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OPINION

Post-pandemic blues

Post-pandemic blues
March 25, 2021
Post-pandemic blues

Just over a year ago, we were in the process of wrapping up the first ever issue of the Investors’ Chronicle produced entirely from home. For all the challenges this brought, there was also much excitement – we did something that we never previously thought possible, and the sense of achievement in those first few weeks of lockdown one was palpable. 

Yet the moving goalposts of Covid-related restrictions culminating in lockdown three have now stretched the patience of even the most unflappable members of the team. Even with the end in sight, there is also a depressing resignation that we probably haven’t seen the last shift in government policy as a third wave hits Europe which, to paraphrase the words of Boris Johnson, is almost certain to wash up on these shores. As a result, overseas summer holidays once again look like they won’t happen, being non-essential as the government has decreed and with the EU-UK vaccine spat escalating and variants multiplying. And we still have no idea what our working lives will look like come autumn – will we be in the office, or permanently at home, or in some hybrid limbo? Will we require a vaccine to enter the office, as care workers may have to do to remain in work? Investors are said not to like uncertainty – well, the same is true of everybody else too.

Nevertheless, the efforts of the team meant 2020 turned out to be a productive one for Investors’ Chronicle, as was the case with many listed businesses we cover. As we have seen in companies’ financial statements, many have coped incredibly with the pandemic, quickly adjusting strategies to meet new customer needs, trimming their sails to weather trimmed sales, and seeing earnings bounce back fast from the initial savaging. Many will emerge from the pandemic leaner and more efficient than ever before, having turned to technology to manage new working practices.

But there is a flipside that hasn’t yet been revealed in company numbers – the huge demands the pandemic has placed on workers. The erosion of the dividing line between work and home has further driven the ‘always on’ culture of many modern workplaces – according to research conducted earlier this year, UK workers are said to be working 25 per cent more hours at home than they previously were in the office. In many instances, the increase is not the result of larger workloads but the fact that remote working makes many tasks much, much harder, not least the simple one of communication. Zoom is no substitute for face-to-face meetings, often missing the important nuances of body language; peer-reviewed academic research has demonstrated that the much-talked-about phenomenon of Zoom fatigue is very real. 

In the case of some juniors at Goldman Sachs, this has culminated in 95-hour working weeks during the pandemic, conditions they described in an open letter to the bank’s CEO this week as “inhumane”. Whether you feel sorry for them or not – they knew what they signed up for, and presumably did so with the prospect of huge financial rewards in mind – that is an unsustainable working week for even the industry’s Masters of the Universe. And long working weeks have also become a feature of many industries where the same riches are not on offer – burnout without the payoff. For companies, that means hanging onto the apparent productivity gains made during the pandemic may not be that easy – especially if holidays remain a distant dream for their staff.