During the fall of 2021, Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Prof. Brian Lowery hosted a series of conversations entitled Reimagining Work Post-COVID which examined new ways to think about work in light of the changes prompted by the pandemic.
While the pandemic upended the world of work for all of us, it also highlighted disparities in risk, wages, and stability for workers across sectors. Frontline employees throughout the pandemic have often been the first to face cutbacks and low-wages, while also disproportionately carrying the burden of risk to exposure. Make no mistake, for the care, agriculture, and service industries, as well as so many others, these disparities have always existed and work has consistently been undervalued. How might we reimagine work with a view to better equity post-COVID?
Executive Director, Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California
The aging population of the U.S. and world underscores the need to reassess foundational parts of our work culture. From longer careers, to multigenerational teams, to the divide in decision making power, age is an increasing factor in how jobs are allocated and how work is accomplished. As we continue to adapt to COVID, who will own the decision power to reimagine work?
Founding Director, Stanford Center on Longevity
Journalist for CNBC
Executive Director, BridgeUSA
The U.S. economy is intricately tied to the education of its workforce. COVID highlighted the persistent challenges in our schools, including unequal access, segregated classrooms, and a growing student debt crisis, calling into question the purpose of education and the responsibility of business, government and philanthropy for providing it. In a republic and capitalist economy that depends on an educated citizenry, how should we reimagine education at this critical time?
Co-founder and CEO, Guild Education
Author of Reinventing America’s Schools
Work consumes most of our days and guides many decisions in our lives. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, employers lost some of their grip on white collar workers when people discovered that work could be done from anywhere and decided to fire the office. How many more ways are workers held captive by work? Who will see the benefits of this new flexibility? Is the office done for good?
Head of Talent Acquisition at Automattic
Journalist and the author of "The Nordic Theory of Everything"
With the lowest-paid workers at the highest-risk for COVID exposure and for wage loss, the pandemic propelled workers rights issues to the forefront once again. But the inequities of our economy are nothing new. We live in an age of rapid technological change and outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing that threatens to leave many workers behind. What does the future of worker protections look like? How can we protect dignity and fairness in work?
Head, Bloomberg Beta
International President, SEIU
These days, everything from rides and food, to graphic design and copy editing can be accessed in near real time. Gig work is on the rise and is revolutionizing not just how we live, but how we work. How did the gig economy adapt through the pandemic? Might it provide a model to reimagine work post COVID?
Associate Professor, Stanford University
Chief Product and Experience Officer, Upwork
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, some business leaders saw it as their responsibility to help their workers in these unprecedented and trying times. Others welcomed the intervention of governments and the charity of philanthropists. The roles and responsibilities ascribed to business, government, and philanthropy in caring for individuals is a foundational debate within the U.S. and Western democracies. While the form of this debate has changed with the times, the underlying question remains the same: who is responsible?
CEO, Springboard to Opportunities
Chief Economist, AFL-CIO; Professor, Howard University
How far will working hard take you in today’s American society? Based on the experience of the frontline workers we called heroes during COVID, not very far. As the wealth divide continues to deepen and class and race inequities are exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the American dream of upward mobility has been called into question. Can one make it simply by trying? This Monday, Professor Brian Lowery talks about mobility and wealth with Christina Sass, the co-founder of Andela, and Laura Maristany, the director External Affairs of Bitwise Industries.
Co-founder, Andela
Director External Affairs, Bitwise Industries
The expectations for leaders across sectors to engage with issues of social and political importance are growing. As leaders navigate these public responsibilities, tensions have arisen between management and employees around the proper role of politics in the office. Should employers be allowed to ban politics in the workplace? Should employees be able to revolt against their bosses when they don’t? Where does the workplace end and politics begin?
Global marketing leader and former Head of Global Marketing for Coinbase
CEO, Basecamp
Opportunity is unevenly distributed around the world, yet - as the pandemic so clearly illustrated - we are all interconnected and dependent on each other. Given the ever-more connected world we live in, how should we reimagine the economy?
66th US Secretary of State and current Director of the Hoover Institution
Humanity is facing multiple, once-in-a-generation challenges simultaneously. Climate change, a pandemic, inequality, the impact of rapid technological innovation, all demand that we examine the economic systems and structures we are operating within. In this time of unprecedented change, how might we reimagine work?
President, Ford Foundation