BEWARE OF THE RIFT

In the world of “Workplace,” finding our footing since the shutdown has highlighted a distinction in how we define work and how our bias toward that definition overlooks large sectors of our workforces. It's true we can ahieve a more balanced life through flexibility in our working location. It's true we can still be productive, collaborative, and even grow in a hybrid world.

In truth, for most of us who are reading this article, the ability to work from home has always existed. For longer than I can remember, at Little we have had the flexibility to work remotely when our lives benefited from it. Covid merely shined a spotlight on it. Personally, I have benefited from the large-scale acceptance of a hybrid work life. I have stronger relationships and a higher sense of self-worth since Covid forever changed our society. What could possibly go wrong?

While the hybrid world is here to stay, like everything, it too will change. The question may rather be: what impact will it have on our society? Decades from now, it's possible that our bias may no longer be rooted in race, sexual preferences, or gender. It may instead be the bias against working in person that creates a rift in our societal engine and weakens our collective wellbeing.

Over the past year I have actively observed other sectors of work, those sectors that cannot work remotely: the server on a Saturday lunch rush, the CRNA jumping out of bed at 3:00 am to save a life, the construction worker who labors so that his family has a safe place to live. Their opinion is not one of envy but of resentment, that somehow their contributions to society are a bit less worthy. I'm not convinced we all share this belief, but it is the perception, and "perception is reality," as my grandmother would say. To be honest, I never understood what she meant until many years later.

In fact, it could be that what we're truly seeking is work-life separation as opposed to work-life balance. The act of going to work and returning home has some benefit to our limbic system. Maybe shifting our emotional energy from the workday to taking our daughters to soccer practice is a critical switch. With every major societal shift, mental health is challenged in new and different ways that force us to adapt, and so we will.

But what if our bias toward work pulls the future workforce away from the sectors that make us a 24/7 world? What if those workers want flexibility, too? We would survive if every restaurant in the world closed at 5; we might even rediscover the power of cooking and enjoying dinner together as a family. What if you went into labor at midnight and there was no one to help? We would adapt and evolve. In the end, it's not clear if we should Beware of the Rift, but we should Be Aware of the Shift.

By Bruce Barteldt