Last year took everyone by surprise, especially employees and big corporations that suddenly had to figure out how to adjust to an entirely new way of work. Not only did personal lives get drastically affected, but suddenly jobs were affected and huge bases of employees were attempting to navigate working remotely. Nobody could’ve guessed that this is where our world would be this time and just how drastically our world would be affected. Both personally and professionally, everyone has been challenged the past year and a half to an extent that we never would’ve thought we’d survive before.
Although the pandemic has been the biggest and the most dramatic crisis that we’ve seen in a long time, it certainly isn’t the only crisis that has affected businesses. Employees and businesses experience challenges daily and when a disaster strikes, it’s just yet another struggle of knowing how to work with it. We wanted to take a deeper look at just how the pandemic affected creatives, employees, and businesses in general and what they did to survive it.
Let’s take a look at how a crisis affects our creativity and what we can do to continue going through, even when times are tough. You’ll see that you can find ways through every crisis, even when it seems to be turning the world around.
Communication Has Gotten Better
During a time when businesses solely relied on phone calls and Zoom meetings for their communication, how businesses communicate and managers check-in with employees has changed drastically. Although at first there were a lot of worries that communication would suffer from the new way of employees, last year pleasantly surprised us with how efficiently and smoothly communication flowed.
Compared to years before with communication, many managers have said that communication has improved with the pandemic and the newfound form of communication. This has been largely due to more scheduled meetings and phone calls and more consistent and commitment showing up. When everything is through reading messages or online meetings, communication is easier to keep track of and provides less room for error.
Productivity Has Changed
Productivity has changed but has the pandemic made creatives more productive? Sure, there are fewer distractions with not being pulled into chatting with fellow employees during the day and more scheduled routine, but there are also hindrances with working remotely. There are more personal distractions and, when you’re working from home, it’s easier to not feel as held accountable as when your boss is working in the other room right across from you.Â
The feelings were mixed on whether the crisis helped with productivity or made it go down during the pandemic. Some said that their productivity consistently stayed the same throughout the pandemic, while others said that their productivity had risen during the crisis. Others didn’t have such a positive experience with productivity and saw that their work productivity went down during the pandemic. It seems that senior workers have found their rhythm and gotten into a routine of working from home.
Creativity Has Changed
Ultimately, creativity has been what has changed the most during the pandemic and how it changed employees. Creative work and collaboration seem to be what has changed the most drastically and what’s been mostly affecting those who worked remotely. Many say that during the pandemic they found that they were more creative, while others said that working remotely made them less creative. Collaborating has also been affected by the pandemic and changed it for employees. It seems that the younger generation has struggled with creativity, while the older generation found it easier during the pandemic.
Career Changes
Changes have been made during the pandemic to all lives, but careers and opportunities in the industry have changed more than we’ve seen before. Although the pandemic meant layoffs and hardship for the industry, it also opened up opportunities for employees. The pandemic affected many people in ways that were unforeseen and brought struggles onto people. But it’s also taught us something along the way that has helped us and businesses grow greatly.
Despite the pandemic, there have been bright spots in the past year that have affected us for the best. With reduced teams, there have been more opportunities for teams to grow together and endure struggles together. This past year has meant employees growing closer together with experiences that changed them. We’ve seen more opportunities open up not only for employees to grow closer but also for the dynamic of work to change.
Summing It Up
The pandemic changed everything drastically, especially businesses and how they work. We’ve seen many changes with employees, their performance, and how the industry has been affected. As a result of this, the crisis of 2020 has affected employee’s creativity. Above we talked about how a crisis affects our creativity and how it’s changed the industry.
