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At the start of the pandemic, some visionary and forward-thinking leaders posed the question, ‘How do we want to emerge from the pandemic?’ (You may have been among them?)
It’s time to circle back and look at current trends. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that looking at trends inside the walls of the workplace is not enough to truly understand the employee experience. We need to broaden the aperture and consider what’s happening in at work and beyond. I’ll get us started:
I know, I know. I picked a set of depressing trends. And before you say it—no, we can’t blame it all on working remotely. About 15% of U.S. workers are fully remote, and 30% are hybrid. This episode of Freakonomics Radio speaks to the benefits of remote work. (Pretty convincing!)
What trends would you add to round out this view? And what trend will you, as a leader with loads of leverage and pockets full of great ideas, work to turn around?
This article was posted Sonia Checchia's LinkedIn articles on July 17, 2023.
At the start of the pandemic, some visionary and forward-thinking leaders posed the question, ‘How do we want to emerge from the pandemic?’ (You may have been among them?)
It’s time to circle back and look at current trends. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that looking at trends inside the walls of the workplace is not enough to truly understand the employee experience. We need to broaden the aperture and consider what’s happening in at work and beyond. I’ll get us started:
- We're lonely – U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy cautions that the U.S. is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. We’re not connecting, and social connection is key to physical and mental health—and it impacts life expectancy. (For more, listen to this episode of Hidden Brain, or check out his book, Together).
- We’re isolated – Getting together in person with the people we most care about has become less frequent. This 2023 study from Civic Science provides the numbers: less than half (43%) of adult American socialize with friends in person on a daily/weekly basis.
- We’re burned out – The World Health Organization recognized workplace burnout in 2019, long before people stared speaking of “quiet quitting.” And while it’s not all four-alarm-fire-burning, Adam Grant’s NYT article mid-pandemic (April 2021) gave us the vocabulary to describe and assess feelings of joylessness and aimlessness when he spoke of “languishing,” the “neglected middle child of mental health that can dull your motivation and focus.”
- And not just at work – For parents with young kids, “parental burnout” is prevalent, and workplace policies play a part. From this 2022 NYT article: “It’s a state where you have been giving, and giving, and giving and giving—until you’re totally empty.”
- We’re not as engaged at work as before – Gallup’s engagement survey shows that workplace engagement has dropped to 32% in the US. Why? Lack of connection, with many jobs that feel more like "gigs" than careers. (For the numbers and analysis, read this NPR story.)
I know, I know. I picked a set of depressing trends. And before you say it—no, we can’t blame it all on working remotely. About 15% of U.S. workers are fully remote, and 30% are hybrid. This episode of Freakonomics Radio speaks to the benefits of remote work. (Pretty convincing!)
What trends would you add to round out this view? And what trend will you, as a leader with loads of leverage and pockets full of great ideas, work to turn around?
This article was posted Sonia Checchia's LinkedIn articles on July 17, 2023.
