Look at the resting face of the COVID VUCANs next to you. I’ll bet their facial expression is hangry (hungry + angry), plain angry, annoyed, irritated, contemptuous, or … How many faces are smiling? Few or any. It seems that VUCANs are negative and flat out grim about their life and work these days. Maybe it’s the COVID sign of the times. Maybe, we’re now all VUCANs living in dystopian times.
The School of Life in ‘Why The World is Broken’ captured the angst:
“For those of us lucky enough to live through the early 21st century, when unprecedented advancements in medicine, agriculture and technology have rendered many of the evils of the past obsolete, the question remains: why are we still so miserable?
If, as the scientists and academics tell us, our present age is the best possible time to be alive, why do so many yearn to return to an imagined (and illusory) past, whilst others look ahead with horror at a chaotic and doom-laden future?”[i]
Here’s the irony. Pre COVID, LinkedIn reported that half of U.S. VUCANs are disengaged as they’re getting fancy titles and promotions with no pay increases. Companies need engagement and productivity from their VUCAN employees. However, workers are overwhelmed by COVID and automation, which drive up their fears. There’s a global anxiety epidemic. Here’s a few pre COVID U.K. statistics:
“The Mental Health Foundation says that 74% of Brits felt overwhelmed by stress at some point last year, with work being the biggest cause.”[ii]
Work Lesson Earned: Around the globe, there’s growing anxiety about the impacts and risks of COVID on work, careers, and jobs. The anxiety can be seen with rising inequality, gig economy, unemployment, cost of education, and growing divide between what employers want and colleges produce. There’s an urgent need to work with these negative thoughts, reframe thinking, and feel mindful about what you do and how you work.
[i] ‘Why the World Is Broken,’ The School of Life Global Newsletter, May 2019.
[ii] ‘Focus On the How You Work, Not Why’, BBC, January 26, 2019.