How the Pandemic is Flipping Maslow’s Pyramid
As early as just a few months into the pandemic it became clear that Covid-19 triggered a number of mini and macro-revolutions, and shifted the way we used to work and live. Now that we are approaching the dismal 2-year anniversary since the first case was detected, we come to the realization that there may never be a full return to the 2019 ‘normal’.
And that’s a good thing.
For countless people across the globe, living through this health and economic crisis (often in isolation) has delivered a strong dose of perspective. Close brushes with death often do that. They cause us to sift through our values, re-evaluate and re-consider them, and question everything in our lives.
Over the last years, unrelated to Covid-19, after heart-wrenchingly losing two close friends and one team member (all at the peak of their lives and careers) in three separate tragic incidents, these are some of the questions I’ve asked myself:
“Am I working on the right things?”
“Do I spend enough time with those I love?”
“Why am I here?”
“Am I investing in the right relationships?”
“Am I happy?”
“Do I matter?”
“Do I mend more than I destroy?”
“What’s the point of everything?”
More than 70 years ago, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl argued that we cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Our primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of meaning.
It is interesting to observe that the pandemic has threatened the base and middle needs of Maslow’s pyramid (safety, security, sleep, health, our loved ones), yet triggered an acute need of self-actualization (purpose and meaning, expression of creativity and identity), which sits at the very top of the hierarchy.
For many of us, the most obvious way to channel self-actualization is through work. I believe work is something we will continue doing even when most things we now call work are automated, taken care of by algorithms, AI and robots, precisely because of our need for purpose and expressing ourselves.
But we have to fix work, because the old ways are broken, and are chipping away at our satisfaction and feeling that our work matters. We’re seeing the Great Resignation happening as we speak, where a record-high 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August 2021 in the US alone, and it’s only accelerating from here.
So I’m glad to see that the traditional office setup (aka distraction-central, where urgent requests make it impossible to focus on your priorities) is being questioned and reimagined. That companies are focusing more on results and making the time count rather than count the time (i.e. the need to “look busy” and fill those 8 hours to justify your salary). That there are more initiatives to minimize “meta-work” or work about work (e.g. long unnecessary meetings, status updates, planning, reports). That new structures and concepts are challenging the command and control chain model, and the always-on culture.
The trend towards more purpose-driven jobs and companies emerged before Covid-19, with millennials in particular known for prioritizing purpose over paychecks. The pandemic fast-tracked this. The fact that purpose-driven work ensures a competitive advantage for businesses will continue to gain traction and expand to industries not usually associated with purpose, such as this real estate company.
The world was shaken to its core, in so many different ways, by what we’ve lived through in the last 18 months. We can't ask people to unlearn what they've learned in 2020 and 2021 (e.g. that remote work...works just fine), to go back to the office-as-a-factory model, and to simply be a “human resource”.
Most people are simply no longer willing to grind for years, doing meaningless work, commuting hours every day (to make their next promotion or add “senior” to their title), when there’s an acute feeling that you can, for example, any day, catch an invisible virus and meet your end abruptly.
Post-pandemic, we are looking at shifting priorities. At more intentionally designed lives, now that we (all) know our entire schedule doesn’t have to revolve around getting to and back from work in a large, over-crowded city. At more mobile, lean, flexible, inspiring work environments. At slower and more meaningful travel, and a focus on well-being and purpose. At governments that are slowly waking up to these realities and trying to catch up with some of these ”new trends”.
The future of work is flexibility, trust, smart strategy, keeping people nurtured and motivated by a commonly shared purpose more than any time before. We have a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild better. When we design more purposeful businesses and lifestyles, we shape a more positive, balanced, sustainable reality.
Are you witnessing, resisting or shaping the next version of reality?
