COVID-19: The biggest change in the workplace and society

While we are all human, we tend to believe that each one of us has a different core, and this I do not believe. I believe that we have different experiences and different responses and reactions to those experiences, and it is these experiences and responses that will define our character. No one was born racist they say, they are taught. No one was born afraid of heights, it is as far as I am concerned, a reaction to an experience faced at some point. I was never afraid of the rats, until I saw this horror movie with a thousand rats around a little girl’s bed, I was a little girl at the time.

Now if my little theory is true, it suggests that this COVID-19 pandemic is providing another experience that will carve the character of this and the generations to come. A part of the world has been stuck indoors for a couple of weeks if not months, while another has been “free” to roam around, although the definition of free has been altered — social distance, curfews and masks involved. Every human being on the planet right now has had a major shift in their lifestyle, and has had a little bit more time to reflect on the goings on. We may have cleaned and cooked our anxiety away, but at some point, we have had to deal with our demons, at least I faced a couple of them.

There is an eagerness to going back to the normal, but is that even possible. What is normal anyway? What is normal when the most natural things are considered abnormal or inferior or in the least shunned upon. What is normal when your gender, skin colour, sexual orientation or even body weight is used to define you? These things just are, as the sun rises and sets everyday, there should be nothing more to it, and yet there is. The world we live in today was carved from fear at times when human beings were faced with a situation like this COVID-19 pandemic and had to fight for survival. Fear or flight reactions are nature’s response to tough situations and they are at play now.

My fear sent me to a place where I thought, if I were to die today, what would I regret? What legacy will I leave? To who? I realized that I have spent the best part of thirties at work, and while I have pursued meaningful work, I have failed to be present for other meaningful relationships; a friend fighting cancer, or family in dire need. While I acknowledge that I cannot possibly solve all the problems in the world, I also decided that if I am to fail at some things, I must be truly successful at others. The definition of meaningful work then has to change. As a Talent Director among other things, I realized if there was a time to be alert, it is now. Here is why:

People are working from home these days, something that was unfathomable at the time when people started doing the eight to five. People are staying home with their families and home schooling their children with guidance from teachers, in an era of Youtube. People were forced to explore their creativity, do-it-yourself way out of boredom from the seemingly unending lockdown. Folks started working out and cooking healthy meals, quick meals and fast food joints were closed. While for others this COVID-19 pandemic has been completely horrible, for most people, it highlighted the lie of the life we have been living. It forced us to stop and take stock, and not many are happy to see where they are. From how we neglected our children and partners and were complete strangers living in the same house; to how we completely neglected our individual and what we needed.

Coming back, it will be an entirely different breed of humans coming to the office, with an entirely different value system and employers have to equally adjust. The value of time with family and healthy living has just gone up a notch, and you cannot expect to continue running the company the way you used to. Governments alike are also having their fear and flight reactions and introducing new guidelines for living including overall more humane policies and making the sustainability conversations louder. More importantly, the world is demanding for leaders, and not just people in charge. We woke up one day and realized we were living way too expensive lives, or at least some of us did.

A post-covid-19 era employer will have to prove that they are aware of the change. Policies that encourage family time, sustainability and healthy living will need to be driven by trusted leaders. While income is needed, a lot of people will need it to come from accountable sources. No salary can measure up to the time spent with your child, especially when you realized you can make some meaningful income from your D-I-Y stuff. There will be career shifts, so job flexibility, rotations and retraining is necessary. It is a time to listen more as a leader, to be compassionate, curious and courageous. It is this or stand to lose some of your key resources and possibly your company in bits and pieces until there is nothing left.

Large companies have the muscle to do the necessary research and find out the trends of the times. There is a reason Google and Facebook extended their working from home policy to 2021, even though Google is already said to have one of the best working environments. There is a reason why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is recommending a four day working week to boost New Zealand’s economy after the pandemic — imagine less working hours boosting the economy and not slowing it down.

For true leaders, the writing is on the wall. And while we have always known it but somehow ignored it, our Talent Management or Human Resource departments are reclaiming their position as the key to the success of any company. We are in the era of getting work done and having the resources you need to do so and not of coming to the office and following the working hour policy. We are also in a time of working the number of hours you want and not what the company wants you to.

We are fast approaching a time when people do not really need to work to survive, and if they do, we as companies need to honor them for doing so. Before we feared robots will replace our jobs, but soon people will be opting out of employment because we are realizing that there is more to life than work. Could this be the time to resuscitate the Universal Basic Incomes conversation? Is it time for it to become mandatory?

As I write this, I can hear the objections, that maybe I am over exaggerating. Maybe I am, maybe it is my fear speaking. Maybe I am not, maybe it is your fear speaking. Remember, at the end of the day, we are all the same and we just differ in terms of the cloth of our experiences and reactions. We all have a chance to choose how we are going to respond to this particular fear trigger, and what legacy we will leave behind. I hope it will be one driven by love, hope and faith and not fear or hate or greed.

I personally believe as humans, we have a unique opportunity to carve a different world and this is our chance. I highly recommend Jacqueline Novogratz’s latest book, Manifesto to a Moral Revolution. It is a book for a time like this and a read I recommend for learning how to get back into society.