If we look back to those earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could almost feel the anxiety and dread dripping from those memories. From being cut off from family and friends and learning how to cope without school and daycare to understanding what it was like to live though a global health crisis, the first few months of the pandemic forever altered the way we think, live, laugh, and learn. Two-plus years later, we can confidently say that it may be the watershed moment for this era of human history.
Many of us grew a newfound appreciation for the nuances of live, while others had the opportunity to truly focus on how they should shape their futures based on the struggles of those early days. There was profound societal change in the air, as well, which shifted the way we as humans think about culture, race, gender, and other core aspects of what makes us, well, us.
The role of empathy was in front view, too, in the many ways the country showed appreciation and support for those on the frontlines of the pandemic. We grew more connected in an age when physical, in-person unions were paused for months on end.
We have fundamentally changed as people and it’s incredibly difficult to think of our pre-pandemic personas and wonder if we could ever go back and recapture those frameworks of thinking. Our lives were altered and nearly every facet of life was transformed…including the way we work.
There’s more to the changing world of work than the increase in remote work and a volatile labor market, however. The very concepts and ideas behind the Future of Work movement dictate that we continuously innovate not just within the realm of technology, but within the way we address work as the humans who power the enterprise. If we can take that same ideology behind mankind’s transformation over the past two years and apply it to the way we work, then professionals, people, and enterprises all win.
We need more of a focus on the fact that humanity and empathy are the foundation of the workforce, not just skillsets and expertise. We’ve altered the way we think about ourselves and each other, and maybe that’s what the world of work needs to evolve during these interesting times: a reimagined workplace that prioritizes its people and the flexibility they require to effectively get work done. It’s not a far-fetched theory by any measure: we’ve seen business leadership shift to an empathy-led structure, with more and more executives understanding that their staff needs the utmost support from both emotional and operational perspectives.
When we compare the 2022 editions of ourselves to the 2019 versions, there are many, many differences that have made us better people and better humans. We can certainly apply these progressions to the way we work, too. It may be the best way to thrive in the months and years ahead.
