Personal Reflections on Covid-19’s Impact on Life in the Workplace
At the start of this pandemic, I had only been working for about 6 months after graduating from college. So, to say that I had any real workplace experience would certainly be a stretch. Regardless of that, any of us who have been fortunate enough to maintain employment throughout the Covid-19 era have a unique viewpoint as to how life in the workplace has been, and will continue to be, affected in the both the short and long-term. I can vividly remember sitting in the office with coworkers in January and February of 2020, trying to predict what we thought may unfold over the coming weeks. At that time, we all shared the same feeling that parents instilled in us while we were growing up. That feeling that there was no way what was happening in other parts of the world could possibly happen to the mighty United States of America. It’s safe to say we were all very sadly mistaken.
Across the United States millions of Americans have been affected in a myriad of ways by what has unfolded over the past year. I would be lying if I pretended that I was one of the ones whose life had drastically changed because of this. Fortunately, for me, I haven’t lost a loved one or a coworker, or been isolated away from my family for months on end. For the most part, this pandemic has really only grazed me superficially, and for that I am beyond grateful. I won’t act like I understand the pain and suffering that some have endured during this time. With that said, the premise of this piece is to reflect on my journey, so far, during the Covid-19 era and to share some of the opinions that I have formed regarding Covid-19’s impact on the workplace.
For starters, it’s important to note that the changes that have come as a result of this pandemic are not all negative. In the short-term, businesses and employees alike have benefited from a “change of scenery”. For years, professionals have advocated for things like four-day work weeks or hybrid schedules. Their argument has been that with a better work-life balance people would be able to get work done at a more efficient clip. While in many cases this hypothesis went untested due to what I can only presume is a lack of trust between the executive and the average worker, Covid-19 presented businesses with no choice but to test the theory. From my experience, it seems that in many cases the argument of the employee has proven to be valid. While we have seen many small businesses take it on the chin due to state and federal mandates, for the most part, we have seen large corporations and smaller companies alike flourish under the “new normal”. Many have cut the large expenses such as office space and job related travel and have replaced these with smaller expenses such as providing employees with the training and tools to be able to successfully work from home. The expenses these companies have cut are large and often times recurring expenses, whereas the expenses of the “new normal” are relatively much smaller and, for the most part, one-time occurrences. Additionally, Covid-19 has presented many large businesses with a plethora of new opportunities. Personal training sessions have moved online, demand for subscription based products has skyrocketed, and many distribution companies have shifted product offerings or delivery options to the benefit of both themselves and their customers. These are just a few examples of where nimble entities have been able to navigate their way through the changing marketplace environment.
It is my belief however, that many of the short-term benefits could lead us down a path of long-term detriments. Although many companies have been able to successfully shift to a work-from-home model, where does this model end, or does it end at all? As mentioned above, many employees had already been advocating for a model similar to what we have all been forced into. While for some this may be the model of choice, for many others it will produce negative affects over the course of time. As someone who had only just begun their career prior to Covid-19, I am not sure I would be in the same place now had I began my career outside of the office. Recently I was fortunate to make an internal move to a business unit that I believe will positively change the trajectory of my career in the long-term. Would this have happened if I wasn’t afforded the opportunity to make in-person impressions on my coworkers in the first six months of my career? I would argue that it would not.
It is reasonable to assume that as people work from home over a period of time, many will lose touch with their company’s culture, they may lose touch with the work they were doing and why they were doing it in the first place. When someone can’t see the effect their work has in the real-world, what will drive and motivate them going forward? As a result, output may dwindle, in turn affecting the organization as a whole. Another aspect of the workplace that may be lost is the personal and professional connection between employees and their manager. When a manager loses the ability to work directly with their employees one to one, in an office setting, they cannot truly see the effort that is being put in. As a result, some managers may overload their employees or lose sight of the important impact specific employee’s work-product has on the organization as a whole.
To expand even further, in many instances there has been a large shift between job title and actual job function as a result of Covid-19. Take for example an Event Coordinator. I can imagine that a big reason a person may go into this occupation is the feeling of excitement and pride they get from seeing their event come to fruition and the joy they see on people’s faces after attending an event that has been painstakingly planned from start to finish. While events and event planning have not fully gone away, it is without question that the events they were planning and executing prior to Covid-19 are a far cry from those that they are planning and executing now. This is just one example. Of course, there are countless other examples that could be cited considering that this pandemic has not only impacted the United States, but the entire world.
Covid-19 has forced drastic changes upon all of us. Many of these changes are modifications to our lives that we never would have imagined and most are changes that we certainly haven’t liked nor wanted to make. Anyone can take a look around their personal and professional lives and see the changes that have been forced upon us by this pandemic. Granted, many of the changes that are clearly seen, such as concession workers wearing masks around a customer’s food, should and will be here to stay. However, in the business world, many of the seemingly small changes that have been implemented will have significant negative effects in the long run.
The desires that many employees have expressed prior to Covid-19 may end up being a case of “be careful of what you wish for”. The short-term benefits of a work from home model may very well cloud the long-term effects that it may have on employees across the board. There is a reason the go-into-the-office business model that has been used in the past 100 plus years has remained relatively unchanged with regard to where and how one goes about their work.
The changes that have been made to actual job functions compared to the pre-Covid-19 era will quickly prove to be unacceptable to those workers who hired on to perform those jobs. Job satisfaction will suffer dramatically and many will simply walk away from their prior position and seek other work that is more personally satisfying. There will be voids to fill but no one willing to do that work or, perhaps, no one willing to do that work with the passion necessary to do it well. It will eventually become very difficult to motivate employees to produce high quality work-product if those employees initially pursued a specific career path more for the enjoyment and gratification of the work itself than for the paycheck they earn doing it. In the example of the Event Coordinator, it is easy to recognize that events over Skype or similar “virtual” platforms can never elicit the same feelings of excitement and pride as being able to experience event attendee’s enjoyment, first-hand, after months of planning, coordinating and finally, executing a flawless event.
In conclusion, based upon what we’ve seen and learned as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the changes to job functions and interpersonal relationships between managers and employees, it should be of the utmost importance for executives and employees alike to slowly move back in the direction of the tried and true model used in the “old normal”.
