Opportunities for Workplace Transformation: Place-Based Workers
A couple of weeks ago while walking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I live, a woman wearing a netela (traditional shawl) approached me and asked for money, speaking perfect English. She told me she was an experienced tour guide with deep knowledge of Ethiopian history. I was convinced by her eloquence and fluency. She also told me that after the pandemic hit and the number of tourists in Ethiopia practically disappeared, she’s been struggling to provide the essential things for her daughter and son. In the past 10 years I’ve lived in Mexico, the U.S., India, Costa Rica and Ethiopia, always mesmerized by the commonalities and differences of each place. The tourist guide was a reminder of how the pandemic has reached every corner of the world.
Throughout my career I’ve created learning experiences for organizations, including projects that promote health and safety. As COVID-19 suddenly hit, conducting our work became significantly riskier. Now, as some places in the world start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I believe it’s important to ask: given the impact COVID-19 has had in our workplaces, are there any emerging possibilities that can improve our life quality and wellbeing after the pandemic?
This is a big question. To try to reach a more tangible answer, I will focus mainly on U.S.-based workers that cannot conduct their work remotely.
Workplace, essential workers and place-based workers.
It is important to distinguish between “essential workers” and “place-based workers.” In the emerging narratives of the past 12+ months we constantly hear of the heroic roles of “essential workers.” According to the International Labor Organization these are workers “without which the safety, health and welfare of the community or a section of the community would be endangered or seriously prejudiced.” On the other hand, individuals who have a “place-based work”—as the name implies—need to be at a specific location to conduct their work.
Generally, essential workers are place-based (e.g. doctors at a hospital, grocery stores cashiers). At the same time there are millions of place-based workers who create value to our societies but are not considered “essential” (e.g. performing artists, workers in the restaurant industry).
Place-based workers that are not considered essential have endured a devastating punch during the pandemic: the inability to work and generate income. From that perspective, being an essential worker and continuing to have a remunerated activity during the pandemic seemed fortunate. However, the negative impact the pandemic has had on essential workers—which some estimate to be 70% of all U.S. workers—is also undeniable.
Going to work in the midst of a pandemic exposed essential workers and place-based workers to SARS-COV-2. For example, one study found that 20% of grocery store workers tested positive for COVID-19. Not all the workers that tested positive showed symptoms, but the positivity rates among grocery store workers were higher than the average in their communities.
The higher risk of a COVID-19 infection for place-based workers was even higher for communities of color in the U.S. Research found that Hispanics and nonwhite workers made up to 73% of COVID-19 cases associated with workplace outbreaks in Utah between March and June of last year.
Higher infection rates, naturally, led to higher mortality rates. A different study in California, found that between March and October 2020 mortality rates increased by 22% amongst working age individuals (18-65 years old). The mortality rate increase for place-based workers was significantly higher. For example 60% higher for cooks, 59% for packaging and filling machine operators, and 55% for agricultural workers.
Placed-based workers were more vulnerable to infection and yet, a lot of employers did not provide the right PPE or working conditions to mitigate these risks. Workers in general can submit a complaint to the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when they identify risks at their workplace. As the pandemic grew and the lack of safety protocols and risk mitigation prevailed, workers felt at higher risk. This increased the number of complaints submitted to the agency. When analyzing the trends of complaints filed, researchers found a correlation with COVID-19 deaths sixteen days later and new confirmed cases ten days later after filing.
It is clear that the pandemic has had a severe impact on placed-based workers either by eliminating their jobs, or making the workplace significantly more dangerous.
Opportunities triggered by workplace shifts.
As the vaccination efforts are making progress and the possibilities of returning to a pre-pandemic workplace are more palpable, the quest for opportunities in this transformation is even more relevant. Perhaps the biggest opportunity that the workplace transformation has brought is unquantifiable and is a recalibration of what we value.
David Michaels, epidemiologist and former Assistant Secretary of Labor, recently reflected that “the Covid-19 crisis serves as a reminder of the challenges of protecting the nation’s workers, millions of whom have risked their lives to provide medical care, stock grocery shelves and operate public transit.” The work of these essential workers is crucial for society, but as we gain awareness of the risk they endured during the pandemic, we need to reckon that a lot of those risks existed prior to the pandemic.
As the pandemic reminded us of the value of health and safety in our workplaces, we need to seize this opportunity to ensure that every individual in our communities has access to a safe work environment during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We can do this embracing some of the different roles we play in our communities, specifically: employer/employees, policy-makers and consumers.
Employers-Employees
Regardless if we have the role of employee, employer, business owner, freelancer, hourly employee, gig economy worker, etc. we need to question how the organization we work for deals with workplace safety. Are any of our colleagues enduring any unnecessary risks? How can we know if the organizations we belong to are taking the necessary steps to ensure workplace safety?
A good starting point is to gain awareness of health and safety at work initiatives litke the Total Worker Health Program (TWH) launched by the CDC and that aims to “explore how work can be better designed to both protect workers from harm on the job and enhance their overall health and well-being.” Although this program predates the pandemic, the more we are familiar with its principles, the higher the chances that more organizations will stick to the program. Katherine Igoe synthesizes six key characteristics that are essential for applying TWH in this context:
Focusing on working conditions for infection control and supportive environments for increased psychological demands
Utilizing participatory approaches involving workers in identifying daily challenges and unique solutions
Employing comprehensive and collaborative efforts to increase system efficiencies
Committing as leaders to supporting workers through action and communications
Using data to guide actions and evaluate progress
Adhering to ethical and legal standards
By learning and understanding these elements, we can confidently assess if our organization is in the right direction to protect all the employees and everyone touched by the organization.
Policy-Makers
Another opportunity that has risen out of this pandemic is greater public awareness about the disparities between workers and the need for progressive policy to protect workers. While employers certainly have a role to play, policy needs to set a standard that both supports employers and holds them accountable.
As such, there's increased awareness of necessary policy to rectify this wrong. The Brookings Institute published a comprehensive policy manifesto around recommendations for U.S. policy, which includes:
Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15
Expanding the child tax credit
Leveraging state and local funds for hazard pay
Accelerating worker safety efforts
Expanding paid leave
Strengthening labor laws
And it's not just think tanks that are seeing this need. The need for comprehensive change has spurred greater activism among workers and an increase for general public support for unions is at an all-time high after years of declining union membership and favorability.
This then leads to the consumer's role in forward momentum.
Consumers
We need to reflect on how the organization we give business to (as consumers and clients) treat their employees. For example, what are the working conditions of the workers at the grocery store you typically use? Or of the drivers that deliver all the things that you buy online?
On this last question I can give you a hint. A recent report showed how Amazon contractors asked some of their drivers to turn off an app intending to monitor safe behaviors in order to achieve a quota of delivering up to 400 packages a day. Tired, speeding drivers should be a concern for everyone in any neighborhood. These drivers may be beyond the risk of contracting COVID-19, but the dangers in their workplace prevail.
Amazon does not directly employ the drivers (most of those Amazon branded trucks are not owned by Amazon). However, Amazon is characterized by going the extra mile for its customer convenience. As we realize the risk and harsh work condition that place-based workers endure in Amazon’s operations, we as consumers can have an active role in making them improve the working conditions.
Amazon is just one example. We need to pay attention to the work conditions of all the community members that make our lives possible—from agriculture, food processing, grocery store—and act when those conditions are needlessly risky, even if that act means choosing to give business only to organizations that properly care for the safety and wellbeing of their employees.
The new normal
As we dive into a new normal, Boris Groysbers reminds us that some workers “will return to work grieving the loss of a loved one who fell victim to the virus; some will deal with mental health issues that surfaced during the pandemic; some will grapple with financial constraints due to a spouse’s layoff; some will support children as they transition back to school after a year or more of online classes and social isolation from peers.” The opportunities discussed here will not mitigate the difficulties that those individuals are going and will go through. However, if we sustain our new appreciation for the health and safety of our workers, we can limit the impact on workers today.