How the Pandemic Has Affected the Workpace in 2020

New York, NY, December 14, 2020-The Wall Street Journal issued a report on how the pandemic changed American work in 2020.

Productive…at a cost-“We’re getting our work done, but we feel pretty miserable. In a September survey of 330 human resources leaders by the Conference Board, 47% of respondents reported an increase in productivity at their companies, while only 13% reported a drop. But 60% said their employees are working more hours and 63% said their employees are spending more time in meetings. Four out of 10 reported more mental health problems among workers.”

Realizing diversity needs-"The Black Lives Matter movement certainly got corporate executives talking more about race and inequality. The share of organizations where leaders and employees say diversity and inclusion is a value or priority rose to 72% in 2020 from 65% in 2019, according to a continuing PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. At the same time, a third of respondents agree that diversity is a barrier to progression at their organizations, up from 28% in 2019.”

Job news, most of it bad-"The economic crisis continues affecting our paychecks. Almost a third of the companies surveyed by the Conference Board had deferred pay increases or bonuses to workers, and another 8% planned to do so before the end of the year. A similar number of firms had conducted permanent layoffs. A quarter had furloughed workers and a fifth had frozen all hiring.”

Trials for working parents-"Remote school and day-care closures have left parents with a heavy burden. The solution many families have landed on: Mom quits her job. Some 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force in September, the start of the academic year, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the National Women’s Law Center. That’s compared with 216,000 men.”

Remote work forever-"For years, it existed as an afterthought, or even a secret in many corporate jobs. Remote work was the hushed arrangement for a new parent returning from leave, the one-off negotiation for a longtime colleague moving to California.

“Now, it’s gone mainstream. The number of working days Americans spend at home has increased eightfold with the pandemic, according to an analysis by Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Nearly 34% of Americans were working from home in November, according to a Stanford survey of 2,500 people.”

To read the full report, click here.