March 23rd 2021 marked the official anniversary of Lockdown 1 in the UK. Lockdowns have led many of us to reflect on and review our lives- and what we might usefully do, both for ourselves and for others. It’s also taken a while for the full economic impact of COVID on the economy to start to become apparent.
COVID and the current recession have impacted fundamentally on all our lives and on the opportunities available to us. The pattern and shape of the labour market will change irrevocably.
Whilst jobs in Retail and Hospitality and the Creative Industries have been severely impacted, new markets are emerging, offering new opportunities and different ways of doing things. Distribution, Online Retail, Sustainability, Clean Energy, Big Data, IT and Health and Social Care are expanding. Investment in home improvements and home furnishings have increased as more of us work from home, unable to go anywhere much else.
The UK’s investment in and development of vaccines will have a positive impact on pharmaceutical research and development and jobs. Upmarket restaurants are creating online meals for delivery; online learning is growing exponentially and we are relying more and more on streaming for our entertainment. Many of us are now proficient users of MS Teams and Zoom as an inevitable result of being required to work virtually almost overnight. Who knew a year ago that “you’re on mute!” would become the most over-used catch phrase of 2020?
Entrepreneurship and innovation will inevitably help us navigate our way out of recession. It’s worth remembering companies including Slack, Pinterest, Uber, What’s App, Nest and Cloudera were all created following the 2009 Recession.
Many recruiters are not expecting all employees to return to a physical workplace- at least not 100% of the time- so some of us have taken the opportunity to move out of cities- London in particular- in order to put quality of life centre stage. Fewer people will be required to commute. This opens up opportunities for more flexible working for the benefit of both employee and employer and also has a positive impact on the environment.
Many people claim to be unfulfilled in their jobs. We spend so much time working that if we are able to find roles which energise us and make use of our capabilities and talents then life can be so much richer and more enjoyable. Sometimes people stay in jobs out of necessity. Often though, people fear making a change which could lead to much more fulfilling opportunities. And frankly some of us are just lazy. We are creatures of habit and making change requires time and effort. We may be comfortable, even though we may not feel fulfilled. We may fear rejection and disappointment. There are no guarantees that our job applications will be successful.
And yet…what if we were to take that risk, stretch out of our comfort zone and surprise ourselves by securing the job we’ve dreamed of?
Sometimes all we need is a slight tweak in order to achieve greater fulfilment; would your current employer enable you to continue to work from home one day a week? Change your working hours so that you could take Friday’s off? Provide greater flexibility in your working hours so you can care for a loved one?
At other times we may need to make more fundamental changes to find fulfilment. This might mean:
- Applying for a promotion within your current organisation
- Making a sideways move into a job that’s more interesting -either in your current organisation or outside it
- Changing both your sector and your status – known as the ‘diagonal move’
- Considering self-employment or starting your own business
- Re-training in order to change career direction
- Relocating in order to find work
- Choosing to change location to somewhere you prefer as you no longer need to work from a company’s premises
Whilst COVID has had a profound personal impact on so many lives and swung an economic wrecking ball through swathes of the economy, if we are able to reframe these changes as an opportunity to think about what we really want and press our career ‘refresh’ button, perhaps it’s possible to navigate our way towards a better and brighter future.
Future posts will explore how to increase your chances of successfully making the necessary changes in order to thrive and flourish in a post-COVID world.
If there is one lesson that COVID has taught us, it’s that life is precious. It’s too short to be spending time on things that aren’t meaningful or rewarding.
Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter
Francis Chan
N.B. A useful source of reliable regular UK labour market updates is provided fortnightly by Charlie Ball, labour market information expert.
Author: Anne Wilson
