The coronavirus pandemic, now more than 17 months in, has created a new quirk in the workforce with a growing number of people who have started jobs and left them without having once met their colleagues
Joanna Wu, who started working for the accounting firm PwC last September, poses for a portrait in Chicago, on Sept. 3, 2021. Wu said her only interactions with colleagues were through video calls, which felt like they had a “strict agenda” that precluded socializing. Image: Akilah Townsend/The New York Times
Kathryn Gregorio joined a nonprofit foundation in Arlington, Virginia, in April last year, shortly after the pandemic forced many people to work from home. One year and a zillion Zoom calls later, she had still never met any of her colleagues, aside from her boss — which made it easier to quit when a new job came along.
Chloe Newsom, a marketing executive in Long Beach, California, cycled through three new jobs in the pandemic and struggled to make personal connections with co-workers, none of whom she met. Last month, she joined a startup with former colleagues with whom she already had in-person relationships.
And Eric Sun, who began working for a consulting firm last August while living in Columbus, Ohio, did not meet any of his co-workers in real life before leaving less than a year later for a larger firm. “I never shook their hands,” he said.
The coronavirus pandemic, now more than 17 months in, has created a new quirk in the workforce: a growing number of people who have started jobs and left them without having once met their colleagues in person. For many of these largely white-collar office workers, personal interactions were limited to video calls for the entirety of their employment.
Never having to be in the same conference room or cubicle as a co-worker may sound like a dream to some people. But the phenomenon of job hoppers who have not physically met their colleagues illustrates how emotional and personal attachments to jobs may be fraying. That has contributed to an easy-come, easy-go attitude toward workplaces and created uncertainty among employers over how to retain people they barely know.
©2019 New York Times News Service