Article Reaction: Post-Covid Changes

This article discusses the workplace changes that will remain after we have reached
“herd-immunity” and covid-19 is no longer classified as a pandemic. The first impact is hybrid
and remote work models. Before covid, 99% of workers said they would prefer to work remotely
at least part of the time. The pandemic essentially accelerated a growing trend in exposing
everyone to a remote work model. Polls taken since October 2020 found that two-thirds of
people would like to continue working remotely, and that 74% of CFO’s plan to transition
employees who worked in person to remote work.
The second change is video conferencing over phone calls. Throughout 2020, Zoom
hosted 300 million meeting participants every day. It has become a big part of our lives with both
school and work. Video conferencing has also been beneficial to job recruiters for interviews.
The third change is virtual conferencing and events. Covid has obviously had a large impact on
the travel industry, with many Americans saying they are no longer comfortable flying (at least
until the pandemic is over). The economic impact of this is large, as employers have realized
that video conferencing is much more cost effective than flying employees out for business trips.
The fourth change is an increase in cybersecurity. Cybercrime has risen 600% during the
pandemic due to an increasingly online life. Scammers posed as the CDC and WHO in order to
obtain classified information. The growing need for cybersecurity is guaranteed to boost the
industry with new job opportunities and investments. The last big change is a large move away
from big cities. With a larger population density, most businesses were shut down for the
pandemic. In smaller towns and areas, the infection rate was lower, and more opportunities
were available. The New York Times ran an article about many tech workers taking part in a
mass exodus from the San Francisco Bay Area. Some businesses with remote working
employees are considering pay cuts due to their workers being in an area with lower cost of
living.
Several friends and I are definitely affected by the remote lifestyle. Socializing has been
more difficult, and if I’m trying to catch up with someone I haven’t spoken to in a while, it can be
really tough. My girlfriend spent a lot of time with the hybrid style student life at Tufts University,
with half of her classes being online and the other half remote. She has told me about social
challenges since being back, and how being cooped up in a small dorm affected her ability to
converse with people she isn’t close to. As for my learning style, I already had trouble sitting and
listening to someone speak. So this video-conference era of school has been difficult for me.
Quarantine made it really hard for me to be in school without a lot of social anxiety, which is why
I chose to be remote.