The Pandemic Work Revolution That Wasn’t

Five years ago this month, many of us were beginning to confront the reality of work from home, virtual school for our kids, no family visits, and many other disruptions to routines, plans, and dreams as the pandemic upended our lives.

At the time, there was a lot of gloom, but also a lot of hope that the crisis would usher in a deep shift of attitudes towards employees and transform the workplace. American entrepreneur Marc Cuban, with characteristic boldness, declared that "The CEO is of no more importance than somebody cleaning the floors... I think that this is a time as a reset where we really have to reevaluate how we treat workers." Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield proclaimed that "Work will never be the same... the sudden shift to distributed work has provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine everything about how we do our jobs and how we run our companies."

Fast forward to March 2025, and it's becoming clear most of the changes turned out to be modest, or fleeting. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, 49 percent of American workers said they felt cared for by their organizations—a high water mark. Yet by 2024, that number had fallen to 25 percent, below pre-pandemic levels.

In the same period, workplace engagement also dropped from 36 to 33 percent — an eleven-year low.

Despite all the talk about purpose at work and a flood of manifestos, books, and articles urging its importance, the percentage of people who feel a connection between their company's mission and their job has reached the lowest point since Gallup began to track this metric in 2007.

These trends aren't outliers. The General Social Survey, a long-running poll examining various aspects of American society, shows several workplace indicators in noticeable decline as of 2022 (the latest available year for data).

It's a sobering picture throughout, but particularly notable is the sharp drop in people who believe "the place where I work is run in a smooth and effective manner" and "conditions on my job allow me to be as productive as I could be." These jibe with another data point from Gallup, which shows a marked decrease in employees who have clarity on what is expected of them at work.  The irony is that there was more clarity in early 2021, amidst all the dislocation and uncertainty, than now.

The much-touted work-from-home (WFH) revolution has had a more limited impact than headlines suggest. The United States is among the global leaders in WFH adoption, yet only one in five American employees enjoys the flexibility of working from home at least some of the time, and a mere one in ten is fully virtual. The aggregate share of hours worked remotely stands at a modest 16% and hasn't increased since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking it in the fall of 2022.

Amazon and other large companies are now demanding a full return to the office, citing the need to boost productivity and build a more cohesive culture (along with the unspoken urge, at least in some cases, to reassert control). While these moves are unlikely to resurrect the pre-pandemic norm of a five-day office week, it's clear that for most employees WFH represents a welcome but minor shift in modality – not the paradigm shift many envisioned.

The rise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), particularly in the wake of George Floyd's death in 2020, was another significant development. The greater focus on building more just and inclusive workplaces is laudable, but the impact of DEI initiatives has been mixed at best. In many cases, DEI has devolved into top-down administrative exercises that prioritize procedural compliance over substantive change. Such efforts also skirt around deeper systemic issues in the workplace, such as the large power and compensation differentials that exist in most organizations. From this perspective, DEI initiatives are no more than a small down payment on the larger goal of creating workplaces where all employees have the opportunity to develop and apply their gifts–irrespective of demographics, credentials, and rank.

Despite all this, I’m more confident than ever that deep change is within reach.  The old management playbook has expired, and there’s a growing number of organizations that are writing a better one (more on this in future posts).

The key lesson is this: a more inspiring future of work isn't going to be handed down, nor emerge naturally due to some inevitable shift. It's something we'll need to create ourselves with intention, perseverance, and concerted action.  To get the workplaces we deserve, we need to stop moaning and start mobilizing.

It's time to roll up our sleeves.