Brice Wallace
More than four years after COVID-19 became a pandemic, and more than a year after the World Health Organization announced it was no longer a public health emergency of international concern, many companies are still plagued by its aftermath.
Coping with workplace issues in a post-pandemic environment was the topic of a recent forum for human resource leaders. Sean Monson, co-chair of the employment and labor section of law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer, said that the onset of COVID was “probably one of the most exciting and most difficult times for me as a lawyer” as he and others worked to digest thousands of pages of new statutes and inform their clients about them.
“But I thought after it was over, everything would go back to normal, right? … And that’s probably been the most surprising thing in my career, is that COVID was transformational from the employment relationship standpoint,” Monson said at the event, co-hosted by PBL and ACG Utah.
Among the issues discussed by speakers are COVID’s impacts transitioning from mask and vaccination requirements and paid leave to employees working remotely or moonlighting, with one audience member saying an employee at their company was discovered working five jobs at once.
Perhaps employees’ desire to work from home is the most practical impact, with workers’ enjoyment of time flexibility conflicting with employers’ longings for improved collaboration, productivity and engagement. “Now we’re seeing all the time ‘I want to work from home,’” Monson said.
Businesses can, however, require work occur in the office, unless the employee seeks an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act related to a medical or mental health condition, he said. Companies can condition their employment offers to applicants so that it is clear that work must take place in an office. He also suggested that job descriptions be clear about the essential functions of the job and that the work must occur in the office.
“If there are jobs that it is required that they be on-site, make sure that you put that in the job description and make sure that you have internal documentation about why this work has to be done on-site,” he said.
Christine Wzorek, founder and CEO of White Label Advisors, said 3.2 percent of the U.S. workforce worked remotely before the pandemic, but the figure swelled to 27 percent last year.
A recent report from personal-finance website WalletHub indicates Utah is No. 2 on a list of best states for working from home. It considered factors including the share of workers that are doing so, Internet costs and cybersecurity. The report said about 14 percent of Utah’s workforce currently works from home, but over 95 percent could do their jobs from home in the future.
In contrast, a study by Wealth of Geeks indicates that the majority of surveyed Utahns are happy to be back in the office. They missed face-to-face conversations, team lunches, dressing for office work, and office perks. One in five confessed that having some personal space away from their partner brought them joy.
Vic Galanis, executive vice president at Colliers, said having hybrid work as an option can reduce the amount of office square footage a company needs, thereby reducing costs. It also can make the company attractive to potential workers.
“A work-from-home environment is the best environment an employer can offer to employees today,” Galanis said. “Hybrid work should be embraced. It should not be resisted. Study after study suggests that employees that have the flexibility to work from the office or work from their manufacturing facility but also work from home, are the happiest employees. Those are the ones that you’re going to attract and retain the most.”
He cited a recent survey of employees about the attributes of the best companies to work for, with work-life balance, company culture and the ability to work from home all being in the top six.
Wzorek spoke about the emotional burdens COVID placed on people. The pandemic led to sustained emotional exhaustion, with isolation, loneliness, prolonged stress and uncertainty leading in some cases to mental health issues such as apathy and disconnections with others.
Then crisis fatigue set in, she said.
“Does everyone here feel like you are the same today, just because you’re back [at work] in person, as you were before the pandemic?” she asked.
Hostile workplace claims have risen as employees believe they have been the subject of mistreatment or discrimination. Isolation has made some people more aggressive as they have lost touch with general respect, she said. Gender and age bias instances are also up.
Some employees found moonlighting to be a way to earn more money, with remote work allowing them to toil at three jobs or more. But Wzorek said companies need to make it clear to workers, especially during orientation and onboarding, if moonlighting is prohibited by company policy. Employees who think it is their right to work remotely need to understand that using their skills and competencies in the office benefits everyone in an organization, she said.
For part-time workers who want to work more than one job, companies need to spell out what hours are expected from the employee and stress that their attendance and work performance cannot suffer because of that additional job, she said.