#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