The new normals of work: a framework for understanding responses to disruptions created by new futures of work

Figures & data

Figure 1. Context of our data collection with regards to key events in the pandemic in the U.K.

Table 1. Outline of issues addressed by workers and strategies implemented while working remotely.

Aspect of work	Pre-Lockdown Way of Working	Issues Experienced Post lockdown	Strategies implemented	Tools Used
The work environment	Work conducted primarily in dedicated employer-provided office space	Losing a dedicated space to work and sharing workspace with others	Creating a dedicated workspace or physical boundaries between home and work.	Shared household calendar to help manage working space in the home.
	Having a commute to/from work	Losing a physical boundary between home and work	Recreating the transition between work and home. Setting expectations at work and home as to when they can be interrupted	Exercise bike or activity tracking for post-work walks Booking “personal time” as unavailable in work calendars or change e-mail signatures to include work times.
	Having an employer-provided workstation set-up e.g., Monitor/s, keyboard, mouse, chair and desk.	Losing access to standard office equipment	Recreating workplace set-up (not possible for all).	Additional monitors and equipment from employer (only available to some workers)
Getting work done	Being able to focus in the office	Distractions at home and lack of focus	Scheduling time and dedicated spaces for focused work	Personal task management tools (for example, to-do list apps) to support splitting work tasks into smaller chunks Scheduling tools to schedule focus time.
	Children at school or in childcare during the workday	Need to provide childcare	Using flexible working times to allow for sharing childcare responsibility with partner (Not always possible)	Having a shared calendar or blocking time that they are unavailable for meetings
Staying Connected	Adhoc conversations at work	No longer seeing colleagues in a shared environment	Planning office chats or having ongoing text chats to drop messages in	Setting up asynchronous text channels to stay in touch with coworkers and share ideas or using more advanced project management tools such as Monday.com
	Group Meetings	Remote meetings more difficult	Reduction in meeting frequency and time.	Adding more structure rules around meeting etiquette (mic muted/use of chat feature)
	Wellbeing monitoring	Managers unable to have regular face-to-face meetings with employees	More frequent stand-up meetings, formal and informal video catchups	Schedule teams or zoom calls with individuals and teams

Figure 2. An Instance of the new normal of work model adapted from genuis and bronstein’s model of those awaiting a return to normal for work during the pandemic. In this instance, people have encountered gaps working from home, but due to the uncertainty around how long they will have to WfH have opted to “wait it out.” They do not seek new strategies for addressing these gaps and simply await their old normal to return.

Figure 3. An Instance of the new normal of work model adapted from genuis and bronstein’s model of those seeking normal for work during the pandemic. going from the breakdown of normal in the old ways of working through to constructing a temporary new normal for work. this takes people through encountering gaps in their normal practices, into information seeking and a sensemaking of how to address these gaps and finally into establishing a new normal.

Figure 4. An Instance of the new normal of work model adapted from genuis and bronstein’s model of those anticipating a normal for work after the pandemic. in this case, people may have identified and addressed gaps stemming from the breakdown of their old ways of working. Rather than adapting these and settling into a normal, they anticipate future disruptions in working and build toward that future normal.