As the pandemic began in March of 2020, I remember saying out loud to clients and colleagues that I thought the first year of the pandemic was going to give all of us cover. For most of us, the time away from work and social activities allowed for greater personal and professional reflection; the slowing down of our calendars; and “nesting” in our home environments. By the second year of the pandemic, I really felt the focus was on building resilience as we created new ways to connect and form community and opened up to each other about our vulnerabilities and challenges. And now we begin the third year of the pandemic, and I can’t help but think it will be a year of reckoning – on all levels.
There will be a settling of accounts for employers who will need to see their employees in different ways than they have before. The “contract” between employer and employee has been broken – partly due to the pandemic but also because of the generational needs of employees and the social, political, environmental, and economic issues we are facing as a country. Employees need and want different things from employers than they have in the past.
Friendships and relationships that do not comfort or heal us will be re-examined in light of our energy, our priorities, and what we’ve learned these last two years. We will choose to spend our time in very different ways than we have in the past.
I do not see this reckoning in a negative way, but as an opportunity for each of us – individually and organizationally – to recalibrate and sort through so much stuff in our lives and workplaces that has been there – just because it’s the way we’ve always done it or planned it that way. Yes, it’s an evaluation and accounting of where we’ve spent energy and focus in the past, but more importantly this reckoning can create the space to determine what is right and healthy and productive for the future.
