Two weeks turned into four, then eight, then a few months. As the working environment changed to a remote setting to accommodate for the new normal, some expected that employees would be able to get more rest and work more productively, as commute time and the pressure to look presentable had dramatically decreased. However, it turns out that the COVID-19 quarantine developed a stressful, lonely environment designed to foster depression and worker burnout. The statistics are grim; it seems that job burnout is a widespread problem in the US that stifles productivity and morale.

            According to TIME, worker burnout increased from 42% pre-pandemic to nearly 72% by August 2020. Also, while 10% of US adults were getting more sleep, 20% were getting less (Roache 80). Even the most passionate workers weren’t able to avoid job burnout, as a survey from Deloitte found that even though 87% of the inquired professionals enjoyed their job, 64% stated that they were frequently stressed (“Workplace Burnout Survey”). There seem to be three main causes to this: a lack of social interactions, a blurred line between personal life and work, and unclear job expectations.

            While remote work may give back the workers the time normally attributed to commute and dressing up, it comes with the sacrifice of social interactions. Social connections in the workplace allow employees to form strong relationships with each other and get help in a quick and personal manner, contributing to productivity. However, because of the pandemic, many workers are unable to build valuable connections with other workers and feel isolated and overwhelmed, which contributes to worker burnout.

            Remote work also requires the sacrifice of the line between work and personal life. Before the pandemic, the expectation was that once employees got home, work was more or less out of the picture. However, the fact that employees have no “escape” from the work environment today, coupled with the increase in the responsibilities that each worker has to take on due to the decrease in the number of workers, leads to employees losing a way to destress from work.

            The decrease in the number of workers also connects to an ambiguous future at work, as many employers were forced to shed their staff to adjust to the lack of profits. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July of 2020, 78% of the temporal layoffs were caused by the pandemic, and 57% of the unemployed were unable to work because the pandemic had shut their workplace down (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Those who managed to keep their job also were negatively impacted, as according to the Pew Research Center, 21% of adults had to reduce their hours or take pay cuts because of the pandemic (Parker et al.). Even if workers don’t get affected by the pandemic, the psychological stress of fearing pay cuts, reduced hours, or even layoffs takes a huge toll on the workers’ performance.

            The situation is not all gloom and doom though, as everything slowly returns to normal. As the vaccines are distributed and the economy recovers, the risk of having an unclear job future seems to have largely diminished. Furthermore, some workers have adjusted completely to remote work, as according to Morning Consult, a company focused on data intelligence and custom market research, 84% of current remote workers enjoy the new system and 74% feel that they are more productive (Shelburne). Employers will now face a few important decisions about maintaining their workplace – should the workers return to the office environment? More importantly, should there be other adjustments to the work culture so that the employees are more productive?

            Now is the time to experiment with new ideas to improve the working environment. One of these ideas is the four-day workweek. Delsol, a software firm in southern Spain, experimented with this new schedule and achieved immediate success – absenteeism had fallen by nearly 30% (Roache 80). Bigger companies like Microsoft Japan and the famous burger chain Shake Shack have also tried this idea in 2019 and found that it was a fabulous recruitment tool. The success of the four-day work week has been proven by a study published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, when researchers Luis Cardenas and Paloma Vilanueva calculated that just a five-hour reduction in work hours would have created 560,000 jobs, increased the GDP by 1.4%, and raised salaries by 3.7% in 2017 (Roache 80).

            Of course, because the four-day workweek means that employees must spend more time on each workday that would normally be reserved for the fifth day, flexibility and trust in the employees must be encouraged. In the Danish town of Odsherred, where the municipal government decided to test a four-day week, officials found that satisfaction with the new workweek was lower when the staff were being closely monitored by their bosses (Roache 80). Other factors may also affect how the new workweek is met by the employees, such as what the type of work is, the level of education of the employees, and family status. For example, workers with small children may feel more stress from a four-day workweek, as the third day of weekend isn’t necessarily “time off.” What is important is that employers find the right balance for their workers.

            The two weeks, which turned into four, then eight, then over a year, seems to be finally coming to an end. As the pandemic exposed the failures of hastily combining the traditional five-day, 40-hour workweek and the remove environment, some employers have started to look for innovative changes to the work culture. With ideas like the four-day workweek, which has shown incredible success in a variety of fields of work, it seems that those employers are looking in the right direction. The COVID-19 pandemic was a time of despair and economic downfall, but as an old saying states, “every cloud has a silver lining.” For this pandemic, the silver lining seems to be the shift away from a rigid, old work culture that has been the norm in the U.S. for decades.

Reference

Roache, Madeline. “i.” TIME, 12 Apr. 2021, pp. 80–81.

“Workplace Burnout Survey.” Deloitte., 2018, www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/burnout-survey.html.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020, www.bls.gov/cps/effects-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.htm. Accessed 21 Jun. 2021.

Parker, Kim, et al. “Economic Fallout From COVID-19 Continues To Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest.” Pew Research Center, 24 Sept. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/09/24/economic-fallout-from-covid-19-continues-to-hit-lower-income-americans-the-hardest/.

Shelburne, Peyton. “Tracking the Return to Normal: Work & Offices.” Morning Consult, 23 June 2021, morningconsult.com/return-to-work.