The COVID-19 pandemic has changed attitudes to work forever, Lisa Earle McLeod* says it will never be the same, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
Great resignation, great reshuffle, the ‘big quit’. Whatever your chosen vernacular, it represents an outcome.
What actually prompted this mass exodus is something else: The great re-think. It’s what is sitting underneath the outcome.
Usually, a re-think happens on an individual level. If you go through a traumatic event, like a health scare, the death of a parent, a job loss, etc., you look inward.
You pause, asking yourself, who am I? What am I doing with my life? What’s important to me? How am I spending my time?
You often come out of that period with new priorities.
In the past 24 months, that experience happened on a global level.
Our collective humanity has been through immense challenge and change, resulting in deeper levels of self-reflection.
This global reflection has fundamentally changed the way we live and the way we work.
At the start of the pandemic, many were thankful just to have a job.
Over the past 12 months, the dynamic has shifted, and the power is in the hand of the employee to reshape what this new world of work will look like.
Here are three ways I predict the great re-think will impact our work norms.
Part-time (or contract) work will be increasingly common
Flexibility is the LinkedIn word of the year.
Employers are recognising that their teams want flexibility in where and when they work.
Much of that conversation is in reference to full-time employees, but in anecdotal conversations, I’m seeing a huge rise in the number of people who are leaning into part-time, or even contract work.
Career breaks will be more accepted (thank heavens)
Recently, LinkedIn announced a new feature called career breaks, saying this:
“We’re rolling out the ability for our members to add a career break to their profile, whether it was taken for full-time parenting, bereavement, care-giving, a gap year, lay-off, or other life needs or experiences.
“We’ve heard from our members, including 68 per cent of women, who’ve said they wanted more ways to positively represent their career breaks by highlighting skills learned and experiences they had during a work pause.”
Hallelujah! This announcement from LinkedIn is emblematic of the larger shift taking place in the talent landscape.
Life very rarely follows the linear climbing of a traditional organisational chart.
As someone who scaled back for an entire decade to take care of my children, I was delighted to see that employers are recognising the value these whole-life experiences bring and the need to validate career breaks.
Purpose is timeless and more important than ever
McKinsey released a publication titled Great Attrition or Great Attraction? The Choice is Yours.
The crux of the piece notes: “If the past 18 months have taught us anything, it’s that employees crave investment in the human aspects of work.
“Employees are tired, and many are grieving. They want a renewed and revised sense of purpose in their work.”
We all want to know we are making a difference; humans have a fundamental, timeless need for belonging and significance.
Leaders who are building a culture of purpose and bringing human impact to the fore will always have people raising their hands to work with them.
Work will never be the same as it was two years ago, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
With more flexibility, humanity, and purpose we can all build a brighter tomorrow.
*Lisa Earle McLeod is the leadership expert best known for creating the popular business concept Noble Purpose. She is the author of Selling with Noble Purpose and Leading with Noble Purpose. She can be contacted at mcleodandmore.com.
This article first appeared at mcleodandmore.com.
