Will The Pandemic Fundamentally Change How People Work in The U.S?
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, its first such declaration since the H1N1 in 2009. Now in 2022, everyone’s life has been impacted. The pandemic is a grief crisis worldwide; almost six million people have died. What makes matters worse is that the socio-economic structure, familiar to generations born in the era of globalization, has transformed accordingly. Consequently, humans have suffered the loss of family and friends and added economic and mental health burdens. However, some say the pandemic could be a fortune in disguise since the pandemic has introduced a better remote way of work due to increased flexibility and work-life balance. However, even though remote work has some advantages, I think traditional in-person work will return soon because remote work has negatively impacted people’s productivity while providing trivial improvements in flexibility.
The workstyle changed by the pandemic may seem permanent. In an interview with CBS News, Karin Kimbrough claims that the pandemic allows her more flexibility in where she works, who she works for, and what she works for. She further predicts that the employers would have to “cling to the flexibility” workers have fought for, and she believes now that flexible remote work settings could be permanent. In other words, she argues that this change would be permanent because of the shift of power to employers, who demand flexibility. However, Karin has made a firm prediction with weak evidence to support that. Even though remote work has been prevalent, I believe it is merely a contemporary substitute for in-person work. When the pandemic swept the world in 2020, everything was chaotic, with international travel suspended, cities locked down, and hospitals overwhelmed. As a result, remote work became popular as it keeps social distance for employers’ safety. Yes, remote work is more flexible, but it has negatively impacted productivity.
Mike Jason is a manager in the IT industry. According to his experience, remote work made supervision more complex, and not every member in a team could work with the same level of dedication before Covid-19. “Everyone, including me, needs encouragements and guidance to boost efficiency, and you can’t expect that through e-mails and zoom meetings.” In other words, supervision and guidance are much harder once people work remotely. The very nature of human beings is that we generally need a reasonable level of supervision and guidance to achieve excellent outcomes. Mike’s concern is based on his anecdotal experience, but we also get statistical evidence. According to a statistical report from Glassdoor, an industry-leading HR service website, the likelihood of one getting fired within three months of employment shows a noticeable increase, coinciding with companies’ decreased satisfaction of employees.
Interestingly, the trend is much more prominent in startups and small enterprises. This can indicate worsened attitude and productivity of workers, which is less influential to industry-leading companies since they have already established an efficient structure of supervision and guidance. However, decreased productivity is way more harmful to smaller companies as individual workers might be accountable for specific responsibilities.
An anonymous survey also supports decreasing productivity. Most employers reported worsened concentration and staying on track, which indicates that work from home is not as efficient as some think. One primary reason is that flexibility brings more distractions. Imagine working at a home office with babies crying dogs barking. You are struggling to focus on your work, but you just noticed the TV remote is only inches away. Will Seong Gi-hun survive in the next episode of Squid Game? Would you choose Netflix or calmly keep focused? No matter what one’s final decision is, the person is undoubtedly distracted. Unfortunately, I can imagine many more scenarios because distractions are simply everywhere, contributing to decreased productivity.
