Changing health concerns
While new COVID-19 cases trend downward, there remain health challenges to address.
The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine is one of the most important steps toward a return to normalcy.
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—Jennifer Heller
I don’t want to pass the virus to others.
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I’m worried about the vaccine’s effectiveness.
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Nothing is guaranteed in a rushed vaccine.
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—Concerns from COVID-19 vaccine survey respondents
of Americans have been vaccinated as of November 2021
As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, questions persist about people’s health, how and where they work, and how to create economic opportunities for all. Here we reflect on how Americans report feeling about the ongoing challenges and what’s next.
59%
Changing health concerns
Returning to the office
Prioritizing opportunities for all
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of adults reported struggling with some form
of mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic
41%
—Eric Achtmann
While we’re talking about a virus, a pandemic, in fact, we’re talking about people. And no matter what company, what government, wherever you go on the globe, people have been at this for a year and a half, some people working 24 seven. And people are exhausted.
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This is a wake-up call for employers to consider the mental wellness of employees as important as their physical health.
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—Liz Hilton Segel
—Alexandra Drane
Many unpaid caregivers also suffer from financial, workplace, and relationship stress, and the COVID-19 crisis has heightened the intensity across each of these areas with added health and economic stress.
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of adults in the US who are sandwich-generation caregivers (those taking care of both children and adults) report having active suicidal thoughts
52%
How people work continues to evolve as new outbreaks of COVID-19 may delay the return to on-site work.
Returning to the office
—Bill Schaninger
Asking what a return to the workplace looks like … is an unbelievable opportunity to remake culture. It’s rare in a leader’s lifetime to have such a clean drop for reshaping how you run the place.
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How employees feel about returning to on-site work
Some employees are saying, hey, now that we’ve seen we can be productive remotely, and it works better for me, then if I can’t do it at a current employer, I’ll find somewhere else.
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—Brian Hancock
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—Margaret Hanson-Muse
People have to be as agile at home as they are at work, and this is a new reality for managers.
View full interview
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McKinsey partner
Founding member of the Pandemic Security Initiative (Pansec.org)
CEO of ARCHANGELS and wellness expert
McKinsey global leader, industry practices, on mental wellness in the workplace
McKinsey senior partner
McKinsey partner on getting hybrid work right
Faculty chair for the US Department of Commerce at the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy
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—Leena Nair
Chief human resources officer, Unilever
We’re rethinking our physical workspace … to create more connections, more collaboration. We are also thinking about the digital workspace and … where we build in some of the social-capital rituals.
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of American workers surveyed want to work from home 3 or more days a week
60%
of C-suite executives surveyed believe that workers will be in the office 3 or more days a week postpandemic
88%
Based on McKinsey’s post-COVID-19 scenario, 17 million workers in the United States may need to change jobs over the next 10 years, a trend that disproportionately affects workers of color, women, and people without college degrees.
Prioritizing opportunities for all
—Pauline
Real estate agent, Houston
The opportunity for jobs, it wasn’t there.
View full interview
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It was really scary. I sent an email to our lender and said, ‘If these days continue and the trend continues, we’re done. We’ll have to fold.’
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—Moses Harris
Small-business owner in Los Angeles, reflecting on the impact of lockdowns
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—Virginia Johnson
Artistic director, Dance Theatre of Harlem
The pandemic has drawn a line right down the middle between people who have and people who don’t.
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—Farida Mercedes
Former HR executive at a global cosmetic company
If it wasn’t for the pandemic,
I would have never left my job.
I am the primary carer, in the sense of supporting school …
as the mom in the house.
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of Americans surveyed reported a willingness to change occupations if necessary, but many of those who had to leave the workforce—
mostly women—must seek new jobs
49%
of Americans—some 60 million people—
who live in rural areas may face a heightened risk of being left behind with fewer economic prospects
20%
—Julius G.
Farmer in Nebraska reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
It seems to have put a lot more volatility
in everything. I think when something like
that hits, there’s potential opportunity. … Wherever there’s fear, there’s just opportunity either on the upside or the downside.
View interactive
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