managers see a real threat to their livelihoods if working from home became a big trend.
But there may be something sinister in this idea. If you want to socialize with your buddies at the company’s outdoor patio, you could be being photographed by security cameras. Do you really want your boss to see what you do, and how you behave, when not on the clock?
Certainly, an outdoor patio is a better place to hold a meeting than a conference room. But how much privacy will you have in that outdoor area? Will you be free to be open with your ideas/criticisms if you were being watched by everyone around you?
Will your performance reviews feature something you said in what you thought was a private meeting?
What if your workplace is toxic, whether indoors or out?
If you don’t see yourself long term at your current employer, there are programs out there that will allow you, with a few, part-time hours a week to start, create a potential income that could dwarf what you are earning at your toxic workplace.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
The pandemic has prompted a lot of employers to rethink how they work, where employees work, how many people and how much space they need.
These outdoor spaces may be nice, but they won’t necessarily change what you do, or how you do it. They could make some interactions more pleasant, but just how much time you want to spend at work may not necessarily be up to you.
Peter
TACOS, NEW OWNERS AND WIRELESS SERVICE
#cluelessowners #cluelessbosses #bosses #employees
In a TV ad, Ryan Reynolds, the new owner of Mint Mobile wireless service, introduces an original Mint customer.
The customer praises the service, and the $15 monthly bill. So, Reynolds retorts: “And under my ownership, it will get even better.”
“How?” the customer asks.
“No idea,” says Reynolds, who then makes a flip suggestion about introducing “Taco Wednesdays,” which he says no one has done before.
“Still $15 a month?” the customer asks. Yep, Reynolds replies.
There are many levels from which to analyze this interaction. First, a new owner may not yet know exactly what he will do to make things better for his company. As an employee, customer or even an investor, it may give you some comfort to know that the new guy wants to improve things.
Second, when – especially if you are an employee or customer – you hear a new owner not have a clue about what he’s going to do next, it may make you wonder why he bought the company in the first place.
Third, since tacos have nothing to do with wireless service, it makes you wonder whether he has a clue about what the company does – never mind what he’ll do to improve it. Did he buy a pig in a poke? (Obviously, the taco comment was made as a joke for the ad, but there have been some clueless new owners in the business world).
The lesson here is that if you buy something, particularly a company whose success, or failure, can affect many, you do so AFTER figuring out what you will do once you own it.
Some entities buy other entities simply to take money out of them. They cut costs with abandon, leaving many people jobless. They reorganize it with other entities under the ownership, meaning that if you are part of the overall entity, but not necessarily part of the newly purchased asset, your job could be affected as well.
Under this scenario, no thought is given to “improving” service to customers, or maintaining or enhancing the work environment for those on whom the product or service depends.
Sometimes, to their credit, instead of taking money out of a newly purchased asset, some new owners put money into it. Ultimately, they may hire even more people, while, at the same time, eliminate inefficiencies in the previous operation.
These business machinations illustrate just how (pick a word: tenuous, fragile, unstable) ANYONE’s employment situation is, or can suddenly become.
It doesn’t matter what you do, how good you are at it or your personal situation – in many cases. You are a cost, and that cost has to be justified in the eyes of any owner. Many talented, hard-working people have lost jobs, and even careers, through reorganization.
The good news here is that if you want some insurance against this happening to you in the workplace, there are many programs out there that allow those willing to spend a few, part-time, off-job hours to generate an income – one that could not only eventually dwarf what you are earning at your job, but also that no one will take away from you.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
Meanwhile, be you a customer or employee of a new owner, beware. Just because someone has bought a company does not mean he or she has any idea what he or she will do with it.
That could leave you, and others you like and admire, in the lurch. What if all of you could sport a smile from that lurch?
Peter