04 June 2020
The New Normal
Revisited
by Shaw Sheet
A further contribution to the New Normal commentaries
Meghan Adair
There has been a lot of talk about what the ‘new normal’ looks like in the post COVID-19 world, what does it mean for holidays and travel, family occasions such as weddings and how will the high street recover. The area where I think, and hope, we can expect the biggest change is the workplace.
As a mum to a toddler, the biggest cause of anxiety for me returning to work was the issue of flexibility. It’s all too common that the focus of the majority of workplaces is around a performance = presence culture, with the familiar jokes of people “working at home” being a code for sitting in their pyjamas watching Netflix (other streaming services are available). I once read a statistic that said a staggering 80,000 women want to be in the workplace, however due to lack of flexibility within workplaces and the insane costs of childcare, it isn’t an option.
Fast forward to the world we are living in now; many businesses have continued to function and some thrive in a world where everyone is remote working. New, more inclusive work cultures have began to blossom where trust is formed that people can work, have a family and life outside of the 9-5 while still performing at the best of their ability.
So, will COVID-19 spell the end of the need for a flexible working policy? Will it be the death of the traditional 9-5? I hope so. I hope that we start to see business cultures which trust their employees and focus on performance, not presence.
See the full 19 contributor New Normal Article published last week.
