(CNN) – We might be ready to move past 2020 and never look back, but some parts of this pandemic year are going to stick with us — especially when it comes to how we work.
I spoke with experts to find out what changes will likely carry on into the new year. Here’s what they said:
The F word: Flexibility. Want to work a few days in the office and the rest of the week at home? Companies are going to continue to be a lot less strict about where employees work.
The office makeover. With more employees working remotely, many companies are going to revamp their offices with an eye toward creating more collaborative areas and less individual workspaces.
Going beyond medical benefits. Companies will focus more on benefits for the entire family — things like tutoring assistance, financial planning help and increased childcare benefits.
A shot in the arm
The US government issued guidelines last week that said employers may require the COVID-19 vaccine, and some business leaders seem open to the idea.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said employers can mandate workers get the vaccine, but they must comply with workplace laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
A little more than 70% of current and recent CEOs of major companies signaled an openness to a vaccine mandate, according to a poll held last week at a virtual summit by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, reports CNN Business’ Matt Egan.
WFH Tip: Protect your time
You can spend your days in back-to-back meetings, rushing to meet deadlines and responding to the never-ending emails and still feel like you didn’t accomplish much. Here’s what Matt Martin, co-founder and CEO of smart calendar assistant Clockwise, recommends:
Every week, usually on Sunday night, I look at my calendar and block off hour-plus blocks of time for specific projects. Time-blocking my calendar has multiple benefits: (1) Pre-committing keeps me accountable to my most important tasks and projects, (2) Pre-deciding what to work on and when, forces me to make hard trade-offs on how I spend time, and (3) Scheduling these blocks on my calendar communicates to others that, no, they cannot book that one extra meeting with me.
The pandemic’s toll on women
The pandemic has wiped out millions of jobs. And women have been hit harder than men.
Women have lost more jobs in the pandemic, report my colleagues Anneken Tappe, Clare Duffy and Tal Yellin.
Here’s what they found: As of November, women held 5.3 million fewer jobs than they did before the pandemic began in February. That shortage was 4.6 million for men.
So what’s going on? Women tend to make up the majority in some of the hardest-hit industries: leisure and hospitality, education and health services.
Childcare has also been a big issue for working mothers. From February to September, the labor force…
Read More: 2020 has been the worst. But these work changes are sticking around