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Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change” We got to learn this again through COVID-19!

 

The pandemic not only affected health of people but their finances, job, lifestyle, and their entire life. It spread like a termite and finished off some of the industries and careers. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people lost their jobs, a figure that is jaw-droppingly large! Countries like Africa and much of South America suffered from international economic fallout. In United States, more than 30 million people, over 15% of the workforce applied for unemployment benefits. Western Europe also faced increasing joblessness like never before. With more than 120 million people losing their jobs in India, unemployment rate jumped to a record high of 27.1% during the lockdown.

 

Now, with vaccines starting to be available, the market situation has got better with companies coming back on their foot and hiring picking up momentum. However, the work environment has been changed for a long run.

 

Let us look at four ways in which the workplace as we know it got affected:

 

Increase in Remote Working

Before COVID-19, working from home was considered as a privilege by employees and many organisations used to deny it to larger sections of the workforce. Employees were eager to grab any chance of working from home but who knew that it would extent till 10 months or in some cases, for years to come. For example, companies like Twitter, Facebook, Hindustan Coca Cola beverages, Shopify, Square have allowed most of their employees to work from home for forever. They want their staff to work in the environment that suits them.

 

Work from home has its own pros and cons. The major and obvious pros are less, or rather no travelling in metros or cabs, saving time and expense, eating healthy home cooked food, and getting quality time with your family. But on the other side of the coin, the social life of the person is limited, the only mode through which he/she can meet new people is virtual. Body posture is deteriorating, people are struggling with mental problems and they cannot explore the world while sitting back at home. Pandemic brought a sense of fear and anxiety around the globe. Although isolation helps in achieving the goal of reducing infections, reduced access to family, friends, and other social support systems causes loneliness increasing mental issues like anxiety and depression. Studies showed 67.7% increase in online news media reports of suicidal behaviour. The study titled Analysis of news media reports of suicides and attempted suicides during the COVID-19 lockdown in India said that there were 369 cases of suicides and attempted suicides during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to 220 reported suicides in the corresponding dates in 2019.

 

One stand-out advantage is that people can still join a company in a metro city without having to move out of their hometowns which could very well be a tier-III city. Companies are saving their huge cost of rents, utilities, transportation etc. when staff is working from home. A big challenge for the companies is to get the team together on learning at work as the creative discussions and brainstorming that happen in physical space cannot be replaced by online meetings. To summarise, while this trend has a clear economic advantage, it has serious negative implications from a social angle. Organisations will have to be innovative and vigilant to protect the culture and bonding while making the best use of this opportunity to optimize costs and increase operational efficiency.

 

Gig Jobs

Gone are those days when the only source of income was one stable 9-5 job. COVID has taught us that we cannot rely on one source of income because that source could be rooted off at any moment. Now, people are honing their skills in different dimensions to fit themselves anywhere and anytime. For example, a person graduated in Economics is doing an online course of psychology or a person doing photography as a profession is learning coding. The pandemic has made the gig jobs more vital where there is no concept of 9-5 timings or monthly salary. People are given projects by the companies and are paid purely according to the output.

 

As a gig worker, you are an independent contractor who takes on temporary work in a variety of fields. The more hyped term for this is freelancer. As per reports 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with gig workers as a cost-saving measure in 2022. In this arrangement, a person can work from anywhere, even on a beach while pecking at the keyboard. The working hours are not defined by timings but by committed deliverables. However, gig work may bring a lot of tension to people who attach a lot of importance to predictability and safety. Hence, if you are risk loving and keen to satisfy varied hunches and value your freedom more than predictability, then gig work is your cup of tea. The most common gig platforms are DoorDash, Fiverr, Gigster and ShiftPixy.

 

Culture of Collaborative Projects

While a gig worker is paid after he/she has completed the job, people are now willing to take up challenging assignments as a team and earn together from it. People with different skills set collaborate for a specific project, either as individuals or as an arrangement between companies. The major collaborations could be done in creative fields, like a publishing company collaborating with a podcaster who would produce and host a podcast for them. The publisher will promote it and the revenue generated could be shared between both. The best platform to professionally connect with new people for collaboration is, without any doubt, LinkedIn.

 

The pandemic has increased the feeling of empathy amongst people where they tried understanding other’s situations better. Employers have been playing an expanded role in their employee’s financial, physical, and mental well-being. This includes, enhanced sick leaves, flexibility in work timings, financial assistance. Ironically, social distancing has made people come closer! Various organizations are providing relief funds and free community services. Employers are becoming more inclined towards emotional well-being of their employees. For example, companies like Amazon and Google allocated fixed amount to people to fight different needs of work from home. Coca Cola beverage company gave its employees free Wi-Fi facilities, office table and chairs. Infosys had a tie up with a medical clinic chain to ensure that all their employees and their families could get admitted there if diagnosed with COVID. Some companies like Decathlon bought insure policies for their employees for financial safety against COVID.

 

COVID as a Blessing for Manufacturing Industry

At the time of the lockdown, the whole production process came to a standstill. It forced a lot of off days for workers. But as the countries unlocked, governments have felt social and political pressure to reduce over-reliance on another country (which in most cases was China) for its key industries. Japan and India have benefitted from companies exiting China. The pharma sector is witnessing a big boom which is here to stay. Manufacturers have started taking this pandemic as an opportunity as long as they take safety precautions. Lack of import from China has boosted up local businesses and their earning. However, the competition for countries like India has also stepped up as every country is aiming towards self-reliance. Countries like India still has an edge due to skilled and young population with reasonably low cost of labour as compared to western counterparts.

 

The pandemic has given lots of lessons to everyone, be it freshers or experienced professionals on how to manage their work life and how to survive without a job! Some people who had been laid off due to COVID found their other hidden talents and made that their mainstream career line. For instance, Tarini Nirula took her love for teaching yoga and meditation online, which helped her reach several seekers and earn money simultaneously. Because of the lockdown, a large part of her accessory business came to a standstill which gave her more time to explore other interests. Saurabh Mehra, founder of Hookah Royals who used to supply sheeshas for big-scale weddings and celebrity gatherings used his technology background in lockdown and developed two apps for home delivery. Currently he is working on his third app and planning to continue it in future.

 

The major takeaway seems to be that a job is not the only option and that need not define your entire career. There are hundreds of other doors waiting to be opened. The impact of the pandemic on the future of work is such that it has created more opportunities and has opened new avenues in both services and manufacturing sectors forcing people to keep their minds open. This setback could be considered as a restart button for the whole economy, and flourishment is just around the corner!