Crisis Conversations: Will COVID Kill Work-Life Balance?
Podcast
Shutterstock
Aug. 14, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is completely upending the way we work, live, connect with one another and what we expect from our government, communities and each other. It’s all happening so fast that stress levels and anxiety are sky high. That’s why the Better Life Lab is hosting a weekly interactive conversation for people to come together, share stories and begin to make sense of what’s unfolding and what it could mean for the future of gender equity, health, how we work and how we live.
Crisis Conversations–Live from Better Life Lab is hosted by Brigid Schulte and produced by David Schulman.
In the era of coronavirus, the notion of work-life balance can seem a dream for those who still have work. But the gut-it-out model is bad for workers, virtual and otherwise, and bad for employers.
Host Brigid Schulte talks with behavioral science workers at ideas42 — a nonprofit that seeks to use behavioral science insights to improve lives and drive social change. We'll hear about efforts at ideas42 to research and re-design workplace culture in an innovative pilot project ideas42 is collaborating on with Accion, an international nonprofit working with microfinance programs. We'll explore what role the concept of “scarcity” plays in how we go about our pandemic workdays, and in how we design work in the first place. And we'll consider whether something called "the party principal" could make some of us better, happier virtual workers in the time of COVID-19.
To take on this topic, Better Life Lab's Brigid Schulte is joined by:
- Matthew Darling, Vice President at ideas42
- Lynne Curran, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Accion
- Antonia Violante, Senior Associate at ideas42
- Uyhun Ung, Senior Associate at ideas42
To hear more of this episode including stories and questions from callers, click here. You can also find this episode wherever you listen to your podcasts. The video and transcript of the conversation are down below.