A Coupla Things

A couple of things that would not, on their own, merit a post.  Not because they're not interesting; I think if they were verifiable and included lots of data and numbers, they'd stand alone.  As it is, they're anecdotal.  So - grain of salt.

But more importantly, both stories suggest that the pandemic has nudged some of us a little bit toward what Maslow calls self-actualization - the fulfillment of our potential and our satisfaction with who we are.  But I'll let you be the judge.

First, to follow up on the previous post, regarding jobs and businesses.  Axios summarizes a survey by Prudential Financial that suggests that as many as one quarter of the workforce will be looking for a new job once the economy settles down and employment becomes less risky.  The World Economic Forum tells us that "up to 40% of employees are thinking of quitting their jobs."  Why?

• Some workers may believe they need to change jobs to get a better grip on work-life balance or find a place where they feel more connected.
• Nearly half of employees surveyed by Prudential said they feel disconnected to their companies after a year of working remotely, partly because they are missing the benefits of interacting with people outside their teams and getting "face time" with higher-ups in the office. This "culture decay" can lead people to be more likely to hop to a new employer.

A year or more away from the focused stress of the office has been revealing to many.  

"University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson tells Axios, "People have had a little more space to ask themselves, 'Is this really what I want to be doing?'" So some are deciding they want to work fewer hours or with more flexibility to create more time for family or hobbies."

Imagine that.  When people had no choice but to balance life, family and work, many of them kind of liked it.  Who could have predicted that?  Many don't want to work for a company which forbids WFH; over 80% in the Prudential study said they would prefer to be able to work from home at least one day a week.  For more reading, the World Economic Forum article goes down some interesting rabbit holes.

Secondly:  You may remember the post on hair.  At that point (oh, the innocence!), July 2020, we thought the pandemic was waning and things were opening up (very prematurely, as it turns out).  Men whose haircut-every-two-weeks-forever routine had been disrupted, were getting haircuts again, after months of not doing so.  And some were liking the long look, and deciding to keep it.

In a footnote at the end I noted, "I have no idea how this plays out for women in hair salons."  Well, now I do.

In a strangely moving, and beautifully photographed article in The New Yorker, we meet a dozen or so women who have been coloring their hair since the first grey appeared - and then, during the last year, with stylists and beauty parlors out of business, the grey grew in.  And they liked it.

I say it was moving because I have a sense of what grey hair can mean to a woman's self-concept, from conversations overheard during a long life.  These women have chosen to embrace it - to acknowledge greying and the aging it represents - many with a palpable sense of joy.  See that in the mirror?  That's me!  Me!  

An 80 year old woman who had never shown her grey says,

“When I did have a hairdresser to cut my hair, she said, ‘Don’t you want to do the color?’ I said, ‘Finished. No more.’ I’m very happy.”

"I'm very happy."  And that's your good news for the day.