The Gift of Covid19 - Unshackled Employees

So you worked from home. 

You figured it out, and built office space in your kitchen, second room, or closet, with no guidance from HQ.

• You learned Zoom. 
• You became more 'self-managed. 
• You weren't considered 'essential'.  That high standing was reserved for the antiquated accounting department and even more old-fashioned mailroom. 

And now, today, the taskmaster wants to look out upon a sea of workers toiling away in the cotton fields of the 21st century - the cube farm. 

Managers hope we don't figure out how obsolete they've become - they fear for their jobs. 

The most fearful are in the C-Suite. Those "Killers of Passion" who command their complacent, easily replaceable, and 'loyal' chattel back to the stalls. 

It's worse.  Upon return to the office, everything you learned and did 'for the company' during Covid is to be forgotten or suppressed - the hierarchical, top-down rules of management must be enforced to maintain order.

They entice and seduce:

• Friday is blue jean day.
• Group outings to the baseball game.
• Free cappuccinos in the luxury kitchen; beer.
• Catered breakfasts, corporate BBQs, and Christmas Parties.
• 401k's, healthcare, and 2.5% yearly pay increases.

Ignore the 45-minute commutes, and missed recitals.

Enjoy the useless, mundane, and mindless 4PM meetings that inevitably and predictably run over by 60 minutes - "this could have been an email."

Don't forget co-worker personalities and hostile environments - HR is not your friend.

"Some simply refuse to schlep back and forth to an office, taking two-plus hours a day commuting into a crowded, dirty and crime-ridden city. Insurance and financial services giant Prudential conducted a study that found “one in three American workers would not want to work for an employer that required them to be onsite full time.” - Forbes

People are quitting jobs more than ever.  

Here's the nasty and silver lining:  Covid19 and remote working opened our eyes to bigger possibilities.  We can pursue our passions and our passion is not a 9 to 5 prison.  Sure, there are great advantages to working for somebody else from anywhere.  The big, huge transformation will not be technology-driven, it will be powered by passion your passion, unleashed.

This is a great fear the establishment denies - workers, once unshackled, will move away from the establishment and towards their personal, unique dreams.  Maybe that dream is to be the best Events Manager in the industry - why would the best work for one company?  Better yet, why wouldn't she work for herself instead of Big Brother?

Fascinating...the possibilities are endless.

Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill

It’s still fat and easy up on banker’s hill

Up on banker’s hill, the party’s going strong...

Down here below we’re shackled and drawn