Career dynamics post COVID...what's going to change!

As pandemic-induced restrictions ease and the world starts opening back up from the darkness of the pandemic, employees and organizations face certain new and unanticipated shifts in the workplace. 

Here are a few paradigm shifts the working world is experiencing right now. The primary anchor of the workplace has now transitioned to one's home, not a colocated office, for the first time in modern history. Also, workers have made it clear that a subsistence wage does not cut it- doing 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet is not something they look forward to. Women have been more affected during the pandemic due to caregiving responsibilities and, according to one survey, 'low partner support,' and may make job-related tradeoffs due to their enhanced duties at home. Finally, more than 1 in 4 employees are looking for new opportunities because they can and want to. All these shifts point to an alarming workplace turmoil that we never had to work through before. 

The way I see it, employees have broadly experienced three dynamics in a rapidly changing career environment during the last year. First, many experienced a career shock. The pandemic brought some workplaces to a complete standstill but overloaded others and stretched it to their limits. Consequently, some jobs will never come back, new jobs will emerge, and many other jobs will be digitized over a period. One bleak study says that 42% of the jobs lost will never return. Additionally, organizations investing significant sums in technology (Fortune 500 companies invested about $ 15 billion every month in the first six months of the pandemic alone) fast-forwarding the acceleration of automation and technology. This will further affect the medium-term employability of technology workers. 

The second dynamic is career resilience. Despite the stressors, employees have managed to perform and adapt. However, some of these have come at the cost of mental health and burnout. Employees are now expecting payback for the sacrifices they made during the pandemic. Unfortunately, a lack of resilience could be seen as a character flaw. Organizations end up 'treating' such 'flaws' with training and other interventions rather than fundamentally changing the work environment that creates the issues around resilience in the first place. It will have negative implications on people opting for some careers- nursing, waitressing are two examples, though for different reasons. Nursing because of health hazards, harsh working conditions, and long hours while waitressing for unequal pay and benefits. Employees in many professions have reached the end of their resilience capacity and want out. 

Career redefinitions are the third dynamic. When people go through such an extended crisis and experience disruption in multiple life contexts- work, family, childcare, social connectivity, it forces them to reflect on deeply held work and career beliefs and goals and makes them reconsider what they really want from life. New life boundaries are drawn, new relationships are formed, and somehow, the old work-life boundaries are not as appealing as they once were. Small things become more important-a child's first words; a stroll in the park with a loved one, a social evening with friends somehow seem more important than the seventy-hour weeks, endless business travels, and the loneliness of faraway hotel rooms. 

These dynamics require thoughtful reflection and rethinking on the part of the organizations. Some leaders have chosen to ignore the more profound shifts and have expressed their frustrations openly. One leader proclaimed that those working from home were likely to be least engaged, while another suggested that remote working is unsuitable for those who 'want to hustle' and progress in their careers. While I can understand these 'off-the-cuff' remarks, it does more harm to their corporate brand than good.

If organizations want to think about a sustainable career model for their employees in a post-pandemic era, they need to factor in four things. Firstly, organizations need to integrate mental health needs as a part of the career management needs of the employees. The pandemic has thrown wide open how little we know and give importance to mental health. We now know that trauma, anxiety, stress, and sleep disorders significantly impact an employee's functioning and self-efficacy. Unless we consider the employee as a whole person and career as a broader life phenomenon, the new career models will be inadequate in addressing the lessons learned during the pandemic.

Secondly, shifts in work-life interface also have a bearing on people's careers. The pandemic has taught us that where people work, when they work, and how they work are all open to flexibility. Some organizations have even announced policies of allowing people to work from any part of the world, at least for a few weeks a year. On the other hand, there are also overlapping demands due to childcare issues, being 'on' all the time, and time zone demands that negatively impact work life. This may mean that organizations may need to factor in life stages as an essential career variable and plan. For instance, young mothers taking childcare need to be carefully nourished back to work when they are ready. Younger age group workers may need social networks to flourish. 

Inclusion is another career variable that needs to be considered. With working from home (or anywhere) becoming the primary anchor of work, organizations need to specifically ensure that the stigma and bias surrounding the phenomenon of working from home does not exclude worthy candidates in the career model. This calls for a new way of keeping candidates 'present', special efforts to include them and ensure that their physical absence from the proximity of the decision-maker is not detrimental to their career interests. Organizations need to radically rethink how they construct their new career and talent model, how they evaluate and invest in people, and how they keep high-performing talent engaged. Other things being equal, just like no individual should be discriminated against based on their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, no individual should be disenfranchised in their career just because they chose to work from home.

A different aspect of inclusion, but one worth treating separately, is ageism. With the shift to remote work and the advent of technology, those over 50 face complex career issues. Such workers often become economic targets during a downturn. Further, the lack of new technical skills also makes them less appealing. Organizations (and governments) need to invest in upskilling and reskilling to ensure that such workers have their respectful place in the workforce. 

The pandemic, despite its many challenges, has taught the world a few things. It has taught us that our career is a sub-system of our lives, not the other way around. Yet, it has also taught us that work and life are not discrete and independent aspects of our lives. Apart from providing economic fulfillment, appropriately managed work and careers are essential for our self-esteem, social and psychological standing, and well-being.

People are designed for work, but, unfortunately, work is not designed for people. Now the pandemic is forcing us to design work (and hence, careers) for people. Rethinking the post-pandemic career model is imperative for employees feeling confident about their workplaces. Will organizations be thoughtful in how they approach their people's careers? Will they take into account issues of mental health, work-life, and inclusion elements into the mix? Can we hope for more enlightened, more caring, fair, and equitable workplaces in the future?

What do you think?