The Impact of COVID-19 on the Workplace, Research Paper Example

The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted both the global health systems and international economic structure. Further, the pandemic has changed how humans interact and socialize. The World Health Organization (WHO) requirement for businesses and organizations that offer non-essential services to close down their operations as one of the measures to limit the spread of the virus brought significant challenges to both workers and employers across the globe. At a personal level, the long period of lockdowns exhibited in different regions of the world turned employees into “work from home staff members” except for those offering essential services like healthcare workers, retailers, and pharmacists (Kniffin et al., 2021, p.1). On the other hand, millions of workers in various sectors were rendered unemployed following a reduction in business operations in the organizations where they worked. Contrastingly, other job opportunities were opened in fields that had been underexplored before the pandemic. As countries began to relax their Covid-19 restrictions allowing workers back to the office workplace, employee characteristics became a determinant factor in the way employers designed their jobs and assigned roles to them. For instance, older employees were still advised to work from home while some of the young and middle-aged employees were required to resume their office and field duties.  It is therefore evident that the impact of Covid-19 affected workers differently depending on their employee characteristics. Even as the world comes to terms with the disease and develops vaccines to prevent it, the already existing effects may have long-standing implications on the workers and their careers. Therefore, given the level of uncertainty associated with the Covid-19 shock, organizations need to act fast in establishing measures that will ensure all employees maintain their productivity regardless of their position or role and that their career remains secured even amid the great technological and social changes at the workplace.

The impact of COVID -19 on different employees was influenced their demographic characteristics. More specifically, the age and gender of workers determined how were treated at the workplace and the roles they were given to handle. Taking a lifespan perspective to examine the impact of the pandemic on employees, it is evident that different age groups had varying experiences of the pandemic shocks. One of the most affected groups entails the older employees. The older workers were among the most hit by the initial pandemic lockdowns. Unlike in other recessions where governments usually establish measures to protect the welfare of the aging workers, the unemployment rates that followed the lockdowns did not spare them. As of April, the unemployment rate of workers aged 65 and above was more than that of an employee between the ages 25 and 54. The statistics are attributed to the fact that older people are today more involved in the labor market than before. Although the rate of unemployment among the older group has reduced over the months since the onset of the pandemic, the group remains the most affected. Moreover, older people who are aged 55 years and above are more likely to have other comorbidities. This places them at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 as compared to their young counterparts.  The fact that they may be having underlying conditions also increases the chances of developing serious complications once they get the disease. The rate of infections and deaths from Covid-19, therefore, increases with an increase in age. The situation is further worsened when the race is involved. African Americans, Brown, and Native Americans experience higher risks of getting and dying from the diseases as compared to other races. Another risk among the elderly is that most of them work in less safe occupations hence are more likely to get the disease at their workplace. The effects on the elderly subsequently impact how they operate at the workplace. While a great number have been forced to work remotely, others are unable to handle the tasks they handled previously. For instance, despite having the experience and expertise in handling the sick in healthcare facilities, healthcare officials at advanced ages are limited to perform their tasks due to their age and/or the possession of other underlying conditions.

Women and low-income workers have also been impacted distinctively by the pandemic shocks. Women employees have been affected greatly by the pandemic. The International Labor Organization reveals that women form 70% of the employees in the healthcare sector, including those operating in care institutions. Consequently, they have been among the front-line workers in the fight against the virus. Consequently, they face the double burden of extended shifts and a huge workload at the workplace, and additional care in their homes since children and their spouses are mostly working from home. On the other hand, those that work in other organizations as a part of healthcare institutions also face the same challenge of balancing their work with care duties at home. The situation has been exacerbated by the need for them to work from home among the latter group. Women, therefore, find it hard to establish a work-life balance, and this affects their emotional well-being and productivity at the workplace. Low-income earners, on the contrary, have been affected by the pandemic by being the most exposed to healthcare risks. The pandemic has made the workplace of low-income earners at high risk of being exposed to the virus. Worse still, this group of workers is more likely than the rest to lack health insurance coverage. This means that the workplace for these employees places them at increased risk of contracting the virus. The other populations at risk are the elderly and those with underlying conditions.

Young adult workers have also been adversely affected by the pandemic. Studies reveal that Covid-19 has impacted the mental health outcomes of young and middle-aged employees in different industries. One reason for the poor mental health outcomes is the disturbing double impact of the crisis. The economic effect brought about by the pandemic has made the young people face significant challenges, most of which stem from their financial statuses. Moreover, some of the young adults face the challenge of balancing their work with that of caring for children who are homeschooling. The situation becomes when the workers are ordered to work from home and have to deal with the housework as well as their work duties. The increased duties contribute to the poor mental health experienced during the pandemic.

Evidence also reveals that minority communities have been more impacted by the pandemic as compared to majority races. Statistics show that the minority groups are more likely to work in jobs that demand low or medium skills. Covid-19 has resulted in an increase in the demand for unskilled employees required to perform basic functions in essential organizations. However, except for the organizations offering essential services, low-skilled workers in other organizations experienced massive job losses as a result of the shutdown. The pandemic led to a change in consumer needs and a subsequent shift in the way businesses perform their operations. Among the behavioral changes in the lives of people during the Covid-19 pandemic has been their shopping and work. The number of employees who shifted from the traditional offices to start working from home increased significantly during the year 2020 (Leaders et al., 2020, p. 2). Further, following WHO guidelines, several people minimized their movements as a way to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was a change in the purchasing behaviors of consumers as they shifted to the e-commerce platforms to order items and wait for them to be delivered at their doorsteps. Organizations also followed suit and joined the e-commerce platforms to sell their products and services. Consequently, businesses aimed to employ workers that could help them satisfy the needs of consumers at minimum costs. As organizations shifted from their traditional premises to the online platform, there was a need for unskilled labor workers who were hired to perform simple errands and deliver products and services to clients. Consequently, the demand for low-skilled workers such as drivers, shop attendants, customer care personnel, grocery clerks, and office messengers increased (Boidurjo, R. M. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. 2020, p. 1). Their functions were mainly to receive orders and confirm from clients, process the orders, package them, and have their drivers deliver them at respective locations. Moreover, as countries have started to minimize their COVI-D restrictions, more low-skilled jobs have been filled, especially in the service industry. However, in organizations offering non-essential services, employees with low or medium skills have been negatively affected by the pandemic. According to the International Labor Organization (2020, p. 14), most low-skilled workers operate in sectors that are most affected by the pandemic. Such areas include the manufacturing sector, the construction industry, and the transport sector and have suffered massive job losses from the pandemic. For instance, in the United Kingdom, workers at the bottom part of the chart were seven times more likely to be employed in industries that were affected by the lockdown (Labor Organization, 2020, p. 14). Consequently, low-skilled workers became more negatively affected by the pandemic despite the need for their services in carrying out essential duties.

Informal economy workers, the majority of who are from the minority groups, have also been negatively affected by the pandemic. A large number of African Americans and Hispanics work in informal economies. It is estimated that more than 50% of these workers experienced a decline in their earnings and a subsequent loss in their jobs as a result of the pandemic. The informal workers have been among the hardest-hit group of employees since they work in hugely affected sectors. For instance, the wholesale sector, retail industry, government education, mining, construction, and the manufacturing sector, which account for a big percentage of informal workers, were greatly affected by the pandemic. As manufacturing industries shut down their operations, their workers were forced to either take salary cuts or go for unpaid leave ((Labor Organization, 2020, p. 15). Worse still, others were faced with a loss in their employment opportunities. Even as the companies in these sectors strive to hire new employees to replace the ones fired and pick up their operations, the number of unemployed informed workers still remains high. More specifically, in the United States, the retail sector provided 41,000 job opportunities while manufacturing employment rose by 21,000. However, statistics reveal that employment in the manufacturing industry is still down by about 550,000 job opportunities which have been lost since the onset of the pandemic (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). The second reason for the loss of job opportunities among informal workers is that most of them operate in micro-businesses that are highly vulnerable to the shocks of the

COVID-19 pandemic.

The majority of races, such as the Whites, were also affected by the disease. These are the group of workers who use high-level communication skills to share and synthesize information in order to achieve complex tasks (Hernaus and Mikuli?, 2014, p. 273). They also accomplish their tasks using the latest technology. Knowledge workers have key to the achievement of organizational goals as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The uncertainties associated with the pandemic in terms of the future state of the economy, as well as the changing market trends, necessitate organizations to recruit knowledge workers who have the ability to examine the trends and predict the future. Such employees include data analysts, accountants, engineers, scientists, statisticians, and researchers (Hejase, Rkein, and Kazan, 2021). However, the Covid-19 pandemic has also had an effect on how organizations recruit such workers. Instead of the previous trends where entities have hired the workers on a permanent basis, the current economy has pushed them to recruit the workers on a contract basis. Worse still, some organizations look for gig workers to work on specified tasks and go away once the tasks are over (Boidurjo, R. M. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. 202, P. 3). Therefore, just like other types of workers, knowledge workers have also lost the opportunity to gain permanent employment in institutions and organizations.

Implications of the Impact of Covid-19 on Their Work and Careers

The Covid-19 pandemic shocks may have an impact on different types of workers, including those from the majority and minority workers, women, the aged, young adults, and low-income workers. As the workers operating remotely continue working under pressure while fixed on computers waiting for the next formal meeting to attend, they will eventually become stressed and experience burnout. This will subsequently impact their ability to manage employees well. The result is a series of poorly performing organizations where the shareholders ensure everything is done to increase performance, but no positive results are realized. On the other hand, the employees, upon spending more time on computers attending endless meetings, will lack the opportunity to grow their career, resulting in stagnation. Moreover, unlike the traditional workplace where training were done collectively and controlled by the management, employees working from home may or may not undertake training due to their remote location. Additionally, the motivation they get from their fellow employees to grow their careers is absent when they work remotely. Also, the increased roles of working at home while performing other duties also deny them the time to undertake other things such as career growth and development (Kaushik and Guleria, 2020). In the long-run, they remain at the same job position with no hope of getting promoted. The workers also spend much time on the computers, either handling different tasks or attending meetings. This makes their work boring and could affect their overall performance.

The other group of employees affected by the pandemic includes the minority workers. A large number of these workers lost their jobs while the rest had their salaries reduced to have them remain in employment. These are the people who basically depend on the income solely for basic needs as the earnings are not much. Therefore, cutting down on their earnings may demoralize them and negatively affect their productivity. On the other hand, the workers who have been fired will miss the chance to gain experience and grow their careers. Generally, the impacts of Covid-19 on the business setting and the workplace reduce the performance and workers and limit their ability to advance their careers.

Recommendations

As organizations continue to champion remote working even amid reducing cases of Covid-19, strategies should be established to ensure that employees working from home get emotional support, learn how to balance work and home roles, and have the necessary training regarding the necessary technologies. The workers should therefore undergo regular training to have them understand how to handle themselves and their work roles while at home without feeling overwhelmed (Kirchner, Ipsen, and Hansen, 2021, p. 7). The training should encompass effective ways through which the workers can communicate and collaborate to enhance productivity and organizational performance. Also, organizations should hold regular meet-ups for all workers to enhance social interaction and relieve the workers from feeling lonely and isolated while working from home. The meetings can be in the form of holidays or team building outings where workers socialize and break the monotony of working alone in their homes. The organizations should also identify clear communication channels through which employees and managers and can exchange ideas, opinions, or complaints. The entities should develop creative ways to improve causal communication among employees.

The second strategy is for companies to redesign their workplace to match their needs as well as those of workers. To prepare for future turbulences and uncertainties, organizations need to redefine how work is allocated and performed by their workers. They should evaluate the kinds of tasks they have and the requirements needed to perform them (de Lucas Ancillo et al., 2021, p. 16). They should then use the information to develop suitable workplaces and job roles that suit each employee. In designing the new workplace, entities should align their people’s needs with technologies, policies, processes, and work models that govern operations within them. The aim of the redesign process should be to create workspaces that encourage all sorts of interactions, even in the wake of such pandemics as Covid-19.

Conclusion

While the Covid-19 pandemic had a great impact on the health of populations globally, it also significantly affected the economy, business operations, and the workplace. Different types of employees were affected in distinct ways by the pandemic. The low and medium-skilled employees experienced massive job losses and a reduction in their earnings. Knowledge workers, on the contrary, have missed the chance to secure permanent jobs as entities seek to hire workers on a contractual basis. Additionally, managers face a big challenge overseeing the operation of other employees working remotely. They find it hard to achieve collaboration among the various workers. Consequently, entities need to redesign their workplaces and train their workers on how best to deliver their tasks while collaborating with their colleagues.

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