The New Work Era: Empowered Employees Seeking Balance

The rise of the “Flexetariat” — the post-pandemic, white-collar worker who now expects a more life-balanced work experience after laboring remotely through the global crisis — gets a  closer look in Bloomberg.

Columnist Julia Hobsbawm writes that it takes 66 days to establish a habit, whereas the lockdown held sway over workers for 700 days before a return to the workplace looked possible. By that time, employees had drastically adapted to their new work habits and lifestyle changes — from relocation to parenting — to accommodate their off-site offices.

A recent McKinsey survey shows that 87 percent of workers say that if offered flexibility they would take it, Hobsbawm notes. Another Gallup survey sees workers rating their work-life balance on nearly equal footing as pay.

Hobsbawm sees three trends backing workers’ demands for flexible schedules.

• The flexible workplace will win over the non-flexible.
• The employee-employer power shift: new flexible working policies are heading to legislation around the world.
• The daily commute is dead: the drudgery of the daily commute was moving toward extinction long before the tipping point of the pandemic.

Read more at Bloomberg.com.