This Labor Day, let’s get real about how things have gotten better for workers in the USA

The nature of employment has changed in the last decade more than many people might realize. More of us work from home. More of us work for ourselves, choosing assignments when it suits us. More of us negotiate these arrangements on our own with employers.

On the whole, this is a good thing, a result of people being better able to balance their work and private lives. People have more opportunities to pursue the type of work they would ideally like to do. These changes happened in part because of new technology. 

Once upon a time, just making a long-distance telephone call was prohibitively expensive, and traveling was a major part of many white collar professions because there was no great substitute for being physically face-to-face. Now we can, with a few clicks on our mobile devices or computers, video-chat people near or far, even on other continents, for as long as we need.

The culture has shifted, too. Workers are more assertive now in demanding these new arrangements. The two-year COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was a catalyst for change. People who had never worked remotely before the pandemic were suddenly thrust into doing that. In many cases, they and their managers found it was as good as having an office – or at least quite doable. Some will never go back. Only 7 percent of workers worked remotely before the pandemic, compared to about a third of workers now, according to a Pew Research Center poll this year. And even more do a hybrid arrangement.

Read the full article on Fox News.