Post-Pandemic Work and Career Models: Considerations for Self

by Michael Evans (June 2021)

In my interactions with young professionals in my network in year 0 (zero) thru year 10 of their careers, we have been discussing their thoughts in the on-going debates around the future of work from home (WFH).  Specifically, we are exploring how one’s career advancement will be impacted as WFH scenarios settle in (fully back in office/at client (FBO), some in office/some WFH at direction of employer (HYBiz), some in office/some WFH at the preference of the employee (HYBemp), and fully WFH (FWFH).

IMO, any pre-pandemic career system, and the associated social contract that existed between the employer and employee, that was based on something different from the new work location normal that settles in will need to be re-examined. 

Underlying some of those business systems (not to be confused with technology systems) are assumptions regarding the intensity and urgency of learning in those work settings. As is commonly understood, 70% of learning occurs when doing the work, and being coached real-time by those observing the work.

Generalizing, if pre-pandemic work location models were predominantly FBO, the more intense and the more urgent the work, the deeper and faster learning occurred, and career capabilities could be developed. This enabled fast(er)-paced career advancement and all that comes with it – compensation, benefits, titles, and responsibilities.

In conversations I am having with young professionals in my personal network, we are revisiting how they react to which of the four models they become a part of. 

We are testing a hypothesis: working remote does not eliminate what capabilities a professional can develop, but it slows the pace and depth one’s capabilities progress, thus slowing the pace at which career advancement can occur.

My counsel to young professionals, among other things, includes two key questions: 

1. Are you willing to accept the potential slowing pace of your advancement that might come with WFH models HYBiz, HYBemp, or FWFH?

2. How will you respond when colleagues (or competitors) are operating (by choice or edict) in models where the work (likely closer to FBO) is more intense and more urgent, thus allowing someone else to advance their capabilities deeper and faster relative to you?

In the finite work cultures where most professionals exist, the answers to these questions are often manifested by someone else getting promoted, someone else getting a bonus, someone else getting the plum assignment, someone else getting that job you wanted.

Most of the young professionals leave our conversations with more awareness of their situation and a recognition that their situation is more complex. While their individuality certainly needs to be accounted for and respected, their individuality is part of a multi-tiered system where each decision is impacted by and does impact the circumstances of others.

They also leave with this warning: view any employer promising equality between professionals in similar roles working in different work location models with skepticism. I’ll discuss that dilemma in a future post.