COVID Work-Life Issues: Is Hybridity the Path Forward?

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The Covid-19 pandemic needs no introduction. It has changed the life of every single person around the world,
in all its various waves and variants. Who would’ve thought that all it took was a seriously deadly pandemic to
completely force humanity to unite and look for alternate ways of conducting a functioning society? Well,
credit to us, we did incredibly to continue everything sustainably and effectively.

What’s different between World War II and the Coronavirus pandemic of the last few years? Apart from both
being watershed moments of history and large-scale humanitarian crises, one forced women to come out and
join the workforce, while others have forced almost the entire workforce to go indoors. That’s how
revolutionised the world we live in has become. Indoor working or work-from-home has become virtually
comfortable and normal – almost as if people aren’t ready to join the workforce again, because of the source
of comfort that home provides.

In the beginning of the pandemic, there would have been complaints from employees, but they have grown to
love the flexibility that work-from-home provides. There’s absolutely zero travel time, employees are already
in a place they’re comfortable in, and there’s a lot more time they can spend with loved ones. The pandemic
has normalised ‘remote work’, to an extent that employees will be reluctant to go back to the old,
monotonous, drab, and boring routine to go back to the office every day.

However, with the world coming back to normality (at least pre-pandemic normality), hybrid workforce is the
way forward. Hybrid work entails the fact that employees come in a few days of the week, and work from
home for the rest of the week. As organisations are pushed to sharpen their presentations for why employees
should select them, it heralds at least a few long-term shifts in the workplace, one of which is the hybrid
model. According to experts, it allows both employees and companies the best of both worlds—flexibility and
time saved on long journeys, while still allowing for social contacts and collaborative work in the office. Hybrid
workforce also fulfils the expectations that offices will not be packed – there will be around 30-40% of people
in the office per day, at maximum, which can substantially reduce real-estate and indirect costs for the
companies.

“2021 has been a rockstar year whether you look at annual GDP growth or industry-wise growth.
There is absolutely nothing that suggests that just because people are working from home, the
industry growth has been impacted. Something is going right,” says Singhal of Mercer.

The pandemic made it impossible for students to go to schools, universities, or colleges either, so the
complete reform and revamp of the education sector was an utmost necessity. It did pose quite an issue and
hassle initially, and in hindsight, the office and workplace took the pandemic far better than the education
sector did, but overall, it was managed quite effectively and efficiently. The evolution of online learning
platforms like Zoom, WebEx, and Teams, and university-centric apps like Google Classroom which were used
for assignments and exams were a blessing, and it made online education possible. The pandemic ensured
that the digitization of education happened – in fact, pushed a slowly evolving concept into overdrive – and
this simply makes students more aware and more social-friendly.

Hybrid education, once again, seems like the most promising path forward. At its most basic level, hybrid
learning is a type of education that mixes in-person and online instruction. Hybrid learning allows educators to

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choose the optimal choice for each learning purpose by combining traditional classroom experiences,
experiential learning objectives, and digital course delivery. As hybrid learning continues to establish itself as a
successful and efficient learning paradigm, the advantages it offers over both conventional and online learning
become more obvious. By combining the flexibility and safety of studying from home with the benefits of
hands-on contact with educators, hybrid learning has the potential to provide both students and instructors
with the best of both worlds.

The emergence of hybrid learning gives a response to the issues faced by this epidemic on both sides of the
classroom. Teachers now have more leeway in designing and delivering courses that are appealing to their
pupils. Learners are equally enabled to complete their education in a setting that blends cutting-edge
technology with hands-on engagement. In the age of the new normal, hybrid learning provides a road ahead
for the education industry.

However, there are quite a few issues with online learning and education. According to Human Rights Watch,
school closures would result in the sudden termination of education for millions of pupils. Children have
started working, married, become parents, been disillusioned with school, concluded that they cannot catch
up, or aged out of free or compulsory education as promised by their country’s laws. The damage to many
children’s education is compounded by pre-existing issues: according to UN data, one in every five children
was out of school before Covid-19 spread. Even before the pandemic, covid-induced school closures tended to
disproportionately damage kids from groups that face prejudice and exclusion from education.

“With millions of children deprived of education during the pandemic, now is the time to
strengthen protection of the right to education by rebuilding better and more equitable and
robust education systems,” said Elin Martinez, senior education researcher at Human Rights
Watch. “The aim shouldn’t be just to return to how things were before the pandemic, but to fix
the flaws in systems that have long prevented schools from being open and welcoming to all
children.”

The global pandemic also acted as a blessing and a curse for women in the workplace, in terms of gender
equality. Women may more likely ask for remote work or work-from-home as compared to men. They’ve also
had a more difficult time of it, citing greater levels of stress, despair, and total hours worked – especially if
they had children. This paradox results from women attempting to accomplish the best for their jobs while
simultaneously negotiating an unjust position in society and at home. In other words, because women have
more to accomplish, they require more flexible work arrangements.

Even before the epidemic, women were performing what sociologists call the “second shift,” in which they
perform an excessive amount of home and caring activities after they had completed their paid job. The
epidemic has made matters worse since most of the infrastructure that aids with these activities — schools,
day care, elder care, and cleaning services — has been shut down.

Despite significant advances in education and labour involvement, caregiving and domestic work are still
considered women’s responsibilities. A combination of cultural norms and economic mechanisms reinforces
this message. Many antiquated ideas of women’s place in society persist. Women are more likely to be held
responsible for household chores and child care, while men get to prioritize their work — despite the fact that
both men and women are working.

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It's also worth noting that the workplace has never been very welcoming to women. This is due in part to
office culture, which encouraged long hours as well as hours after work fraternising with bosses while a
partner assisted at home. It’s a situation that has historically favoured males over women.

“Remote work absolutely can work for women, however, what we need is to make sure that the
support that allows working women to equally focus on work as their male peers is there”, said
Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner in McKinsey & Company’s Bay Area office and co-author of
“Women in the Workplace,” a report about the female corporate workforce in 2020.

How do we make working from home fairer to women? There are a number of things the government and
employers can do, like paid parental leave, subsidized child-care, promoting and treating people who work-
from-home equally, and increased focus on productivity and not hours logged or worked.

The pandemic dealt a huge blow to, well, everything on Earth. But humanity did what it does best – dusted
itself off, and figured out a way to work until a new normal was established. Sure, there are issues that need to
be fixed and holes that need to be plugged. But, for what humanity has achieved in such a short time, it’s
commendable.

Cheers to mankind, then.

Vaibhav Raghavan
IPM03172, Section B

APPENDIX

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