COVID-19 could reshape perception of ‘work warrior,’ Theresa Glomb tells TwinCities.com
April 22, 2020
Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) Research Advisory Board member Theresa Glomb is quoted in the TwinCities.com article “Coronavirus could change our perception of the ‘work warrior.’”
Glomb says she anticipates attitudes toward employees who “power through” and come to work sick—whom she refers to as “work warriors”—may change as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The first lever for shifting norms will come when other people think differently about it,” Glomb says. “In other words, when people come into work sick and start getting the evil eye, (do) people start sitting away from you? Then it starts to shift.”
She adds that the pandemic is unmasking a chasm in the workforce, with white collar workers able to work remotely and others—who work in place-based industries such as hospitality, retail, and construction—bearing the brunt of states’ shutdown orders.
“You can’t do a lot of these jobs remotely, and this leads us to bigger questions about public policies,” Glomb says.
Glomb is the Toro Company-David M. Lilly Chair in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She shares simple, evidence based micro-interventions to improve our working lives in the CPO Positive Links Speakers Series talk “Let’s make work better: Evidence based strategies for improving your work life.”