The office will not be the same: how the pandemic has changed our attitude to work

What usually catches the eye when reading a site with vacancies? Salary, responsibilities, time that will have to be spent on the road … But for many, it turns out that other details also matter.

“When I come to an interview, I always look to see if there is tea and coffee in the office,” says 25-year-old Julia, a manager. “Not because I love snacking so much, but because where there are none, the attitude towards employees is usually dry, formal.”

And 32-year-old Stepan is concerned about lighting: “I refuse even profitable offers if I have to work in a room without windows or with small ones. It makes me depressed.” And since the coronavirus entered our lives, new priorities have appeared.

My office is my castle

Remote. This word has confidently taken a place in today’s dictionary. Suddenly and urgently, many of us had to equip a workplace in our own homes.

“Preferences such as the provision of equipment by the employer, and possibly furniture for organizing the workspace, have come to the fore,” notes career consultant Yulia Chetverikova. “And in companies with such a common format for organizing workplaces as open space, individual offices become valuable.”

Once the pandemic crisis is over, some—perhaps many of us—will want to talk face-to-face with colleagues again. But what has noticeably changed already now and, apparently, will continue to change is the attitude towards working time.

“Many companies are working on the introduction of hybrid employment – this is a mixed mode of work, when an employee works remotely and comes to an office or coworking space to participate in common events or training,” says Yulia Chetverikova, “part-time employment and flexible schedules are developing.

The concept of fixed working hours has changed – from the possibility of choosing a convenient start and end of the working day to a “torn schedule” without being tied to specific working hours, provided that the tasks are completed.”

Time, money or life

Until recently, our values ​​were dominated by consumption – its level and quality. An important attribute of life was high employment: the more we worked, the more we earned and, accordingly, the more and better we consumed. But the trend has changed.

“Today there are more and more people who measure the value of things not with money, but with their own labor costs. Am I ready to spend half a month of my life on a new TV? Trade a year of life for a new car? A reasonable balance of employment and consumption acquires value,” says Yulia Chetverikova.

So far, we are solving these issues each for ourselves. Some time ago, the Russian government discussed the possibility of reducing the working week to 40 hours. Two options were proposed: reducing the working day to 6 hours or switching to 4 working days a week.

They remembered Henry Ford, who introduced a forty-hour week in his automaker, because he believed that workers did not have enough time for rest, and this reduced productivity and the business suffered losses. Ford’s contemporary, British economist John Keynes, predicted that by 2030 the workweek would be reduced to 15 hours. He made a mistake with the dates, but he guessed the direction.

“We are ready today, it seems to me, to risk stability for the sake of feeling in our place,” says Gestalt therapist Irina Meladze. — Increasingly, the idea that financial motivation is not the only one is being accepted. Many of those over thirty go to study, change professions, try themselves in something new. The long-term excitement of consumption is replaced by the passion to create, present the product of one’s labor and receive recognition in return. But not all change comes with the same ease.

Who is easy?

All of us who work or are looking for work can be grouped into three main categories, says Yulia Chetverikova: observers, fighters and developing ones. Observers are those of us who do not like change and try to keep the way we work. For them, regular salary indexation, measured activity, warm relations in the team and friendship of interest are important.

“The main risks here are digitalization, automation and robotization of routine operations. And now, in the context of the growing popularity of remote work, there is also the risk of being replaced by a “cheaper” specialist from another city or region. Employers expect from “observers” a stable quality of performing typical operations for the lowest possible money,” notes the career consultant.

Fighters are those who are prepared for the worst, able to accept any change, follow any order, do their best, work 24/7. At work, it is important for them to win, to achieve, to be able, to overcome. It would seem that the ideal worker? But in the current realities they risk no less.

“Employers quickly get used to the effectiveness of wrestlers and expect more and more achievements from them, for which they are ready to pay decently. The risks for this category of workers are related to the capabilities of the body: constant stress sooner or later leads to loss of interest, burnout and illness,” recalls Yulia Chetverikova.

Developing workers are open to change. In any problem, they see a resource and an opportunity for something new. They are constantly learning something and adopting new experience, which allows them to look for and find non-standard solutions in any situation. Employers have high hopes for them. For this category of specialists, the main risk is to end up in a conservative company that is not ready for development.

Whatever category we belong to, and even moving from one to another, we will not avoid risk. However, we can choose how active our position will be in the changing reality. Are we ready to work where we don’t like it, for the sake of a salary? Or will we try to do what we like, with no guarantees of success? Or will we look for new solutions, for example, like restaurateurs who, under lockdown, started selling takeaway food? Everyone has their own answer.