With the pandemic of COVID-19 still ongoing, it has affected the way many of us have to go about our ordinary routine. One exemplification of this is work, from a status of full time employment in one area to working from home.
Father Rutler, as well as many others have noted that the continuation of business must continue despite these challenges to our everyday lives. With the abrupt closure of many businesses around the globe, specifically speaking in the USA, many have proclaimed that they never or on rare occasion teleworker, stated the Pew Research Center, Social and Demographic trends, in one online article.
However, America was not the only forte affected by the massive amplitude of persons affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 since its ebb into a state of a pandemic declaration by the (WHO) or World Health Organization in March of 2020. The Office of National Statistics proclaimed that 46.6% of residents in the UK as of April 2020 worked from home. A display that while we think our area is badly affected, the reality in the spectrum is that this is a global artifact, not one that is in our back yard that will disappear overnight.
The Office of National Statistics went on to state that of those 46.6% of UK citizens working from home, an astonishing 86% did so as a direct result of COVID-19. However, the drawback to this light in the midst of a gloomy situation is that this is predominantly true for a proportion of the populous. Other jobs and careers that still require on site or manual labor may not have this option. For example, more rudimentary elementary or lesser tier pay scale professions may lack this alternative of this option.
As we look back at the USA, some do not have the option to work from home as exemplified by statistics by the Pew Research Center. A correlation in trend from the previous statistic given in another part of the world just earlier. The Pew Research Center stated that 62% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or more proclaim their work can be done from home. Contrary to the 23% which are left out of the marginal spectrum of education of a bachelor’s degree or higher. So, in due respects, upper tier professions have the opportunity to work from home, while some middle scale and many lower tier do not.
However, the twist in the story is that roughly 8 out of 10 Americans say there is some in person interaction in the workplace, with a staggering 52% claiming there are concurrently frequent interactions on a day at work. Though many are satisfied with the predisposed steps to limit the spread of COVID-19, some are still concerned with the measures taken. For example, a worker may or may not be aware that the person right next to them is a carrier or not. How would you even know based on common interaction with a random person? An interesting question to ask oneself when thinking about the totality in effect of the spread and containment of the virus.
For this, Father Rutler and many others believe that now is the time to not get complacent, work must continue though there are obstacles in play that we still must overcome.
