The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted labor markets, triggering massive and instant series of experimentations with flexible work arrangements, and new relationships to centralized working environments. These approaches have laid the basis for the “new normal,” likely extending into the organization of work in the post-pandemic era. These new arrangements, especially flexible work arrangements, have challenged traditional relationships with employees and employers, work time and working hours, the work–life balance (WLB), and the relationship of individuals to work. This paper investigates how labor markets have been interrupted due to the pandemic, focusing especially on manual (blue-collar) and nonmanual (white-collar) work and the future of the WLB, along with exploring the projected deviations that are driving a foreseeable future policy revolution in work and employment. This paper argues that although hybrid and remote working would be more popular in the post-pandemic for nonmanual work, it will not be “one size fits all” solution. Traditional work practices will remain, and offices will not completely disappear. Manual labor will continue current work practices with increased demands. Employers’ attention to employees’ WLB in the new normal will target employees’ motivation and achieving better WLB. These trends for the labor market and WLB are classified into three categories—those that are predicated on changes that were already underway but were accelerated with arrival of the pandemic (“acceleration”); those that represent normalization of what were once considered avant-garde ways of work (“normalization”); and those that represent modification or alteration of pre-pandemic set-up (“remodelling”).

中文翻译：

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后疫情时代工作的“新常态”：工作与生活的平衡和劳动力市场

冠状病毒大流行打断了劳动力市场，引发了一系列大规模和即时的灵活工作安排实验，以及与集中式工作环境的新关系。这些方法为“新常态”奠定了基础，并可能延伸到后大流行时代的工作组织。这些新的安排，尤其是灵活的工作安排，挑战了与雇员和雇主的传统关系、工作时间和工作时间、工作与生活的平衡 (WLB) 以及个人与工作的关系。本文调查劳动力市场如何因大流行而中断，特别关注体力（蓝领）和非体力（白领）工作以及 WLB 的未来，以及探索推动可预见的未来工作和就业政策革命的预计偏差。本文认为，尽管混合和远程工作在大流行后的非手工工作中会更受欢迎，但它不会是“一刀切”的解决方案。传统的工作方式将继续存在，办公室也不会完全消失。随着需求的增加，体力劳动将继续当前的工作实践。新常态下雇主对员工WLB的关注将瞄准员工的积极性并实现更好的WLB。劳动力市场和 WLB 的这些趋势分为三类——那些基于已经发生但随着大流行的到来而加速的变化（“加速”）；那些代表曾经被认为是前卫工作方式的规范化（“规范化”）；以及那些代表大流行前设置的修改或改变（“重塑”）。