One of the biggest changes that many of us are navigating in the past couple of months is employment. If we are lucky, we still have a job. Many people do not. The reports regarding unemployment rates are staggering. Stimulus checks and SBA loans are open topics of conversation. The dire daily reports regarding the impact of COVID 19 upon the world economy is demoralizing.
Some industries are completely down. The performing arts, entertainment and event industries are looking like they will be the last to revive, and then only if that we have sufficient demand, desire and financial resources to fuel this recovery within a “safe” environment. Healthcare, ironically, is another industry that is suffering as unanticipated numbers of American delay seeking medical attention for ailments other than acute COVID 19 symptoms.
For those who still have a job, it seems like work – as we once knew it – is not the same and may never be the same as it was a mere eight weeks ago. As a Gen X-er, I can readily recall a time when there was no such thing as working online. Telecommuting had its debut in the 1970’s, but it was reserved for only a few, select industries and roles. Even as recently as the mid-1990’s, only 9 percent of the Americans telecommuted “somewhat regularly.” In more recent years, as technology made working from home easier, not all employers embraced or allowed telework for their employees.
Then suddenly, overnight, everyone who possibly can, is expected to be working remotely.
I suppose we should be thankful that a global pandemic did not descend upon us before we were equipped to make this very necessary transition to indefinite telework as seamlessly as we have. If at least some of us were not able to keep working and help provide for others who have lost employment, the situation at hand would be even less tolerable for sure. Instead of awaiting stimulus checks we would all be standing in bread lines. So, there are things for which to be thankful, indeed.
It has been interesting to observe the impact of the transition to working remotely upon my colleagues. Front line health care workers are completely pressed, of course. But it has surprised me to see that many who hold government positions - Federal, especially – are working even longer hours than they had in the past. This is true even if they worked remotely in their role previously. Feelings about this volume of works seem to volley back and forth between gratitude to have stable employment and frustration with the increasing expectations.
I’ve been hearing more in the past few weeks about furloughs, lay-offs, and pay reductions in private industry. People who had seemed to have established high-paying professional jobs are worried. They hear company leadership talking about changes that may be necessary ahead even if nothing has happened to their tier in the firm as yet.
For some, the changes in world of work are prompting a re-examination of what really matters. As we have struggled to gather toilet paper and grocery necessities without risking death from an uncontrolled, microscopic virus, the simplicity and safety of a home – however modest – that provides comfort and shelter has moved center stage. Home had become a place that many of us strove to afford in the best of neighborhoods but where we spent most of our time sleeping. Now we are really living in our homes. We are really with our roommates, spouses and children, with all their faults and follies. Turns out that maybe it is these simple things that we need the most. And maybe the seemingly endless rushing and striving at work was taking us away from, rather than towards, what really matters the most.