Washington Post columnist David Ignatius opined recently that “there’s no question that we’ll be living in a different world post-pandemic.” He writes that more than half of Americans “believe their lives will remain changed in major ways.”
Technology will allow people to work and live remotely, Ignatius writes, and they will continue the habits developed over the past seven months. He cites a survey by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. that reports private sector companies pivoted to the new work arrangements 40 times faster than they expected possible. It estimates that companies jumped three to four years ahead into the future workplace in the space of a few weeks.
Shifts in How Government Work Gets Done
It’s not just the private sector that has changed. Governments are also beginning to adapt to the new normal by transitioning services online that they had been traditionally reluctant to redesign, such as:
Initially these shifts to the web were done as temporary emergency measures. However, in many cases they are beginning to be incorporated into a new normal for agency operations.
In addition to changes in how work is done, the governmental shift in where work is done—using distance work arrangements much like the private sector—may well stick. At the federal level, there was initial surprise in productivity increases in some agencies, as noted by telework expert Kate Lister future pandemic going
